Anonymous Answer

Being an investment analyst requires organizational skills and the ability to prioritize at the moment. When I decided to convert my data-driven insight into a differentiated investment strategy, I took on the responsibility of two jobs: the day job and all that went into launching a new fund on schedule. Then the real work began: supporting the existing team as an analyst and managing the new find.

Anonymous Answer

Just a few weeks ago, I was put on a high-profile project to help pull data for a presentation my boss is putting together in order to push for some much-needed improvements to our internal processes. We only had a few days to complete this project ahead of my boss' presentation to upper management. I was also working on another side project for my boss to come up with a scoring system on the quality of tickets worked by our production support team. This was also a rather high-priority project for my boss because she wants to have something in place as soon as possible for the team. Luck would have it that I would also have a long-awaited doctor's appointment I can't miss on the same day as the deadline for the high-profile project. Undaunted, I prioritized the high-profile project after I complete my daily required tasks and worked on the second project whenever I could leading up to the deadline. Since my doctor's appointment is set for the afternoon of the deadline, I knew I won't have time to complete the project after the appointment. I also couldn't just stay late and finish the high-profile project ahead of schedule because the data I'm pulling has to be for each day so we can show the changes and time-lapse in data. On the day of the deadline, I communicated with my boss to come in early (5 am) so I can finish the project before my appointment. I was able to submit both projects on time before leaving for my appointment. A few days later, after I returned back to work, my boss called me to let me know that the presentation was a huge success. She also thanked me for all the effort I put into the project and gave me a recap of the presentation. She explained that my portion of the project actually saved the entire presentation because of the level of detail and the amount of data I was able to provide despite having less time than others. She was actually unable to use a lot of the data from another team member due to parts being incomplete and inaccurate. My boss shared that she basically use my data for the majority of the presentation which is humbling to know.

Anonymous Answer

When I was at Zillow, there was a problem that arose with the acquisitions team on valuing Townhomes and certain Zip codes in the Houston market. Because I'm native to Houston, I was familiar with the areas and suggested I could do a deep dive into the area and try to pull insights to boost accuracy. These were some of the biggest misses inaccuracies at the company because of the intricacies of these particular asset classes and areas so I needed to accomplish it quickly to have a new SOP put in place so that we wouldn't miss these targets anymore. I quickly did a deep dive and blocked out a part of my day every day to focus on this project and by setting myself goals each day of what to finish/cover, I was able to accomplish a detailed 60-page slide deck delving into every factor contributing to differences in price (flood zones, retail, thoroughfares, amenities, historic districts, school zones, etc.) which showed a projected accuracy improvement of around 4%.