Her Story
About Sheela
I've been working in game analytics for almost 10 years, starting my career in 2015. My main area of expertise is live service game analytics, and I've had the opportunity to serve different games and gaming platforms throughout my career - from game streaming and game consoles to individual video games, story games, and live service games. What I do is really about understanding how players play and trying to make a better experience for them through understanding their data. My day-to-day involves analyzing data, answering questions, and creating visuals to help our game designers make better games or really understand their game. I do everything from data collection and data cleaning to table building, all the way through understanding what the data is telling you. My greatest professional accomplishment was working on the PlayStation 5, where I created the entire architecture for the analytic system of their streaming service and was part of the launch team. I got to learn about CDNs and points of presence, and essentially what makes a good stream good. Right now, I work for the New York Times in a leadership position on their subscription mobile games, and I get to work on Wordle, which is really fun.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sheela
01What do you attribute your success to?
I've been very lucky to work with groups of people who are amazing at what they do, and I've had the opportunity to learn from so many people. The thing that I'm super proud of and honed in on is the people that I have surrounded myself with, and their willingness to also teach and grow and learn and help. I think that surrounding yourself with talented, supportive people who are willing to share their knowledge has been instrumental in my success.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I received, which I now share with my own team, is that if you're going to be putting a lot of yourself into your work, you better be getting out what you put in. Most analysts care so deeply about what they do that they put a lot of themselves into their work. What my mentor said to me was that if you're going to be investing into improving systems for a company, that better also reflect on what you've done to improve your own skills. Essentially, you need to be getting out of a project, or a company, or anywhere that you've worked, growth that matches what you've invested - you should grow alongside the growth you create there as well.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Right now, games especially looks very bleak, and the video games industry is in a little bit of pain, so I can understand why going into an industry like that is scary. But there are times where you know that what you want to do is going to fulfill your life. I would give women the advice of keep trying, keep pushing yourself, and keep trying to at least focus on you and your skills. That will show outwardly to any industry that you're trying to enter. Even when the industry looks challenging, if you focus on developing yourself and your abilities, that dedication will be visible and valuable.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The thing that I value a lot in myself is just empathy - being able to understand where people are coming from, and being able to understand people who are in your orbit and who are around you. In analysis especially, and particularly in entertainment analytics, it becomes really important to empathize with a creative vision. In my career, it's been really helpful to me to really take the time to understand where my teammates are coming from, where my stakeholders are coming from, where my partners are coming from. It's really just about getting a sense of how best can I provide the most useful insights and information.
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