From Dance to Academia to Industry

Pure math major Emily Carlson, who in high school trained for a professional career in dance, was planning to pursue a Masters directly following graduation from the University of Waterloo in Spring 2021. But when grad school applications were due in the fall of 2020, she felt she needed a break from academics. Although she was not in the Waterloo Co-Op program, she learned about Omnium from Fall 2020 intern Jordan Long and decided to apply for an internship in Summer 2021.

While Emily was hesitant about moving from pure to applied math, she has enjoyed the change from abstract to concrete problems and the collaboration with Omnium team members. She appreciates the culture of continuous learning and skill development and likes the challenge of solving complex problems with lots of data points, constraints and parameters.

One of her internship projects was to modify an existing methodology to better integrate with Nielsen baseline calculations - including accounting for the pandemic effects on baseline sales. Emily worked on Amy’s, Clif Bar, Juanitas and Lundberg during her internship and is now immersed in the annual account planning process with Amy’s. While Emily is not sure what her future holds, she has become more interested in economics through this assignment.

Emily loves working with a small team and felt connected and supported while interning remotely from Vancouver, but is also excited about working from the new Omnium San Francisco office. We are excited to welcome Emily to our full time team!