Susan Ugoh

My journey into data started in an unexpected way. After earning my first degree in project management, I struggled to find work in that field back in Nigeria. In 2018, I landed an opportunity at the Development Bank of Nigeria, starting as an admin person on the floor. For the first year and six months, I did that work really well, and then I realized it had a lot to do with data, just a different outlook to data and analytics and engineering. My role evolved and I started moving towards customer data, customer relationship data, sales data, ads data, and I became really interested. I loved how you help people make informed decisions just by looking at a bunch of information, finding out trends, helping to decide what to do with sales, what products and services to put out there, understanding competitors. I realized how much of a problem-solving niche I had. In 2021, I came to the U.S. to study at Illinois State University, pursuing two degrees simultaneously on a full-funded scholarship: Project Management in Tech and an MBA in Business Analytics. I chose the MBA in Business Analytics because of the data work I'd been doing for a couple years. That's where I honed my interest on a higher level, learning what to do with data as the data world keeps evolving and getting better and larger. After graduating in December 2023, I started working for Hilton in January 2024 as an associate data engineer. I landed that job after meeting one of their VPs at a function called Afrotech, where we had a quick 30-45 minute conversation and I was offered the job on the spot. I didn't even have time to bask in the euphoria of graduating. I was there for about a year and four months, learning more about analytics, engineering, and all the amazing things that can be achieved with data. Then I saw a role at Synchrony for senior data analyst in metadata for data sourcing. Even though I'd only been with Hilton a short time, I was interested in learning about metadata and finance, which was new to me. Metadata is really interesting, knowing the data of the data, where the data you're using is coming from, lineages and all. I applied, went through the vigorous interview process, and got the job, starting in July 2025. A few months after joining Synchrony, I had to leave for about 100 days for basic military training with the U.S. Air Force Reserves, then came back and picked up where I stopped. Being in the reserves allows me to work for the military and also have my full-time job and build my career. I've also just been accepted to pursue my PhD in data science, planning to start in 2027 to give myself time to be mentally prepared since I'll be working full-time while studying full-time.