We hosted students from youth development nonprofit Mouse for a day of programming led by Insider Inc. employees. Here’s what happened.
Cici Qin
We recently hosted a group of students from Mouse for a day of educational sessions. Mouse is a national youth development nonprofit that believes in technology as a force for good. We welcomed a group of students and alumni to our NYC headquarters for an office visit featuring sessions led by Insider Inc. employees in a broad range of roles.
Here’s how the day unfolded.
We kicked off with a lunch and learn hosted by Software Engineer, Starr Chen. While the students enjoyed lunch, Starr gave a presentation on what a typical day as a software engineer involves. She also shared her career path into the role.
Next up, our Senior Manager of Test Engineering, Chaithra Rao, spoke to the students about her job and the team, which builds tools to help identify and resolve issues that arise throughout the engineering process. Most students weren’t familiar with the field, so this was an informative session.
Our Associate Animation Producer, Gina Echevarria, gave an overview of how the animation team’s visualizes complex ideas — including character animation and data visualization — for a number of different teams including business, food, entertainment, and tech. She shared some of her work, including a video about fruit flies.
After a morning of sessions, our Media Studios Operation Manager, Corey Protin, took the students on a tour of our green screen room, audio room, news desk, and other studios rooms. The timing was perfect — our Associate Producer Beauty & Style, Celia Skvaril, was shooting in one of the studio rooms, so the Mouse visitors had a chance to see a live shoot in action.
After the tour, our User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) Designer, Joan Gonzalez, put together an interactive presentation about UX, color theory, and why it’s important. Most of the students didn’t know what UX was before Joan’s presentation and they were enthusiastic to learn more.
Students took a quick break, and then our Branded Content Producer, Alli Guerra, came to talk about Insider Studios and some of her favorite pieces of work. Alli finished up by giving students tips on how to present their work and emphasized that they need to believe in and be confident in their creations.
Next, our Photo Editor, Hollis Johnson talked about his career path at Insider from intern to editor at Insider, and shared a slideshow of his work, including portraits of celebrities, politicians, and entertainers, with anecdotes about each photo.
We wrapped up the day’s programming with a Q&A with our Director of Revenue Analytics, Ilan Bielas. He explained how the team uses data and analytics to help inform business decisions, how they wrangle multiple data sources into a cohesive narrative, and touched on the different career paths within the field.
After a full day of presentations, the students left the company inspired to explore tech and engineering career paths. For more information on our company culture and the latest career opportunities, visit our Careers page.