Analytics Intern Hailing From China

By: Nuo Yang, Analytics Intern

Nuo Yang

On the first day of my internship, I was excited about the fact that I am the only non-American intern in the Chicago office this summer, partly because I know there’s  a lot of “real” U.S. experience waiting for me, and partly because I was proud—proud of joining the other excellent native winners of this internship competition.  

My process to joining the team began last winter break.  A very nice alumnus introduced Starcom to me when I told him that I’m interested in marketing. Then I visited our company’s website, applied for the summer internship online and got it!

Some of you might feel surprised to hear that I had been in the U.S. for only 9 months by the time of our job orientation. Well, I felt no less surprised than you did. Now I am so thankful I did that.  

Along with my own excitement, I was much more worried considering my language and cultural background. 

From the beginning, I knew I will have to work harder than everyone else to understand, to listen and to learn. Don’t laugh at me, but I have to spend at least double the amount of time on writing an email as you do.

I feel awkward when I can’t get my teammates’ jokes, and that happens all the time. Remember our SMG Outside Party? I did not know about any of those sports games except for the volleyball. (Yeah, now I know they are softball, kickball, bean bags, and horse shoes.) 

I also have to get used to the “party culture.” People here LOVE bars and often go with a big group. Who can resist a happy hour with your friends after work? 

But that can be “dangerous” in China, because in our tradition, once you begin drinking, friends will encourage you to drink more (in a way you cannot reject) until you are too drunk to stand on your feet. The only exception is at home with your family. So it takes time for me to feel comfortable drinking out at the intern happy hours.

Despite these language and cultural obstacles, I am optimistic about my work. How? I know somehow I have my advantages in some particular skills suitable for my position, just as everyone else does.  And it’s my responsibility to find them out and let them shine. 

So far I’ve been working on a data quality test project and helping with an IntentTrack study. Most of the time I use Excels or SAS for data analysis, also I learned to use Tableau for data visualization. The most exciting thing is to listen to my co-workers generating insights from complex tables and graphs.

Everyone around me is so nice and helpful, also making it easier on me. They always have good answers to my questions and listen patiently to my speaking in “imperfect” English. Most important of all, they did not treat me as a student, rather as a co-worker and a teammate. 

So I value each day here at SMG as a great opportunity to observe and absorb new knowledge, to meet with amazing people, as well as to learn more about myself and grow. That’s why I feel happy and fulfilled after each day’s work even with the little struggles here and there.

Nuo in an old town in Southern China.