Nancy Smith

No Diversity, No Transferrable Skills, Office Politics All the modeling happens in proprietary software. All analysts really do is press F9 30 times a day, pull reports in excel, and make pivot tables. "Modeling" just involves making an arbitrary tweak to one coefficient, praying for a higher RSQ. Per one recent review, no analyst knows the actual backend equations used to calculate trends or forecast. I had one interviewer from a Data Analytics company ask "so how do your models work? What equations are used?" and I was legitimately stumped. But my title was "Marketing Science Analyst" - Everyone in the office is a carbon copy of each other. Basically: white, male, loves beer, super bro-y. If you fit into this, great, you should get a promotion in about 6 months. If not, good luck even getting heard in meetings. - Office Politics: Management often throws out lame excuses for why people dont get promoted. They want you to speak up, but they dont account for how the same 4 people always suck up all the air in the room before anyone can get a chance to develop ideas. It can very easily feel like you're the nerd in a cafeteria full of jocks who don't want anything to do with you besides a simple "Hi" in the hallway and a spot check on their most recent homework assignment. - Office space: Everyone is jam-packed onto 1.5 floors in a small office building that is bursting at the seams. At any given point, you're always in view of everyone. There aren't any spaces to take a mental break and eat lunch away from your desk (with only 4 conference rooms always in use, and a kitchen with no tables that fits 4 people max), so most employees just end up ordering food to the office and spending a full 9-10 hour workday in the same chair. I'd often eat lunch that I brought from home in a restaurant across the street just to get a change of scenery.