Employee Spotlight: Abby Snyder

At EMI, our team is one of our strongest assets– and it’s growing! In the past year, we’ve had a lot of new additions to our team and we want to take some time to highlight them and the unique strengths they bring to EMI. This week, we’re highlighting Research Manager, Abby Snyder. Continue reading to learn more about Abby!

What do you do at EMI?

I am a Research Manager on the Operations side of our business. I am responsible for day-to-day project management, ensuring successful execution of our clients’ studies.

What led you to EMI?

I am a Marketing and Operations Management graduate from the University of Cincinnati and I was always fascinated by my market research classes. I started exploring Market Research roles leading up to graduation and saw a posting for EMI on Handshake. After a couple of rounds of interviews, and a brief pause due to the pandemic, I was offered a role in May of 2020 shortly after graduating.

When you aren’t at work, you are..?

Playing volleyball at 50 West, cooking, cheering on Cincinnati sports teams, or grabbing a beer with my friends at one of the many breweries in Cincinnati.

What’s your favorite food?

I am definitely a steak and potatoes girl- love a good Ribeye. Tacos would be a close second.

What’s your best travel story?

I was very fortunate to complete a couple of study abroad trips in my time at UC. My favorite would have to be Ireland and Scotland. I do have some family history in Ireland and I grew up in Dublin, OH so the Irish tie is pretty strong. After a 3-hour bus ride and severe car sickness, seeing the Cliffs of Moher is one of my favorite memories. Touring the Guinness and Jameson factories was pretty cool too… free tastings! 🙂

What kind of music do you listen to?

My taste in music is a bit all over the place. My last Spotify recap for 2020 had my top 3 artists as Juice WRLD, Luke Combs, and Quinn XCII. I am also always down for a good 2000s throwback jam session.

If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?

I would love to be a good singer. I am slightly tone deaf– but that doesn’t stop me from belting out my favorite songs.

If you could have dinner with any person, living, dead, or fictional, who would you dine with?

Probably Guy Fieri. I love to cook and his show, Guy’s Grocery Games, is one of my all-time faves. He seems like he’d be a fun time and hopefully we would chef something up together to feast on.

Do you have a favorite movie/tv quote?

“Treat. Yo. Self” — Parks and Recreation. Whenever I am feeling stressed or a little down, there is nothing a good shopping trip can’t fix! 😉

Tell me one interesting fact about yourself

I have always loved cooking and baking. I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my family since I was 12 years old. I also recently started an Instagram food blog to share all my yummy recipes.

What would you do for a career if you weren’t doing this?

My sister and I have always said we were going to start up our own Bakery/Floral shop and go into business together.

Do you have a personal motto or mantra?

Be a thermostat, not a thermometer. My grandpa was one of my biggest role models growing up. He taught me so many life lessons and would randomly hang up articles in my room. The one titled, Be a Thermostat, Not a Thermometer is still hanging in my childhood bedroom to this day since 2009. The meaning behind this motto is– be the type of person who proactively makes a change in the room around them, not someone who lets the atmosphere they are in change who they are and not take any steps to solve the problem.

What is your favorite thing about working at EMI?

The obvious answer is the people. I had the interesting position of joining the team mid pandemic, so you would think creating relationships virtually would be difficult, but I can say I have developed some very strong friendships and working relationships in my time here so far (shout out Fun Pod!) I will also say, in my position as a Research Manager, no project is ever the same– there is so much variation in the day to day and I love that it keeps me on my toes!

Which of our four core values here at EMI (Agility, Accountability, Integrity, or Passion) do you most relate to?

Agility. I strive to think and act quickly. Being agile is key to the success of the projects. As I mentioned, there is such a large variety of projects we run and I have learned to be agile to succeed in this role. Thinking of issues before they arise, pivoting, and quickly implementing solutions is critical.