Her Story
About Riya
My journey in retail has been full of learning. I started my career on the business operations side, where I witnessed the C-suite taking missed opportunities and not making the right decisions because they didn't have the right data. That's where it all started for me - I wanted to get into data and analytics so that I could help the companies I work with make informed decisions based on analytics. Down the lane, I pursued my Master's in Analytics and got involved with the Tableau User Group for women, Data Plus Women Northwest Group, where I help that community learn Tableau and analytics. All of this just built up my career pile by pile. I got an opportunity to work at Titleist, which is a golf manufacturing company, and that gave me a full lens to see the business processes as well as making decisions based on the data. There, I played a vital role and helped the pricing team make optimized prices and SKUs for that company. Later I joined Staples, where I work as a data visualization analyst, helping the pricing team and competitive analytics for performance data, and helping the C-suites make decisions based on that. The biggest learning for my career has been joining the Data Plus Women Northeast group and helping other women grow in data and learn the importance of how strong numbers can be, and just continuously learning from there. I think I'm just getting started through this. My day starts with getting into emails and seeing what dashboards I'm working on, prioritizing things based on analytical requirements. We get ad hoc requests daily for data pools or enhancements on current dashboards, and all of those directly impact the pricing decisions for the finance department I work in at Staples. My entire day circles around finance numbers, and all the time it's about how we can optimize pricing for Staples.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Riya
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to all the hard work, resilience, and continuous learning, which really shaped my journey. I believe in influencing other people and being open-minded to learn whatever feedback you get, at whatever level you are. I always believe in keeping your head down and learning from even the beginners, because everybody can be a mentor, and you can learn everything from anywhere. Just be a sponge, observe everything, and just take what you think is useful for you. That mindset of continuous learning and staying humble has been key to my success.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I received from most of my managers, being in touch with them and just learning about leadership, is to just get into it and take the stress, because you have that caliber that you can come over any situation if you are just thirsty for what you are doing. If you love your job, even stress won't feel like a burden on your shoulder, to be honest. Just get into it, and you'll sail through that. That advice has really helped me embrace challenges rather than shy away from them.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I have been seeing a lot of women through the user group I am in, and they literally come to us and ask how we ended up joining this group or how we grew into analytics. Personally, I have been a woman who just pushes myself in a way that even if I'm not invited to certain decisions, I still take interest to know about how decisions were made based on analytics. I still have that curiosity to learn about how C-suite or leadership makes decisions. So, the advice I give is, instead of shrinking, just learn to master the craft of analytics. Instead of increasing the number of skills you learn, just have expertise in one, and be called an SME for that tool. Don't wait to be invited to the table - create your own seat by mastering your craft and staying curious.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
It's everywhere data now, and I am very optimistic that AI is not going to take away jobs for data. In fact, data and AI are going to go hand in hand, and it's just going to open a lot of opportunities down the lane. Enhancing your current skills is a must, because it's not like if you have learned this tool, then nothing's going to update. I mean, come on, even humans have to just keep on changing with time, so I think even opportunities and skills which you learn need to be updated with the time given and the enhancements in tools which the software itself does. So, just keeping an optimistic mind and learning throughout your journey, and just continuous learning is what I think will help anybody navigate any situations in their personal and professional lives.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I'm a strong believer of honesty and ethical values. No matter if you have to sacrifice your identity for something, you should never lie on that basis, because it can harm cross-functional teams' value. If it's your mistake, then be bold to accept it. Once you accept it, you are more valued for not being wrong through that decision. I mean, a little honesty can just go far away than just lying over what you are just not supposed to do. Just don't lie, and just be honest about what's on your plate and what you can give to the community. That's it.
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