ESPN was advertising a part-time staff analyst position, and Hannah was in the market for a full-time role. After some consideration, she reasoned that this part-time position would be her entry into the company, so she hesitantly sent in her application.
Hannah’s resume impressed the interviewers. She owes that impressive resume to many factors during her time at Merrimack. Hannah added a section to her resume listing many of the data analytics projects she had worked on in her classes. She credits Associate Professor John Gallagher, a mechanical engineering professor in the School of Science and Engineering, with conceptualizing the Pitching Mechanics and Velocity project combining his knowledge of pitching mechanics and her knowledge of analytics as one of her proudest academic achievements. In addition to her projects, the interviewers at ESPN were equally impressed with her knowledge of Python, R, Excel and SQL.With the help of an advisor in the career center to refine her resume and the use of Quinncia, a resume review and mock interview tool, Hannah felt confident that she was putting her best foot forward.
After multiple interviews, she was delighted to be offered a position – a full-time position! “To think that I almost didn’t apply because it was part-time and because I didn’t meet every requirement on the job description! That would have been a missed opportunity,” Hannah shares.
Hannah is delighted to realize her lifelong dream of working in the sports industry. As a Stats Analyst II, she collects data from outside sources, which is put into a data warehouse and checked and analyzed. Currently, she is monitoring golf feeds and is working on a project that increases coverage for women in sports. The work entails checking historical data on women’s college basketball players so that they will have player cards on espn.com like the men’s basketball players do.
Hannah’s journey to ESPN was made possible by her experience at Merrimack College, a place she values for its sense of community. It was after meeting Professor Michael J. Bradley ’78, Chair of Data Science and Analytics, at an Accepted Student Day that Hannah made her decision to attend Merrimack. She decided to major in math and took as many statistics classes as she could. Hannah also got involved on campus. She was the Sports Management Club Co-President, a peer math tutor, a First Year Experience mentor, and she worked for the baseball and hockey teams. It was in the Honors program where Hannah met some of her best friends.
She feels fortunate to be working at ESPN in an environment where all opinions are valued and where there is an amazing culture of community. It is the same sense of community she felt when she first arrived at Merrimack. “I’m where I’ve wanted to be for the past few years, and it’s awesome.”
