Acing her first job from her internship

For fresh NUS Science graduate LI Keyou, internships gave her an early headstart to her career of choice.

Keyou read Double Majors in Data Science and Analytics, and Innovation and Design from the College of Design and Engineering (CDE) and a Minor in Economics from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS). The domain knowledge from Economics complements her primary major, while her 2^nd major has proven useful in solving large-scale hands-on projects in industry.

Nowhere was she better placed to put to practice the diverse knowledge from her courses than in her internship in a consulting firm.

She says, “I was drawn to the consulting industry’s focus on delivering holistic solutions for problems faced by clients from different sectors.”

Keyou developed a suggestive selling model for a major fast-food chain to improve product sales.  In the process, she used data analytics to glean insights into consumer purchase behaviour,  learned new algorithms and tested the performance of her model at some stores to enhance its robustness.

During her internship, she applied technical knowledge from data analytics, and demand and supply analysis from economics to develop suitable models for clients.  From her 2^nd Major, she utilised skills to dig deep to understand her client’s problems.

She also had the opportunity to polish her presentation skills, which are crucial in the consulting industry and to collaborate with colleagues from diverse educational backgrounds on multidisciplinary projects.

Now working full-time in the consulting industry, Keyou says, “My internship gave me exposure to the  full experience of consulting, both in client-facing and technical development.”

Together with her colleagues, Keyou is now working on solutions to help clients improve their business performance.