I met with Jorge Ruiz who’s the Global Head of Marketing Science at TikTok. His message was really valuable, especially for teenagers, because it detailed how much his classes and education helped him get the position he has. We have a problem when it comes to attention in classrooms, and I think it's because teenagers don't understand the real-world application of the subjects they learn. Hearing someone like Jorge talk about how much his education helped him with his career is really intriguing and sends more than a great message. His last piece of advice was to seek mentors, as he credits his teachers as his biggest.

Special thanks to Open AP and CIMM for helping me secure this interview, Jensen Muller and Luca Messina for producing and Guy Piaquadio for the cut and iSpot for sponsoring this series!

Rio Damata: Hi, so, uh, what's your name and what do you do?

Jorge Ruiz: Hi, I'm Jorge Ruiz, and I'm the Global Head of Marketing Science at TikTok.

Rio Damata: And what does the Global Head of Marketing Science do at TikTok?

Jorge Ruiz: Well, um, let me break this down by taking the clock back maybe if I go back 20, maybe perhaps 30 years ago. I'm taking all these math classes, all the stats classes, where are they going to come in useful for me? Turns out actually like in my career and in my life, um, professionally working as an analyst, as a researcher, as a manager, all those concepts I took in terms of like, uh, mathematics, statistics, calculus, research, psychology, all those things, particularly understanding how to answer the questions in the business world of advertising: how does it work and why does it work? Those core concepts I learned early on, and I had a really wonderful experience of having a teacher that says these are the concepts that you learn in statistics and how you translate them into the business to really drive your business. All those things prepared me well for my career today.

Rio Damata: So you're saying to get where you are, you actually use the math, the mathematics that you learned throughout your school career? Because I know myself and a lot of teenagers my age complain about math not being useful. So you're saying that you were able to apply it to what you did?

Jorge Ruiz: Being I was okay in calculus and statistics, I had a wonderful professor and she helped me to say this is how you can transform to understand this to really build a business. And the way she broke it down helped me to work backwards and then it clicked on me that says this is how you can approach all these concepts to really, really understand how to drive a profitable business. And then I was like super excited. I was able to really get all the concepts. I was energized. That to me is a part that made it exciting.

Rio Damata: Mhm. And so what exactly does Marketing Science do?

Jorge Ruiz: Yeah, so going back to the two questions I mentioned is proving that the ads are working and helping to explain to advertisers why they are working. So, great things, it's like all the work that creators are doing, it's phenomenal work. Advertisers are going to want to be able to understand is it working, why is it working, can it contribute to sales. That's my team behind the scenes that are helping to answer those questions.

Rio Damata: Oh, yeah, okay. And then just as a final question, what's a piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to pursue something in the industry or in a similar field?

Jorge Ruiz: I never thought or intended that this would be my career. I got into it by accident. But seek mentors. I had wonderful teachers that helped set me on the path. They gave me a lot of opportunities and breaks. But find mentors, and most importantly, if you ever struggle on why math is hard, think about working backwards in the concept. What does this ultimately help you do? Does this answer a different question? I was a better person learning by understanding the underlying question and then working myself backwards. But finding the mentors, finding how to approach the problems, and really seeking advice, that in itself really, really helps.

Rio Damata: Alright, well, thank you very much for your time. Great advice.

Jorge Ruiz: Thank you.