Skip to main content

Search Contract Jobs*

Hello!

You’re now leaving the Expedia Group careers site and will be directed to our supplier partner’s website to explore and apply for contract job opportunities with Expedia Group. The website is operated by Expedia Group’s employment partner.

*currently only offered in USA & UK

Search
Jobs

Search Expedia Group Jobs

Back to blog posts

From campus to corporate: the top skills I have developed on the Graduate Program

Aishwarya Sam, Data Science Analytics Graduate, is based in Gurgaon, India, and is currently a part of the Expedia Group Graduate Program (EGGP). As well as thriving in her data-focused role, Aishwarya has had numerous opportunities to grow and develop her skillset, and immerse herself in EG’s culture.

Whether it be having a manager encouraging her to test and learn in the role, or colleagues making concepts easy to understand, Aishwarya has enjoyed the chance to work in a welcoming environment where she can meaningfully contribute to the global traveler experience. Find out more about the journey from campus to corporate, and the skills Aishwarya has built along the way.

Aishwarya Sam | Data Science Analytics Graduate | Gurgaon, India


What did you enjoy the most about university? How did the experience prepare you for working at Expedia Group?

I graduated from my Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) degree in Computer Science, at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani Campus, in 2024. My time at university taught me the value of freedom. The freedom to explore. The freedom to make mistakes. I also learned the importance of work ethic and sincerity during my 4-year course. With the flexibility that comes from working with colleagues across a variety of timezones, having a good understanding of the importance of timely delivery at work is key, and university helped me to prepare for this.

I first joined EG on the Intern Program in May 2023 – the summer at the end of my third year. I applied in September 2022, when Expedia Group came to our campus for the student recruitment season. The program helped me to polish my skills and to focus on my career trajectory. It also confirmed that Data Science was ‘the one’ after the rewarding experience. I rejoined EG as a Graduate in August 2024, when I had concluded my university studies.

Tell us about the team and role you’ve joined at EG.

I work in the Acquisition Marketing Growth Product Analytics & Experimentation team. We focus on optimising landing pages to get more traffic through SEO and SEM marketing channels and creating a good user experience for travellers. As a Data Scientist, my responsibilities involve supporting Product Managers (PMs) to conduct tests to prove or disprove a hypothesis, to improve our products across our traveler and partner brands, as well as for the websites and apps. Here’s an example of a test in practice:

Test Example

Let’s say a PM wants to make some tweaks to the User Interface (UI) of a web page and they hypothesize that this change will increase the number of bookings.

To confidently prove or disprove this, the PM needs to run an AB test over a period of time whilst making the test visible to a qualified traffic (control and one or more variants).

As a Data Scientist, my job is to help the PMs decide:

  • The time period of the test
  • The amount of traffic that the test will be exposed to
  • And after the test has been run for long enough, are the results even statistically significant?

We use amazing internal tools to analyse the impact of such tests on success metrics (such as purchaser conversion, bookings, funnel progression etc) that we, as Data Scientists define.

Apart from this, we also work on numbers and numbers (and more numbers) to get the trajectory of a customer’s journey (we do this using Adobe’s Customer Journey Analysis – CJA tool) to analyse trends, user sentiment and the like, to drive better and more confident decision making for business impact. It’s so exciting to be working on impactful work like this.


What are some of the skills you’ve developed during the Program so far?

SQL, Python, CJA and Statistics
When I first joined, I wanted to develop skills that would help me grow in Data Science. I’ve now had the opportunity to learn the industry-level application of SQL, Python, CJA and Statistics in an immersive on-the-job way. As a student, with a degree in Computer Science, I had completed courses on Database Management Systems and Python, which helped me a lot with my EG role, as I didn’t need extra training on these skills.

Stakeholder Management & Communication
While technical skills are required for my role, Stakeholder Management is one soft skill that I am learning. I also present on PowerPoint each week to the Product team, which has helped me hone my communication skills. Alongside this, I have developed the acumen to prepare for questions while I’m presenting, and how to tackle them with accountability as a reliable team member.

Mentorship & Networking
The EGGP has supported us throughout to transition from college to corporate in the smoothest way possible. The Emerging Talent & Careers team made it easy to meet Grads from other teams. During onboarding, we attended sessions designed for us to build the soft skills we’d need in our roles. We also got introduced to the EG Mentorship Program, which is a game-changer! My mentor is my go-to and has helped me so much with my personal and professional comfort at EG. She has been very helpful in sharing opportunities with me as well as tips and tricks that help you balance work and life. I’ve learned how to ask for advice, and the right questions to ask, as a mentee, to get the most out of the relationship.

2025 Goals
My personal goals for this year include learning about the Machine Learning space and honing my skills in Python, utilising the countless courses offered on Udemy (which is free to use at EG). I also want to contribute to projects beyond my team. As a side quest, I want to explore the tools that are used in Product Management, and learn tools like Datadog and Tableau in more depth.

As a university student looking for companies where you can learn, and meaningfully contribute at the same time, EG is your place! You can take my word for it!


Join our Career Network

We’re looking for outstanding talent to join us on our mission to power global travel for everyone, everywhere. By joining our career network, you’ll have exclusive access to our latest opportunities, events, interview advice, and global insights from our Expedia Group leaders. Sign up now!

Search Blog

Expedia Group | Careers