Major: Economics
Profession: Economist
Hometown: Reno, Nevada
What are you doing now?
I work as an economist for Morning Consult, a late-stage start-up. They are a decision intelligence company that has developed a more modernized way of conducting surveys on a wide range of topics. They work with companies and brands, but are probably best known for their politics polls. I work specifically on their economics team, polling thousands of people every day on the economy and various topics related to consumer spending, inflation, and the labor market.
What I do now involves quantitative skills and economic knowledge, but it also requires a lot of creativity, which is fun. I work with my team to design surveys and produce analyses and answers to topical economic questions that are weighing on public conversations.
How did you get there?
When I graduated from Pomona, I started working as a Research Assistant in the Monetary Affairs Department at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. When I started, I was helping economists with policy work and research associated with the money markets and the Fed’s balance sheet, which got my foot in the door in the field of economics, expanded my economic knowledge and strengthened my technical skills, including coding. After that, I moved to another job within the Fed as a Quantitative Analyst, working on stress testing for the country’s largest banks. At the same time, I was pursuing a master’s degree part-time at Georgetown in mathematics and statistics.
How did Pomona prepare you?
The number one thing Pomona gave me was the hard quantitative skills that I needed to get my foot in the door for my first internships and jobs. More abstractly, Pomona helped me become a fuller, more confident person and a better critical thinker. It made me more comfortable asking hard questions and digging deeper to find answers, which helps me a lot now, especially at my current job. And I received tons of great mentorship from my professors. I also had an amazing community at Pomona that I still have today.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I could've never really guessed where I ended up today if you asked me five years ago, so generally, I just try to roll with the punches and follow the natural flow of my career because you never know what new opportunities will present themselves. But I really like what I do now. I like being able to distill complex information to a broader audience, so I can see myself doing something like that in the future. I also really enjoy the creative challenge of answering topical or difficult questions on topics that affect us all.
Any advice for current or prospective students?
One of the biggest advantages of going to a school like Pomona is the small, tight-knit community, so take advantage of that—go to office hours and get to know your professors to build those close relationships. It will help you while you're at Pomona, but it's also going to help you years later. Also, have fun and get to know your fellow students. Some of my best relationships are because the people there are amazing, kind and dynamic, and that’s hard to find elsewhere in the world.