Tuan, 28 years old, is working as a Staff Data Scientist for Quora. This is a popular Q&A platform in the US with 400 million monthly users, allowing them to search for information, share expertise and connect with experts in many fields. In November 2023, Quora was valued at 500 million USD, in the top 17 most used social networks in the world, ranked second in information search websites in the US.

In American technology companies, it typically takes 10 years of experience to become a “Staff” – a position at the expert level. Tuan feels lucky to be able to take on this position after only 4 years of working. He plans a long-term data strategy, decides on a development plan for each period and the personnel to implement it, then convinces stakeholders to realize his idea.

He is also the leader of Poe Growth, the team developing the Poe AI application (Platform for Open Exploration), a platform developed by Quora since March 2022. This application helps users access AI (artificial intelligence) technologies such as GPT4, Claude or Llama easily. With many AI models integrated in one application, users can choose and use the model that best suits their work. In this role, Tuan works directly with Quora's CEO and product manager to outline user development strategies and manage the project.

"In a small company (in terms of human resources) like this, I have the opportunity to take on more responsibilities. Second, I will work in an environment full of talented people, very suitable for learning and developing myself," he said, adding that Quora has about 200 employees.

Tuan chose to work at Quora because he himself used this platform a lot when he started learning about Data Science.

“A friend of mine said I spent too much time on Quora. Now she’ll see me more, but on Quora,” he shared on Facebook in August 2019, when he started working there.

Prior to that, Tuan graduated with a degree in Statistics and Data Science in the top 10% (magna cum laude) from Yale University. This is an Ivy League school, ranked 5th in the US, according to the university rankings of US News. In 2024, Yale is the 10th best university in the world, according to Times Higher Education.

Tuan initially planned to pursue international relations. His passion for data science turned around when he volunteered for Africa Health Placements (AHP), a public health and wellness organization in South Africa, during the summer of his freshman year. His job was to record, present data, and build predictive models for the organization for three months.

AHP’s mission is to recruit inexperienced doctors from overseas to support local health services. However, these doctors usually stay for a short time, about 1-2 years. Taking advantage of his free time, Tuan observed the data and realized that they had in common: they were young, easy to recruit, and mostly from the US, who would quickly return to apply for residency training when they had enough experience. He reported this to the board of directors and built a data system using Excel to predict the length of time doctors would stay in South Africa. As a result, AHP changed its doctor recruitment plan to be more effective.

"When I was able to use data and create models that truly had a positive impact on the organization and even the community there, I suddenly realized that this industry is very interesting, has a lot of potential and has a lot to learn," Tuan said.

During his years at Yale, surrounded by talented people, Tuan could not help but be overwhelmed and admire his professors and friends. What he admired most was their modesty, seriousness, passion, and spirit of progress and eagerness to learn.

Tuan said that when he was learning to write his first lines of code, his friend had already founded a startup in Silicon Valley, but he still seriously worked on many projects in class, even though they were not graded. Another time, he attended a class by Professor Robert J. Shiller, the 2013 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, and was surprised when he confessed that he was not an expert in financial markets. Every day, he researched and learned more by filtering information from newspapers, reading books, talking to family members and experts in the field.

"I realize that learning is never over. Even now, even though I'm working at Quora, in a position that I believe I'm very lucky to have achieved, every day I wake up I should think that this knowledge is not enough, there are still many things to learn," he shared.

Tuan often reads research and reports from companies to find better ways to solve problems. In addition, he also learns by chatting with new employees on Quora because "they are the ones who bring knowledge, perspectives, and new ways of doing things." When he encounters a difficult problem, he asks his colleagues to review the data with him to get a different perspective and find a solution.

Le The Hien, founder of the non-profit organization Vietnam Tech Society, and Tuan developed a consulting platform that connects Vietnamese students with Vietnamese tech workers in the US. He said his friend is someone "every company needs" because of his curiosity and innate ability to connect people.

"Tuan is constantly seeking new knowledge, learning new ways of doing things, and is always at the forefront of both technology and work. He can also listen to all opinions in a meeting, even if they are contradictory, and then summarize them into a plan that convinces the whole team," Hien shared.

Tuan always wants to motivate his team members at Quora. He finds them all talented, getting them to understand his vision is one thing, convincing them to realize his ideas is another.

"I want to have a more positive influence on my teammates, so that they have the motivation to work effectively," Tuan said.

Currently, he and the Poe Growth team are building an AI ecosystem where AI experts and students can create AI models that support millions of users. In addition, he continues to blog, sharing fun applications of data science, such as using data to predict soccer results or building dating strategies.

Phuong Anh