In the digital world that we live in, the idea of a knowledge economy necessitates the access to critical data and information online that helps global institutions in decision making.
Niti Rawat, our next pathbreaker, Statistical Researcher at a publishing firm, works on developing online resources for statistical surveys of various economies across the globe.
Niti talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about opting for economics because it is the ideal combination of numbers and business world dynamics that she had been looking for.
For students, persevere as long as you can, but don’t be myopic to neglect the pace and developments in the job market. Have a broader perspective of where you want to go !
Niti, can you share your background with our young readers?
I come from a simple, middle-class family. My mother was working for a significant portion of my childhood, and my parents with the help of my grandmother used to accommodate the spare time after school with classical dance classes, and short and long storybook subscriptions. I remember how my father would buy me paints almost every week to keep me occupied. Now when I look back, I feel it instilled curiosity in me. I liked the colours used on the book covers and tried to imitate the caricatures and characters painted on my books (I was supplied some random books from a Periodical Book Bureau), the books would discuss various topics from epidemics and fairies to amphibians.
The coloured pictures attracted me. On weekends, I used to rely on my father to help me read and understand difficult sentences (around that time they were difficult to comprehend) until my father introduced me to a dictionary delegating the task of reading to me. From then onwards, I never relied on anyone to read those stories. I’d read them repetitively and narrate them to my grandmother as if I were her teacher. It instilled confidence in me and with time and effort, my interest and familiarity in different topics grew. Also, I feel these extra-curricular activities cultivated a discipline in me.
I was a good student until classes 6th and 7th. That’s when I realised that no matter how much I studied, my overall average grade/ score would fall due to my lack of practice and consistency in mathematics. I never took this subject seriously and it’s safe to say that this subject didn’t take me seriously either. My lack of interest was due to my extra-curricular activities (I got into a new school in class 5th and my art teachers would train me for different competitions), so I was sent to a lot of arts and crafts competitions. These competition practices and participations would drain my entire school time. I learnt a lot of things by participating and interacting with students around Delhi NCR, but it affected my scores.
Moreover, my peers would often tease me that I might end up becoming something insignificant while they ended up with good jobs. It was towards 8th grade in a moment of epiphany, that I felt the need to ace mathematics if I wanted to take up the Science stream. So, I started practising mathematics and taking baby steps to avoid art competitions. Finally, towards 10th grade, I gave my best and came up with every ounce of practice and discipline needed to secure an overall good score.
And to everybody’s surprise, I took Commerce over Science, I guess my approach and reasoning were very simple: I wanted a subject that was a combination of numbers and business world dynamics (A part of it can be attributed to the indelible imprint left by biography of Indra Nooyi, I read it 3-4 times). And if I connect the dots, a lot of it embraces my field.
What did you study?
I did my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Economics from Shyama Prasad Mukherji College for Women, Punjabi Bagh, University of Delhi. I wanted to pick economics for my graduation, and didn’t wish to compromise my interest in a subject to get a North campus college from the University of Delhi. I was also interested in Literature, so I pursued it as my minor subject in my undergraduate days.
I took Commerce in my 11th grade, and was quick enough to realise that statistics was relatively less demanding, due to my interest in mathematics. Further, it didn’t take me much time to understand that the ideal combination of numbers and business dynamics that I had been looking for, was this beautiful subject of Economics. As I got into college, I came across some remarkable professors, and economists during my internships and that prompted me to continue with the subject. I remember I saw a notable economist Ila Patnaik on a day I was to report to my mentor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) (I didn’t intern at this place, I visited this place for a work briefing). I remember how visiting the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Delhi motivated me and instilled hope to become close to something like my mentors. I was fortunate to have been selected to intern with ex-bureaucrats at an NGO. I understood around that time that one could make a difference to society with any discipline, it didn’t require validation. I could be from anything and still do my portion to help people around me.
What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional, and unique career in Economics?
It was nearly impossible to balance the internships, studies, college societies and coaching for difficult subjects. I wanted to pursue my Master’s degree in distance learning because I was struggling with the minimum attendance rule, also the circumstances weren’t kind enough for me to prepare for my master’s entrance exam. During my post-graduation, to gain financial independence, I worked as a Research Assistant in a part-time job during my preparation for UGC-NET Economics. My preparation for UGC-NET coincided with the COVID-19 lockdown, and the period was a testing phase much like for everyone. My final year exams for my Master’s degree were delayed, which made me anxious. I remember writing to the grievance redressal department almost every week and waiting for replies. The experience of internships during my undergraduate days helped me secure job offers like an academic associate at Unacademy (I was to work on the content for a renowned Professor), after I cleared UGC NET which coincided with my final year Masters exams. I was shortlisted for a PhD interview at the Delhi School of Economics, but I failed due to the lack of fellowship. I decided to take some time and gain work experience and I ended up in a publishing firm as an Editorial Researcher- Statistics (formerly, Statistical Researcher).
How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path
The internships that I came across were purely out of serendipity. The first year of my college while pursuing a B.A. (Hons) in Economics was mostly dedicated to extra-curricular activities. I was a member of the Dramatics society of my college. So, I already had a fair share of attendance to catch up.
I started applying for internships before entering into my sophomore year of college. I applied for as many positions as I could. The idea was to secure one that would give me hands-on experience related to the jobs available in the market. I secured my first internship with Qrius (formerly known as Economist) as a Marketing Analyst Intern. It was an unpaid internship, but the approach to get an understanding of what all possibilities were available for my degree, the skills relevant to the position and securing a network helped me sail through. Although I didn’t network, my PowerPoint presentation (basically my submission) was selected for the next position and lauded with an appreciation certificate. I remember, receiving that appreciation mail on a day when I was being pointed out for my low attendance. When I moved to my next internship, the intern position was to assist a visiting professor at a renowned institution in Delhi. Again, I did my bit and realised that I could gain some data-related skills to keep abreast with the market developments. That internship involved working on Google Sheets. I enrolled in Advanced Excel and Data Science-related courses around that time. The last internship was for an NGO which involved teamwork, coordinating the tasks assigned by the mentors along with the core work of formulating a research study on the effectiveness of consumer redressal. I benefitted from the broader perspectives of postgraduates and researchers in my team (knowledge sharing, conflict resolution, perseverance), also it was concluded with a prize for my presentation. The final year of my college was utilized to cover up the academic performance imbalance. My approach for the final year was to secure attendance and improve my grade points (which was ignored due to the extracurricular activities and internships).
I decided to take some time and decide how to go with my masters. My parents wanted me to prepare for bank-related examinations. I sat for the preparation for 3-4 months, and ended up realising that I wasn’t confident in pursuing it. I was fortunate that one of my professors approached me for some part-time work. It was a breath of fresh air amidst the heavy competitive examination preparations and easy money as well. I took up the opportunity, in fact, I also assisted one of my previous mentors from internships in developing a podcast. I learnt about software, but that idea was dropped due to some issues. There were a lot of hits and misses, I was accustomed to rejections during this phase. I continued to assist my college professor until I cleared my UGC-NET examination. I prepared for this along with my Masters in Economics from Open Distance Learning (ODL). I wrote my final year exams for my Master’s afterwards and decided to apply for jobs. I also sat for PhD interviews which didn’t go well. I secured a position as Market Research Analyst in Delhi, NCR which I gave up after getting a job offer for the position of Statistical Researcher at a Publishing firm.
The designation was particularly attractive as I was familiar with Routledge (which specialises in social sciences). I went through the selection process and switched to a new organisation.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
My first job technically was for a firm in Noida as Market Research Analyst, I worked there for a very short time. I was offered another job during my probation itself. I was quick to learn the work of Analyst, as my manager over there guided me really well. Also, my quick learning can be attributed to the nature of work. The work involved writing reports based on the market developments and future of the industry for the product assigned. But as life happened, I hopped on to the role of Editorial Researcher- Statistics (Statistical Researcher). I liked the designation and the job description of this role and had applied for it earlier than the Analyst role. I got to hear about my confirmation much later. I mean it was so delayed that I had already undergone the training and delivered some of the targets. It was a difficult decision to switch so early, but I was thrilled for the role.
My current job as Editorial Researcher- Statistics had a fair share of challenges. The first challenge was to get acquainted with the expectations of my manager concerning deliverables, the work was elaborate and required attention to detail because it was a publishing firm. The calculations related to annual growth rates and year-on-year growth rates were mechanical, but the enormous data available for National accounts often confused me. I now feel that we can adapt to situations and work better only with time. The complexity of work at times appears overwhelming due to timelines.
The second challenge was time management, it took me some time to make myself believe that the work hours were sufficient to achieve my daily targets. I developed this habit of not stretching my daily Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs) beyond the timelines assigned and also dividing them as per the days allocated, so as to not fall into the burnout trap. It’s difficult to think at the initial stage, but once we surpass this learning stage, you’ll be amazed at the wonders you can do in the limited time frame. Also, the key is to not lose track of your work-related goals for the day.
And the third one was to manage everything along with staying alone. I personally feel that managing work became a little difficult for me because of staying alone, but over time I was able to pick myself up.
How did you get your 1st break?
My first job was as a Market Research Analyst as my first break. My awareness about market development was useful in writing reports about the market for any product.
My internships have endowed me with a diverse experience. Going by the order of my association with these organisations, I started with Qrius. The work at Qrius was simply analyzing a topic of choice and developing the report. The themes were within the Marketing theory. I picked Psychology of Persuasion in Marketing (I found the topic interesting) and condensed the findings of my research into a PowerPoint presentation.
My next internship was at ISI, most of the work at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) was primary research so I can’t connect that to my analyst job directly. The work at Consumers India, NGO did not involve me in actual research writing as it was a team effort. Since our research work was to compete with other teams’ findings too. The members of the team experienced in task formulated the research report. I presented my part and coordinated with others around ideation and other day-to-day primary research tasks. I also contributed to the survey questionnaire. I clearly remember, the hits and misses before we compiled the final questions!
The role at HELPS was longer than these internships, and involved me in tasks based on timelines. There are few things that I can connect my work at HELPS with the brief stint as Market Analyst. I used to analyse the reports and other related publications and at times even formulate short briefs for my professor. The theme was Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for Bihar. The work traced the developments and the issues about the domains like Gender Equality. I was mostly involved in ideation, proofreading and editing, but on the days I got to structure and write something of my own I’d get excited. The work at HELPS had a very niche area, but the ideation and structuring of the write-up helped me in my product report development part of the role. The data representation was something I learnt during my data-related skill development.
Where do you work now?
I work at a publishing firm right now as an Editorial Researcher- Statistics. My job is to work on the statistical surveys of various economies across the globe. I deal with the developments related to Census, Exchange rates, literacy, National Income and the annual growth rates of population and GDP.
My company launches books and also deals with Open Access journals etc. The hard copies are published along with regional surveys. The products (published copies) although have a dedicated market, but the teams work on developing online resource to increase accessibility and enhance the customer base. Hence, Europa World platform came into existence.
I work on the data part of this global resource – Europa World. It provides political, economic and statistical information.
We know how we’re pacing towards digital transformation; the knowledge is no longer limited to the published copies. The idea of knowledge economy is already there, our country has already introduced One Nation One Subscription (ONOS). All these have necessitated the access of information online. The department I work for covers areas like biographical references, educational institutions, and political developments. The team of statistical researchers assists these teams and contributes to the statistical updates throughout the year. The purpose of my role is to work on the statistics-related information of various countries (small and big geographies). We rely on the statistical websites of these countries for the data and update the economy-related developments of each country in our economy sections of the essays (calculate the deficits, annual growth rates, year-on-year growth rates, population growth rates etc.). The access to such information is behind the paywall. The information available is not only restricted to statistics, it includes political developments etc. as well. My role here is to take care of the quality of data added to the website in the form of statistical surveys and the economic affairs section. Earlier we used Sigmalink as our Content management system and now we’ve started using GitHub repository for the same.
What are the skills required for your role? How did you acquire them?
The skills needed for this job vary depending on the complexity of the economies. I use MS Excel to ease my work as I deal with the Balance of Payments and external trade-related data which require objective judgements. My work also requires the use of Python for managing large databases, other tools are inbuilt in the GitHub platform used to manage, edit and upload statistical surveys. Skills like decision-making, collaboration, time management etc. are useful too!
What’s a typical day like?
A typical day involves starting my day by checking my inbox for any feedback emails, and following up on any developments in terms of any new release of data from the UN, FAO or any other standard international resources. I continue with my country allocations otherwise and coordinate with the team lead or peers for any judgment call. The projects vary, and the statistical survey updates are usual on any given priority list. I like it when we get to update the economic surveys, that allows us to understand the economies closely. The feedback is usually sent to both the Editors approving the changes on Statistical surveys as well as the Regional Editors. I love the fact that this job involves me working closely on the developments across economies. The direct involvement in statistical surveys gives me a sense of ownership and responsibility in the countries delivered as part of my Key Responsibility Areas.
How does your work benefit society?
The country surveys are accessible to the customers . Customers are Universities mostly from Europe, International organisations like IMF etc, and the subscriptions come from various international governments, organisations, universities, and other educational institutions. I feel a sense of accomplishment with the knowledge that I indirectly contribute to the knowledge corpus of these esteemed bodies.
Memorable work?
I think it is too quick to call something a memorable work with the short span of experience that I’ve had. But if at all I were to pick, I’d say being a minuscule part of research initiatives undertaken by some key players in the field was one that I could count as memorable.
Your advice to students?
I remember the times when I was in my college, knowledge was restricted to attending a course or training by physically going to the institution. I was always dubious if my choice of online training related to a skill that I needed would even be considered at par with others travelling physically to the technical training centre. But now that I have been through the process, I think online learning is as good as offline learning; in fact, online learning is the future towards an equitable society. You can utilise e-learning if you are facing a time crunch, as long as you’re comfortable with it. The stigma that we need to secure a particular degree from some specific institution is good as long as you are able to achieve it, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to tick that one box. We don’t have to live with validations, we need to emphasize more on progress and lifelong learning. Be quick to bend when needed, you don’t always know everything. Failure is not ultimate, and believing in yourself even when you’re in the middle of the process is the only way through. Persevere as long as you can, but don’t be myopic to neglect the pace and developments in the job market. Have a broader perspective and objective, care to listen, but don’t blindly follow everything that isn’t relevant to your contextual career reality. Be brave to make bold choices whenever needed.
Future plans?
I want to be a part of the economic policy-making process. I’d like to take some time to think through my next course of action, I need to gather some skills as well to facilitate ease of career shifts. Hoping for the best! Fingers crossed.