ReCAP: Suyin Wang

Name: Suyin Wang

Employer: Principal Global Investors

Job Title: Data and Operations Research Scientist

Primary Job Functions

• Data Analytics, Quantitative Research, Product Management

Date CAP Certification Was Earned

June 17, 2019

How often do people ask you, "What does CAP mean?"

I was actually contacted by a recruiter because of the CAP certificate! I do see more people around me, in addition to the ones from our team, who are becoming interested in understanding and earning the CAP to boost their career as analytical professionals. I am glad that our team leader provides such a great opportunity for us early on.

How familiar were you with the “Seven Domains of Analytics Process” prior to pursuing CAP?

We were adopting other processes to manage our projects and products prior to pursuing CAP, however I find the ‘Seven Domains of Analytics Process’ a great supplement to what we have been doing.

What have you loved about being a CAP?

Going through the preparation for CAP strengthened my understanding and practice of integrating business problems with analytical skills; the framework of JTA is valuable for making day-to-day tasks more structured.

At the end of the day, I believe the core of an analytical career is about establishing and maintaining your own pipeline and framework to deliver business values. CAP definitely helps to shape your mind and credibly differentiate yourself on the job market.

What has been your most interesting PDU, class or otherwise?

I really appreciate that our team has the chance to take the System Engineering training with Professors Greg Parnell and Ed Pohl. The concepts of translating stakeholder requirements to system requirements, functional value hierarchy, verification, and validation greatly enriched my understanding of good practices in developing products.   

What was your most valuable resource while preparing for the exam?

I found both the CAP Candidate Handbook and INFORMS CAP Study Guide very helpful; they provide a great overview of the structure of the exam.

In your opinion, what will be the next "game changer" in analytics?

The fact that more and more people are getting into the analytics field calls for a more systematic view of the analytical work.

Applying analytics to fulfill different business needs has become a trend across industries and countries, however, data science and analytics are not about building fragmented ‘bits and pieces’ for different projects or products. Establishing a systematic view by seeing analytics as a system is an endeavor that’s worth pursuing for analytics professionals.