Jeremiah Mackin-Alonzi is a Research Analyst II on the Analyst team, and he joined EA in 2022. He is from Amesbury, Massachusetts, and attended Carleton College.
How would you describe your role on the Analyst Team?
My role as an analyst is to use a partner’s data to answer their questions. A recent example is when a state department of education expressed interest in learning about the observed differences between student subgroups, so I analyzed their test data to compare the gaps in performance between English Language Learner and Not English Language Learner students, and Students With Disabilities and Students Without Disabilities. As an analyst, I might also develop a tool that helps the partner to answer their questions themselves. A recent example is the roster Podium dashboard I built to allow districts in South Carolina to more easily investigate their schools’ rosters and determine which students’ growth will be attributed to each teacher.
In some projects, the partner’s data can be messy, and the analyst work entails cleaning and formatting before we can perform an analysis. In other projects, analysts are fortunate to work with Stadium warehouse data, which EA’s engineers have ushered downstream from Operational Data Stores (ODSs) and packaged into a tidy format for analysis. I’ve enjoyed the breadth of my work at EA — using R to perform statistical coding, interacting with data systems using SQL, and creating data visualizations through Superset.
When we answer an educator’s questions through our work, an analyst is supporting that educator’s ability to make informed decisions and take timely actions, which will lead to more positive outcomes for their students.
What interested you in working at EA?
I was looking for an opportunity to use my statistics degree and data science skills to support social impact work, and EA offered exactly that! The average person spends more than 90,000 hours of their lifetime working – it is important for me to pour that amount of time into something making a positive contribution to the world.
We know that every day is different, but what would a typical day at EA look like for you?
After catching the bus to downtown Madison and arriving at the office, I pop by some teammates’ offices to say hello. With coffee or tea in hand, I then sit down to refresh my to-do list and determine the day’s priorities. I begin my work, which, on an average day, is about 30% meetings, 50% individual worktime, and 20% collaborative worktime. Meetings, both internal and external, offer valuable opportunities to align with folks on timelines and the statuses of our tasks. Individual worktime is when I can get in the weeds on those tasks. These days, my main tasks are running different statistical models in R as part of research for Hillsborough County Public Schools, writing documentation for a state department of education about our code for producing growth metrics, writing SQL to quality-control business intelligence (BI) models, and building a dashboard displaying rosters in South Carolina schools. Collaborative worktime is so important for brainstorming (I love a whiteboard session!), problem-solving, and relationship-building with my coworkers. Throw in a midday lunch break with other analysts, and several trips to the kitchen for snacks, and that’s my day.
What skills do you possess that you find helpful in your role?
I am thorough and attentive to detail. This enables me to address “edge cases” and catch tiny bugs that easily could have gone undetected, resulting in high-quality work. I write robust code that fails loudly, and my code contains careful, detailed comments. That upfront extra effort results in long-term gains by allowing other users to understand and adapt my work with very little onboarding. My positive attitude also goes a long way in moments when my work is faced with an unexpected setback.
What is the most rewarding aspect to your role?
It makes my day when I hear positive feedback from a partner about a product or service that I contributed to – getting that evidence of real-world impact is hugely motivating. Even internally, I get a morale boost when a colleague expresses appreciation for my work. Giving recognition is so important! I think it is human nature to assume that when someone does great work, they already know it, because to everyone else, it is so obvious. But it is also human nature for any person to dwell on the shortcomings and flaws of their own work. That’s why being intentional about giving explicit praise matters so much.
What is your favorite project that you’ve worked on at EA?
I served as lead analyst on the San Antonio Growth project and thought it had the perfect “Goldilocks” size. It blended what I like about smaller projects at EA (being able to quickly dive in and learn the project’s ins and outs) with what I like about larger projects at EA (getting to collaborate with many analyst teammates). I felt challenged by the project, and I also felt empowered by discovering I possessed the knowledge and skills to handle all those challenges.
What is something you enjoy in your free time?
I’ve built a great community of friends in Madison and keep myself busy attending board game nights, playing sports, and checking out local events with them. I love going on runs along the water, reading mystery books, and babysitting friends’ or neighbors’ cats and dogs.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I honestly did not dream about specific careers, and I think the signs were there that data science was my destiny. My childhood hobbies – and I’m serious – included drawing line graphs in my notebook charting contestants’ “Jeopardy!” scores throughout the episode, rolling two dice repeatedly to track how often each outcome occurred, and lots of toying with Microsoft Excel (determined to find the physical end of an Excel spreadsheet, I once left a rock sitting on the Page Down button all day – there are 1,048,576 rows!). I promise I also touched grass.
What is something that you would tell your younger self about your career?
I have many pieces of advice. Don’t compare yourself to others – we all enter the workplace with different backgrounds and skills and knowledge, and comparison will only lead to imposter syndrome. Ask people questions and seek out opportunities for collaboration – it is inefficient to struggle through a challenge quietly on your own. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress. And, above all, value your enjoyment of your work – if you like what you’re doing you will naturally be so much more driven and creative, which will ultimately serve your career well.