Every unique and talented Avantee is a co-creator of the Avant culture we love. We hope the @Avant series helps you get to know who we are, how we do what we do, and what it looks like to build your career at Avant.
Yanxiang Ding
Data Scientist on the Data Science Team
Joined Avant in 2019
What’s it like to work @Avant? We asked Yanxiang for his take on our culture, and here’s what he said:
1. How would you describe Avant’s culture?
I would say there are two words. The first one is flexibility, not just in terms of work schedule but also the flexibility for people to be yourself during work. Personally, I think that’s really important because everyone operates in a different way. Flexibility lets people do their work closer to the optimal way that they operate. Avant lets that happen while still coordinating everyone together to move on towards the same goal.
The second word I would say is dedication to solving problems. I feel like when there are headaches or big issues, people are very dedicated and focused, they collaborate with each other in trying to solve the problem. And so that I think would be the second word for our culture.
2. Why are you happy/successful here?
As a data scientist at Avant, I get the opportunity to work on different projects and products and engage with different teams. That provides opportunities to work on new challenges and learn new things. That’s what makes me feel happy. I figured out at a very young age that I don’t get any happiness out of following instructions and just doing things repeatedly. So this job suits my personality. We are empowered to organize and lead our own projects and make decisions along the way, and I appreciate that. That’s what makes me happy and successful. I’m someone who likes and demands challenges, but with a fun side. That’s who I am.
3. What’s something Avant is really good at? What’s something you’d like to see us get better at?
One thing Avant is really good at is you don’t feel a strong gap between hierarchies. An example would be our Town Hall questions. You can submit any question, and the Exec team addresses them even though some of the questions are quite difficult. And in general in everyday work, it’s easy to talk to higher levels, managers, skip levels. It’s not intimidating when you raise your opinion or speak of your own ideas. I think that’s what Avant does well.
In terms of what can be improved, one thing is to try to see two steps ahead. We focus and work hard on solving the issues at hand, and I feel like we can start looking two or three steps ahead—having a longer horizon when we plan things. I feel like sometimes, when you only look at one step, then things have changed by the time you finish it, and then you have to change direction, which can mean the work you just did is wasted. If we can plan and coordinate further ahead, then even when something changes, we already have a plan to move forward.
4. If you were to describe who you are and not mention your work at all, what would you say?
First, I’m an active person. I love being active and doing sports. Everyone who knows me knows I’m a big tennis fan, watching and playing tennis. I also love to expose myself to different challenges, but they have to be fun—if there is no fun, no joy in life, then what is there to live for?! Going on a challenging hike, trying to outsmart my friends in a game night, I like all those things. And I love living in the city. It’s easy to hang out with friends, you can relax at the lake, and there’s always something to explore. I like it.
5. What’s a superpower that you get to apply at your job?
From a very young age, I’ve been a big lover of Legos. Whenever I would go to a store, I’d go to the Lego section and ask my parents to buy me a new set. I loved figuring out how the pieces are connected to each other, how to put the pieces together. When you realize you’re making a mistake, you have to go back and figure out what you need to fix, which pieces to take out without dismantling everything.
That’s my superpower—staying with the problem. As a data scientist, one of the most important parts of our job is to build models that help to solve problems for the product team—models that we hope can be used for two or three years, not just a couple months and then they’re outdated. I’m really good at staying with a problem, taking it apart piece by piece, organizing it, and putting it back together in a different way to achieve the goal. It’s just like Legos—and even after you build it, it’s really fun to try to analyze it to understand what happened. One of my favorite Lego sets was a Formula One car, and it actually had a functional gearbox. I was so fascinated by it and I spent hours looking at it and playing around trying to understand how that gearbox works. That’s the same thing applying to my job.
6. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was a kid, I really loved watching National Geographic documentaries. Some of my favorites were about big cats in Africa—lions, cheetahs. My dream was that when I grew up, I’d go to Africa and observe the big cats like one of the scientists in the documentaries. You follow the big cats and try to figure out what they do, what their life is like and the path of movements. So that’s what I wanted to be when I was a little.
