Meet Yifei Dong

Yifei Dong graduated with a Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Statistics from the University of Toronto in 2018. She is currently a Technology Senior Analyst at Accenture Liquid Studio. In her free time, Yifei enjoys painting, hiking and archery.

When did your love of STEM begin?

I am always interested in STEM since I was a child. When I was in elementary school, I would read books about astronomy and biology in my spare time and that’s how I found myself naturally interested in Science subjects. From my middle school computer science classes, I started to have an idea about what coding is and what it is capable of, but I didn’t decide to learn it seriously until I was in second year university. I was majoring in Statistics in my first year and was thinking about adding economics or computer science as my second major. I took courses in both fields and end up spending more time on computer science courses than economics because I loved the feeling of accomplishment when I built something by coding. I then allocated more of my time into this computer science. I did a programming internship and became a Teaching Assistant for a computer science course in university. During the last year of my university, I also did a research project aiming to improve the education methodology of computer science. I was able to apply both my computer science and statistics knowledges for this project. From all those experiences, I have not only established my interest in STEM but also an understanding of the industry, which leads me to enjoy working in the technology field.

What is the best part about working in the field of STEM?

There are many reasons that attract me to work in the STEM field. STEM work is challenging yet exciting. Sometimes it’s hard to build some aspects of the software or solving some tricky problems of your project, but once you figured it out, it feels very rewarding. Moreover, there are always new technologies and tools that you can learn and apply to your work. That’s the exciting part of the STEM field.

The working environment is another aspect that attracts me. Your colleagues are often very supportive and open minded. You can be creative while solving problems and you can always speak out your ideas about the design or architecture of the project you are working on.

What advice would you give young women interested in a career in STEM?

While you are passionate about pursuing a career in STEM, you might have heard some discouraging comments about how it’s not the best choice for women. Please ignore those comments and practice hard work. Additionally, don’t be hesitate to raise questions and ideas even if you might be the only female in the group.