what i've done
right now, i herd goats. yes, literally. once a week, i head to a farm to herd ~50 goats for a few hours and perform some other animal husbandry-related tasks. every day i am forced to flex my problem‑solving muscles because goats love to cause problems. i’m also doing freelance data analysis for a research project about school librarians. this is much less challenging since i understand math, but i do not understand goats.
previously, i was the data person for a primarily qualitative research center at a med school. i did a lot of survey data analysis, starting from data cleaning to descriptive stats to hypothesis testing to model building. i worked under tight deadlines to contribute quantitative analyses for academic conferences and journals. i did this mostly using R and a little SQL.
i know as much stats as you could reasonably expect from 2 years of biostats grad school. i took 3 regression classes, so i can definitely build and diagnose a linear regression model. i also took data science and machine learning classes, which are skills i hear are in high demand. more importantly, i took a bunch of science and humanities classes like epidemiology, health policy, and ethics, so go ahead and ask me your covid questions. i was also a biostats TA for nearly every semester I attended. i did this using R, python, and microsoft word.
before that, i spent 4 years at an online textbook company, writing algorithms to generate dynamic math problems as well as formatting them for display (think pearson's mymathlab but less giant multinational corp). i did this using maple and latex.
i’ve also tutored middle and high school kids on and off for the past 8 years, which is genuinely the most rewarding thing I’ve ever gotten paid to do.
i did math and computer science in college, but i promise i took some cool electives too! i can code but i’m not one of those freaks that does it for fun.
what i want to do
honestly, i'm not that picky as long as it's not evil. i'm not interested in working for a big tech company (sorry facebook). i like using computers and doing math and i would like to do it in a way that doesn't have a direct negative impact (again, sorry facebook).
despite my overly technical professional and educational background, my personal life is full of creative pursuits like textile arts, music, writing, and cooking. i want to do something technical in a creative industry.
i'm pretty good at communicating technical concepts to non-technical people, and i would like my future role to incorporate that in some way.
i like learning and i do a lot of it on my own. i've never worked under a senior employee in a similar role, and i think that would be interesting to try. i like getting direction and feedback. i like solving problems and i appreciate having people around to bounce ideas off of.
i want an employer that respects the strong boundaries i have around work.
projects & links
web & writing
data
contact
contact@rubaiya.com
p.s. my name is also leah