Home » Success Stories » Success Story: Travis Park ’17 starts Facebook data scientist role

Success Story: Travis Park ’17 starts Facebook data scientist role

Success Stories | Nov 09, 2017 |

Keeping up to date with people on social media is a part of daily online activity for many of us.

For one Gabelli School graduate, it’s also part of his job.

Travis Park, MSBA ’17, started at Facebook as a data scientist this fall.

What attracted him to the role is an aspect of Facebook that might not come to mind for the average user.

While lots of companies use data to get an edge over others, Park says, “I saw Facebook as using data to benefit others.”

Before starting at the Gabelli School, Park did his share of reporting in previous business information roles. Now, he hopes to “move past explaining how things were and have been and [look] forward to doing predictions about the future.”

After completing the Master of Science in Business Analytics program, Park feels prepared for this next step.

One of the great things has been our exposure to all the different tools,” Park says. Not only do students learn how to use them throughout the course of the program, but they learn how to talk about them.

“Being able to understand the industry’s approach to data” and then demonstrate that understanding to prospective employers has been extremely helpful in interviews, Park adds.

But he wouldn’t have made it to the interview stage without an impressive résumé.

Professor W. “RP” Raghupathi, director of the MSBA program, “talks about adding things to our résumé that are different from everyone else.”

For Park, one of those unique entries was his participation in United Nations projects through the Gabelli School’s Center for Digital Transformation. These projects gave him the opportunity to develop skills in Python, whose popularity as a form of software is on the rise, and to show he could work with “messy” real-world data.

Aside from a cross-country move to California, what excites Park about his new role is the possibility for making an impact.

The culture of the company, he says, tells employees, “If you have a good idea, it doesn’t matter your rank or position … run with it.”

Park is ready to run.

Connect with the Gabelli School of Business

© 2024 Gabelli School of Business

GabelliConnect is the news site of the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University. Read about career opportunities, campus events, student and alumni success stories, and more.