When Margareth Felicia Gono (’26SPS, M.S. in Applied Analytics) hit a wall in her job search during her last semester at Columbia, the international student from Indonesia caught herself worrying over what seemed like an impossible situation. She urgently needed a job after graduation and wanted to remain in New York City, which had been her home since arriving as a New York University (NYU) undergraduate in 2021. By February of her final semester, she had already applied to 186 jobs.
“Failure, when it’s singular, feels like an event,” Gono wrote in her online blog at the time. “Failure, when it repeats, starts to look like evidence. At some point, I stopped asking questions about whether I ‘belonged’ in New York and I opened a spreadsheet instead.”
“You can literally make data out of anything,” she explained during a recent interview with SPS, reflecting on how an analytical mindset shaped both her graduate studies and a challenging job search. “Data isn’t just something companies collect. It’s a way of thinking. You can never really run out of it—whether it’s customer behavior or your own job search, there’s always something you can measure, learn from, and improve.”
After many applications, Gono received an offer just before graduation to join DoorDash as a senior marketing analytics associate after eight rounds of interviews.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and what brought you to Columbia’s Applied Analytics program?
I was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. I received a scholarship to study marketing at NYU, where I became fascinated by growth strategy—what makes people stop scrolling for one campaign but ignore another. I found myself becoming less interested in the campaign itself and more interested in the person on the other side of the screen. What made someone click, trust, or buy? I loved that marketing was really an exercise in understanding people, and I loved the customer-facing side of marketing. But after a while, I became curious about everything happening beneath the surface. Marketing tells you what people do; analytics helps explain why.
I'd spent years believing I just wasn't a "math person." Eventually, I realized that was less of a fact and more of a story I'd been telling myself. I liked the idea that you don't have to stay inside the box people hand you. Sometimes you get to redraw it yourself. I have this streak of wanting to prove people wrong, so I ended up applying to the Applied Analytics program.
Tell us more about your job search that resulted in the senior marketing analytics associate role at DoorDash.
The SPS Career Design Lab taught me that negotiation isn't just about salary—it's about understanding your value. As international students, it's easy to fall into the mindset that beggars can't be choosers because so much depends on securing employment. But you can be a chooser. If a company can't move on base salary, there are often other parts of the offer—like a signing bonus or equity—that are worth discussing.
Thanks to the Storytelling with Data and AI course, I had compiled a portfolio of projects that I was able to showcase in my application, along with my capstone project. For my capstone, we created lifecycle charts for a specific company product, and I was able to show DoorDash that we had created them all in Tableau, a data visualization software. I also had to take an SQL assessment, and I had just taken the SQL elective during my final semester, so it was fresh in the back of my mind.
What advice would you give to prospective or current students?
The job market is incredibly competitive. Everyone has access to AI, everyone is presenting the strongest version of themselves, and you're often competing with candidates who have years of experience. That means you have to find thoughtful ways to stand out. Especially in New York, grit really matters. I created three different versions of my résumé: one for marketing and growth roles, one for consulting, and one specifically for analytics. Tailoring my applications made a huge difference. Also, I believe you should not stop applying to jobs until you are in the seat on day one.
Don't just play the game—play to win. I think a lot of people hold themselves back because they're waiting to feel completely ready. They're afraid to apply for a job unless they meet every qualification in the job description. My advice is simple: apply anyway. You'll never know what's possible unless you give yourself the chance.
About the Program
Columbia University’s Master of Science in Applied Analytics prepares students with the practical data and leadership skills to succeed. The program combines in-depth knowledge of data analytics with the leadership, management, and communication principles and tactics necessary to impact decision-making across industries and organizational functions.
Learn more about the program here. The program is available full-time and part-time, online and on-campus.
