PhD Alumnus Yan Jin

When asked about what she likes about her job she doesn’t hesitate: ”It’s the challenge! I work with students on their theses, with project partners all around Europe on deliverables and research papers, with different stakeholders along the food value chain for data collection and with the Catalan government. Every day is quite unique as I deal with different tasks while I am still learning a lot. My team of colleagues is also very nice. And of course, I like the weather in Barcelona!” And who can argue with that? The challenges in her current job have also shown her that she still wants to improve on certain skills, especially her modelling skills, and she has actively sought out opportunities for further personal development.

Yan still has a lot of appreciation for the time that she spent with the AEP group. “My experience of working as a teaching assistant for four courses (Econometrics, Advanced Econometrics, Theories and Models in Economics and Economics of Agribusiness) has prepared me for my teaching duties in Ireland, but also gradually made me understand myself better and that I actually like doing research more than that I like to teach. I also appreciated that I learned about quantitative skills in performing analyses but just as well about soft skills like negotiating and communicating with impact.”