"Take advantage of whatever opportunities you have at Davis, whether academic or extracurricular."

Andrea Jao took her data skills to Acumen, a Bay Area firm that provides research and analysis in healthcare economics. She interprets data and writes reports for clients on how doctors are paid through Medicare and through the government. At UC Davis, Jao completed the University Honors Program and was an active member of ASUCD and the Aggie Archery Club.

What do you do at Acumen?

"I deal with clients and stakeholders, taking their advice and putting their recommendations into reports, and then working with our programmers—the people who actually handle the data—to do analysis. We’re the ones who interpret the results of these analyses and put them into different reports, memos, and summaries and provide them to clients, as well as stakeholders.

How did your education at UCD prepare you for your job?

“I write reports, so the research I’ve done at Davis and the papers I’ve written have been very helpful. The math, statistics, and economics classes I’ve taken have helped me interpret and summarize data and understand the different trends [so I can] translate them into writing so that other people can understand it well.”

“When I was in school, I did a lot of research projects. I think that is very useful and important in terms of my job because I had to take ownership in what I was doing. Time management, the ability to ask questions, and the ability to take responsibility in what you’re doing and go above and beyond of what you’re told are all very important.”

Any advice for current students?

“I would say that it is really important to take advantage of whatever opportunities you have at Davis, whether academic or extracurricular. The kind of support that you have and the network in terms of social life is definitely something you don’t find as much outside of school.”

— Noah Pflueger-Peters (B.A., English, ’17), writing intern in the College of Letters and Science