On the morning of November 20, 2021, a series of lectures onVirtual Interview and Virtual Cognition of the Department of Information Management Scienceof our school were held via Tencent Meeting platform. Min Tian and Xingyue Yi, schoolfellows of the SIM, as the invited speakers.

People attended the activity were as followings:

Quan Lu, Professor and Director of the Department of Information Management Science, SIM, Wuhan University,

Lu An, Professor and Deputy Director of the Department of Information Management Science, SIM, Wuhan University,

dozens of students from Information Science, Management Science and Engineering, Data Science, Library Science and other majors participated virtually,

and Ting Liu, a 2019 doctoral student of Information Science, presided over the event.

Min Tian got a master degree of Information Science from our school. Her work experience covers the positions related with data and algorithm of domestic Internet companies. She worked as algorithm engineer at Baidu, which is a leading AI company with a strong Internet foundation. And then she worked as data analyst and business analyst at Yuanfudao, which is an online educational technology leader. Min Tian has rich interview and work experience in large Internet companies. With the theme of Positions Related with Data in Internet Companies, she shared her work experience with students. Min Tian explained successively the competency model required by the Search Algorithm Department of Baidu, data analyst and business analyst of Yuanfudao. Among them, the competency model of the Search Algorithm Department of Baidu focuses on research capability and engineering capability, which requires solid foundation of engineering knowledge, and the ability to study and solve problems. The competency model of data analyst and business analyst focuses on data capability and business capability, which requires mastering the statistical analysis methods of data and having a deep understanding and research of the industry. Then, she introduced in detail the basic knowledge reserve required for these positions, and the differences and connections between data analysis positions and business analysis positions. Finally, Min Tian shared her interview experience with the students, pointing out that different Internet companies value different abilities. She suggested that students should know the needs of positions in advance, pay attention to future career development, learn from peers, constantly improve themselves and enhance their ability of summing up and reflection.

Xingyue Yi got a master degree of Information Science from our school. She published five papers in journals of SSCI, iConference, and CSSCI. Now she is working for Didi, which is a one-stop travel platform covering taxi, special car, Didi Express, hitching a ride service, driver service, bus, freight transport and many other businesses, as a data analyst. And she has been engaged in the business-end and clients-end data analysis of the Network Car Service Department. With the theme of Application of Data Analysis in Internet Industry, she introduced from three parts as “What is Internet data analysis doing? What skills do you need to do data analysis? Is data analysis suitable for me? ”, and explained the work of data analysts to the students. Xingyue Yi first introduced the daily work of data analysts through focused interviews and case analysis, and suggested that students should ask more when clients put forward their demands, so as to find out the real needs of clients. Then, she introduced that to be a data analyst, one needs to train one’s communication skills and business understanding skills, enhance one’s data analysis skills, and master the technologies needed in the data processing process. Finally, she pointed out that the data analysis position has the characteristics of low threshold, high ceiling and multiple capability models, and suggested that students should think clearly about their future plans before engaging in the data analysis position.

In the Q & A session, the students actively put forward their questions and ideas about the sharing by the two schoolfellows. In answering the questions of how to master professional knowledge comprehensively and systematically during the time in campus, lack of project experience when writing resumes and so on, Min Tian suggested that students should constantly enrich their skills, enhance their hard and soft ability in multiple ways and methods, and improve their irreplaceability. In answering the questions of how to build inspection statistics in actual business scenarios, Xingyue Yi pointed out that practical work can also be divided into research type and application type. Research type tasks generally need verification, for example, meeting the preconditions of normal distribution and T distribution, which needs rigor and precision. In practical application scenarios, it is unlikely to have ideal data distribution, so we should know how to carry out statistical analysis under the controlled error.

At the end of the activity, Professor Lu An made a concluding speech. She expressed her gratitude to the two schoolfellows’ sharing, and encouraged the students to cherish their postgraduate time and plan their future careers so as to enrich their knowledge reserves in a targeted manner. At the same time, she hopes that students could find research problems by reading professional books and papers, keep learning and thinking actively, put forward new methods and thoughts in research, and make greater progress.