Svenja Gudell is chief economist at Zillow.com. She has served in that position at Zillow since August 2015 after serving on the company’s economic research team for more than four years. Gudell holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester’s Simon Graduate School of Business and previously worked with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the European Parliament. AAPL talked with Gudell about being a female economist.
AAPL: What motivates you?
Svenja Gudell: It is so rewarding to work in a space where you can do truly unbiased research that has a direct, positive impact on the people you are trying to serve. I can honestly say that if even one person reads an article about what our team refers to as “the break-even horizon” – which is how we answer the question, “Should I buy, or should I rent?” – and is able to make a better decision about home-ownership status as a result, we’ve had an impact,
AAPL: Do you have daily practices that lend to your strengths?
SG: Actually, the cool thing about my job is that my days hardly ever look the same. However, we do have some things that we do regularly to make sure we’re working in the right direction. For example, I do team “stand-ups” to see where everyone is in their research, then I give advice and feedback on the directions we take on certain issues. I use that information to craft an overall vision of what types of research topics we should be working on and how we can collaborate with the other research teams and other teams in general at Zillow.
AAPL: Do you define yourself as an industry disrupter?
SG: I don’t know if I would call myself a disrupter necessarily, but my role is unusual because it’s entirely based on using data to empower the consumer in the housing market. There is a lot more to that than most people think. To empower that consumer to make better housing decisions, they need access to a much fuller view of what is going on in the housing market and, to a degree, in other people’s lives in order to understand how the population affects the housing market. You need an idea about the setbacks and opportunities that households are facing, and our determination to analyze that data and then make our findings available is definitely unusual, in my opinion. Getting a much broader view of the economy and being able to interpret much broader trends has really helped us dig in and inform people a lot better. We’re always trying to dive deeper and learn more.
AAPL: What advice would you give women searching for their industry voice?
SG: I think the big thing I’ve learned is that it is incredibly important to marry your skills with modern, cutting-edge tools and technology. You learn things in school, but then you need to marry that knowledge with a deep understanding and experience in your industry so that you can really understand the space. For me, providing insight about real estate using our tools and data, finding a happy balance between experience and technology, has been key to developing a voice in my industry.
I would also say that data is becoming so much more important in every industry. No matter where you work, look at all of the data you can get. Interpret it. Work with it. Take that economics class, that data analysis class, that statistics class, to get the knowledge you need to understand all the information you have about your industry. Not everything is learned in a classroom, but there are skills you can learn and apply and combine with hands-on experience to become the best analyst and use that ability to improve your position and establish your voice.
AAPL: Do you think the gender gap still exists?
SG: That’s a good question, because historically at least, from my angle coming from a background of academia and economic research, it’s a relatively male-dominated field. It still is, to a degree, although it’s starting to change. The unique thing about our industry is that for tech companies, including real estate-related companies, is that we are turning so much more toward data. Companies that were not historically data companies or technology companies now are. So regardless of gender, if you understand how to interpret and act on data, you’re going to be a valuable individual in your industry.
This is a great time in our industry, specifically for women, to really get involved in the space. There are so many opportunities to be active, and tech companies, in particular, tend to be very motivated to create equal pay, gender equality, etc., and that shines a spotlight on opportunities for women in tech, financial, and business sectors as well as others.
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