Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø

Yunfei graduated from MSc Data Science for Cultural Heritage in 2022 and is now Product Manager at Disney, focusing on enhancing the guest experience through digital products.

What has been your career path from graduation to now?

While studying at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø, I developed a software that visualised the admission data of top universities in the UK over the years. At the same time, I applied to many large tech companies. Based on my innovative project and the programming skills I learned during my MSc in Data Science for Cultural Heritage, I received an offer for a summer internship as a Program Manager at Microsoft in my second term.Ìý

After completing my studies, I returned to China and started my internship at Microsoft as a Program Manager for about five months. Upon completing this internship, I received a full-time offer from Amazon as a Program Manager, primarily responsible for supply chain and logistics, specifically configuring the logistics network and launching new logistics networks in new countries.Ìý

While working at Amazon, I continued to work on my own innovative projects. These experiences helped me realise that I have strong innovation skills, which led me to believe that pursuing a career in product management would be more suitable for my career development.Ìý

After working at Amazon for about a year and a half, I applied to several other companies. I eventually received an offer from Disney as a Product Manager. Currently, I am working at Disney, focusing on enhancing the guest experience through digital products.Ìý

What are your core duties and what skills are important to your role?

The core duties of my current job are to cooperate with different teams, and come up with innovative ideas to resolve their pain points via digital methods. The most important skills for my role are communication skills and innovation abilities.Ìý

How did your time at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø prepare you for the workplace?ÌýÌýÌý

During my time studying at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø, I enhanced my critical thinking and innovation skills. After coming up with innovative projects, I could use critical thinking to evaluate whether they truly had unique aspects. Additionally, my programming skills improved significantly during my studies, enabling me to turn my innovative ideas into reality. These abilities in critical thinking, innovative ideas, and programming skills better prepared me for entering the job market.Ìý

Moreover, the activities and courses, particularly the programming courses, honed my programming skills and helped me secure an internship offer from Microsoft. This internship experience greatly benefited my job search.Ìý

Were there any challenges in your job hunt?Ìý

During my job search, the biggest challenge I faced was balancing my dissertation, summer internship, and job interviews. This was the greatest difficulty I encountered. Since many job interviews are scheduled in advance, I created a calendar to highlight the interview times first. I then organised my work and thesis writing schedule around these interviews to avoid conflicts.

Top tips for current students:

• Start your job hunt for full-time jobs as early as possible. You will get more interview chances, and can practice your interview skills.
• Try to do some internships in your desired field. The relevent internships can help you get familiar with this field and help you secure full-time offers.
• Innovation capacities are admired by many companies. Think about innovative projects and how you'd implement them. This will help you stand out during your job search by highlighting your unique skills and creativity.ÌýÌýÌý