The saying in high school that 'the job you'll have probably doesn't exist yet' resonates strongly with me.

I initially studied chemistry at UCI and realized I liked quantum mechanics the most. Figured more math would never hurt, so I added a degree in physics.

I then went to UCSC for a graduate degree in chemistry. Things didn't work out with my initial graduate adviser (always have a backup plan(s)!) and I almost dropped out of UCSC. A new professor had an opening for me to study solar cell semiconductors with x-ray spectroscopy, a technique I didn't know existed when I committed to studying it for my PhD.

Near the end of my PhD, I realized I was intellectually saturated with semiconductors. Semiconductor jobs would mean I could work at Apple or Intel doing fundamentally the same process engineering work. Several of my friends who did their PhDs in particle/astrophysics were moving into this new field called data science. I found the field of data science interesting and more intellectually diverse; I could work in health care, finance, logistics, etc every few years. The pay and flexibility didn't hurt either

I took my initial data science job as the 2nd employee at a Stanford-based startup using machine learning focused on predictive maintenance in the connected vehicle space. I got introduced to the world of tech and saw the company grow from seed level to series A funding

For a few years, I worked at Facebook in the Small Business Group, where I helped small business advertisers use the Facebook platform to reach potential customers. My technical work focused on machine learning and experimental design (AB tests and causal inference techniques).

I then spent a few months working at Box, a cloud storage company.

I'm currently working at Roblox, a gaming app, focused on product growth and marketing (how effective are our Google ads vs. our TikTok ads? How should we try to grow in LATAM?)