Ep. 03 - Alumni Stories - Austin Zhou

WBS Podcast #3 - Austin Zhou

0:07
Welcome to the WPI Business School Podcast.

0:12
I'm Professor Kwame Dunbar, Director of Fintech Programs.

0:16
Today we have Austin Zhao, one of our amazing alumni's who is joining us to talk about why he decided to attend WPI, why he decided to pursue a bachelor's degree in business with a focus in Fintech, and then returning to WPI to pursue a Master's in Information Technology.

0:43
Austin is currently employed by Fidelity as a data engineer.

0:48
Welcome, Austin.

0:49
Hey, Professor Dunbar, thanks for having me on the show.

0:52
I really appreciate you guys thinking of me and very happy to be here.

0:57
Great.

0:58
So let's begin our conversation around your journey with WPI.

1:03
How did you land at WPI and specifically what drove you to this minor in fintech?

1:13
Back in my junior year of high school, I like a lot of kids trying to decide on where I wanted to go to school.

1:21
I looked up a list of the top 100 or so schools in the country and just made my way down the list, looking at what schools might be a possibility.

1:31
But I also knew that I wanted to pursue playing basketball.

1:35
So that kind of narrowed my list down to a certain number of Division Three programs, of which WPI was on that list but originally applied as a computer science major, interestingly enough.

1:49
And when it came down to decision time, on deciding on where I wanted to go to school, Coach Bartley, who's a great friend of mentor of mine, was recruiting me the hardest and made me feel like I wanted to call WPI home.

2:03
So that along with I knew the academic pedigree and and the reputation that the school had, I thought that that would be my best decision to spend my next four years.

2:13
So that's how I landed up in Worcester and as an engineer.

2:18
And so during my freshman year, I'd taken a bunch of core classes.

2:23
So I hadn't really on, on what direction I wanted to go in yet.

2:28
So I was mostly undecided and was until my sophomore year, which was, if you remember the beginning of COVID, I took, I took a business class with Professor Sarney, Rob Sarney.

2:41
And at the time we were in the hybrid sort of format, but he was still going to the classroom every every week to teach the class.

2:52
So he was the only one going to the classroom.

2:55
So I thought, you know, I'm already sitting in my apartment, so might as well go join him.

2:59
And, and so that's where he really started to introduce me to fintech because he was, you know, one of The Pioneers of developing the fintech program at WPI.

3:09
So under his guidance and, and through building that relationship with him, he kind of pulled me in.

3:14
And that's when I, I just thought I wanted to declare my majoring in going to fintech.

3:21
OK, great, thank you.

3:23
As I listen to you talk about how you got pulled into fintech, how did your business degree prepare you for this role as a data engineer?

3:33
That was actually one thing I was kind of nervous about when I was first joining Fidelity as a, as a data engineers, would my technical skill set be enough, you know, qualify myself for the job?

3:42
Fortunately enough, I took a lot of database design and database management and information technology courses that all provided me with a very high level overview of how to create, how to manage, and how to design data solutions.

3:58
So it gave me a very good foundation of which I was able to build on, still able to build on in my role.

4:07
In terms of other things that I learned throughout my undergrad coursework and in my master's coursework, I want to place a big emphasis on collaboration skills.

4:16
I know that's a big point of emphasis for all business classes.

4:19
Seems like whatever, whatever business class you're taking at WPIE, a key component of that is, is the group work.

4:26
And when you're talking about solving large, complex business problems, a lot of times you're not doing that by yourself.

4:34
There's a very low chance you're doing it by yourself.

4:36
So those soft skills in terms of being able to collaborate, being able to communicate, being able to present your ideas are extremely essential skills that I was able to hone over my five years at WPI.

4:50
That's right.

4:51
Thank you.

4:51
Now, I do have student athletes today, and you were an active student athlete.

4:58
What talent OR skill that you took from your basketball playing days still helps today in what you do at work?

5:08
So being a part of the basketball program here taught me a lot of key life lessons that I'll forever be grateful for.

5:17
So just a little story about how my career went.

5:23
My freshman year, first day of practice, I actually broke my foot.

5:27
So that sat me out for my first year.

5:30
And then that was the end.

5:36
So the end of my freshman year was about April of 2020, so right when COVID shut the world down.

5:42
So we missed my sophomore season and then I played here and there my junior senior year.

5:49
So not too much court time.

5:50
And for me that was especially difficult just because as an athlete, naturally you base a lot of yourself worse on on how you perform as a player.

6:01
And seeing limited playing time definitely made me go through some challenges in terms of dealing with my ego, dealing with myself, confidence, and it really made me look in the mirror and, and kind of have to re evaluate myself.

6:16
So there's a lot of, lot of learning, a lot of ups and downs there.

6:21
But one, one really important thing that I took away from my time there is one thing I, I, I told myself everyday is I'm going to find a way to provide value to the team.

6:30
So not necessarily through playing and being on the court, but what are other ways that I can contribute to the team's success.

6:38
So whether that be helping the assistant coaches with with reports, knowing the other teams plays, being able to help out with film or being able to help work my teammates out, bring the younger guys along.

6:50
That's where I began to put a lot of effort into and through that process.

6:55
That was very rewarding because I could see how it directly benefited my teammates and in turn helped me as a person.

7:03
And then after I graduated as a senior, I actually came back as an assistant coach part time while I was working, finished my masters, and that was a great experience.

7:13
So ultimately I like to think that everything happens for a reason.

7:18
And now I'm in another coaching role at Pep School in Brookline.

7:23
So hopefully I can keep doing this full time job and then have this coping gig on the side, which I'm really enjoying right now.

7:31
So all comes together.

7:34
All right, great, great.

7:36
Now I just want to revisit a comment you made earlier when we talked about what pulled you to business WPI, in particular your minor that you did in fintech.

7:48
Yesterday I took a group of students to the New York Stock Exchange and that's awesome.

7:55
Yes.

7:55
And as you could imagine with sophomores, young students, they're at a place that you were, you said you were undecided at one point and you were trying to figure out what you wanted to do.

8:06
We do have students like that today and some of which I'm assuming maybe listening to our podcasts as we speak now, their question to individuals there at the NYAC was what are some of the most valuable skill sets that we can get from our program of study at WPI that we're using every day in the job.

8:32
Now at the end, what I see for instance, they moderated, our host did mention that 80% of the people working there, that's a business, 80% are engineers and only about 20% are people with business degrees.

8:48
So he stressed on them that having programming skills is important in today's business environment, understanding data analytics is important.

8:57
So I'm going to go back to you by saying, do you agree with this assessment and what do you see in your day-to-day there at Fidelity?

9:07
I think that's a very good point that the House made.

9:12
The reason I actually decided to pursue the more technical route as a data engineer was based on advice I received from my parents.

9:20
My dad's a systems engineer and my mom's a software engineer, so they've chosen the technical route of their career path and engineering.

9:27
So what they told me is that to initially get your foot in the door, you need to bring some sort of going back to that value piece, right?

9:36
Some sort of value in that having that technical expertise allows you to get your foot in the door and make an immediate impact.

9:44
And then as you progress and gain more experience through doing that technical work, you're naturally going to pick up the business side of things.

9:54
So what they were advising me was to, even if I didn't want to stay inside of this technical role for 20-30 years, at least use this position to get my foot in the door and learn about the business.

10:05
And maybe after four 5-6 years, then think about trying to move into a management position where it's more business facing and you're dealing more with people on a day-to-day basis.

10:17
So that's where my thought pattern came from.

10:20
And so far it's worked out and been enjoying the technical route.

10:23
So we'll see that may keep doing it for for 20-30 years.

10:27
Great, great.

10:28
Now you know, as I listen to you, I see you have an active work life and you're also active outside of work.

10:36
What do you do to unwind?

10:38
OK, that's a good question.

10:40
One thing I always try to do is make sure I'm exercising every day.

10:43
I find that to be very important to maintaining a clear mind and being able to let go a lot of the stresses that that naturally come with the job or day-to-day life where so forth.

10:57
So that's one thing I do to rewind is just try to move my body every day.

11:02
You're right.

11:02
Like one thing about being on the basketball team is that a lot of my older teammates, they're still around in the area.

11:08
So we still have that brotherhood where on any given weekend I can call or text any one of them and they'd be more than happy to hang out.

11:17
So on the weekends, do that fairly often.

11:21
Other than that, just sit at home, watch some Netflix and just chill.

11:27
You know, I can totally relate to you because it's kind of funny.

11:30
I unwind on my long drives to work.

11:33
That's the point where I just love my quiet time.

11:36
And I mean, listen to a podcast.

11:38
So I'm there with you when you say this.

11:41
Lastly, what advice would you give to students considering studying in the Business School?

11:46
And of course, I'm going to pick on one of your comments earlier, the interdisciplinary nature of our program that allowed you to work cross functionally.

11:56
I heard you mentioned that with Fintech and eventually going on to Fidelity.

12:01
So what advice would you give to our students?

12:05
Yeah.

12:05
So I think it's a great opportunity to be able to study business at at WPI, given that we have this area of expertise obviously within the technical space.

12:19
But then you're also gaining a lot of those soft skills through through the business classes that you're taking.

12:25
So it's not like when you study business at WPI, it's not like you're studying strictly business.

12:30
There's always going to be technical aspects and technical skills that you're picking up through the various courses that you're taking.

12:36
So I want to think of it as strictly a business degree, but more a business slash engineering degree.

12:45
I think you're getting the best of both worlds when you do that versus pursuing A strictly technical path.

12:52
And the way I see it is a lot of those technical skills you can learn and pick up on your own, whereas there's a lot of soft skills that you can't really work on on your own, right?

13:04
Public speaking, being able to collaborate, work with others.

13:07
So I think it worked out perfectly for where I am right now, having that business degree.

13:13
So for any prospective students thinking about pursuing a business degree at WPI, think that's a great idea.

13:20
If you're concerned about black and some sort of technical skill, maybe do some certifications on your own or try to pick up some sort of minor, like I did a minor in data science.

13:29
And I think you'll be more than equipped to step into the workforce if you do that.

13:37
Austin, thank you so much for appearing here with us today.

13:41
We're proud of you in what you're doing and really appreciate this.

13:46
So again, thank you so very much.

13:49
Yeah, I appreciate you having me on.

13:51
Always happy to talk about business and WTI had a great experience here.

13:55
And thank you to our listeners.

13:57
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and share it with someone who might be considering a WPI Business School program for the next step in their learning journey.

14:09
Until next time, remember STEM plus business equal Impact.

14:14
Thank you.