About Me — Tessa Xie

Data scientist in the AV indsutry. Ex-McKinsey. 3x Top Medium Writer. Tip of the data spear by day, writer by night, painter, diver, and…

Aug 24, 2021

Photo By Author (Still one of the best days in my life, being the graduation speaker for my class in grad school)

Who I Am

It’s never easy to boil down someone’s life into an article, a headline, or several paragraphs, but I will try. I was born and raised in China, a first-generation immigrant who came to New York for high school at the age of 16 and has stayed since then. I’m currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area working for a tech company in the AV industry as a data science manager.

My Professional Journey

When I arrived in Flushing, NY at 16, I barely spoke English (sure, I learned English in school in China, but my listening and speaking skills were probably at elementary school level). Fortunately, I was good at math and math is a universal language. I somehow learned about the specialized high school system in NYC and decided to try my luck at the admission test.

After several months of studying in local public libraries after school, I took New York City’s Specialized High School Admission Test (SHSAT) and was lucky enough to be admitted into one of the best public high schools in New York — Stuyvesant high school, which is a math and science specialized high school. I later went to Syracuse University and majored in, you guessed it, applied math… and economics. Since I enjoyed both a lot, I thought the best way to apply my learnings in the industry would be to work in finance. After rounds and rounds of interviews and rejections, I got a summer internship with the commercial bank branch of JPMorgan Chase as a financial analyst.

I used my free time during my summer internship to hit up people from different departments for coffee chats as I kept on searching for an area that fits my interest the most. Eventually, I went to an event where a quantitative portfolio manager’s presentation intrigued me.

Inspired by this and determined to get a degree in quantitative finance, I was admitted into MIT’s Master of Finance (MFin) program after months of research and preparation. On top of learning from the top quantitative finance professors, I got a chance to take AI and machine learning classes, which turned out to be one of my favorite parts of my time at MIT. But unfortunately, I was not quick enough to realize that was a sign that my true passion lies in data science.

I worked at a big asset management company, T.Rowe Price, for a year after graduation as a quantitative finance research analyst, before I finally admitted to myself that I’m just not that interested in financial data. However, it was hard to break into data science because even though I had transferable skills, everything on my resume was pointing in the same direction — finance. I also didn’t know which industry I wanted to be a data scientist in since I only knew I was not interested in finance data. But what data am I interested in?

Realizing consulting is the best way to try out different industries without constantly switching jobs, I decided to try it out. After another round of countless interviews, I got an offer from my dream firm, McKinsey & Company, as a data scientist in Marketing & Sales. In my two years there, I got the chance to learn from an amazing and diverse group of people and had a blast working in different industries and functions. Throughout this process, I realized that I like to work on consumer data as well as geospatial data and that I love the tech industry, both the nerdy culture and the cutting-edge technology.

This brings me to my current role. As a person who still doesn’t have a driver’s license, I’m deeply intrigued by the AV industry and think it aligns with my dream of contributing to a technology that will touch millions and change lives. That’s why I ended my consulting life and transitioned into the AV world.

What I Like To Do Outside Of Data Science

I have always pursued a number of interests in parallel outside of work, and (similar to many others) have added a number of new hobbies during the last 1.5+ years of WFH and intermittent lockdowns. I’m a tech enthusiast, an avid painter, a scuba diver, a hiker, and a lot more. Since moving to California, I have been obsessed with water activities and have been diving at different places as well as trying out surfing.

When I dove into the California kelp forest

I love to explore different neighborhoods, cities, and countries and learn about different cultures through food. I love anything related to art and enjoy painting in my free time; exercising my creative side provides a break for my left brain and deeply relaxes me.

I’m an introvert who constantly has thoughts and opinions about things; but instead of talking to everyone about it, I prefer to write about them. I started writing on Medium this January as a distraction from this virus that has shut down the whole world. I love sharing my experience and knowledge about data science and other topics with like-minded people and read about what others write on here.

My Medium Writings By Topic

Updated 8/21/2021

Data Science Interview

Data Science Career Advice

Data Science Tutorials

This tutorial will make your API data pull so much easier

Startup / Entrepreneurship / Money

I Got Scammed on Airbnb and Learned Valuable Business Lessons From It

Diving Into Data

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