Final week of Data School. I will miss the atmosphere of being in the office – the mix of hard work and banter. At the same time, I am excited to bring in my skills to a client and make a difference to their data visualation analytics.
My experience at the data school
First week of data school was pretty rough. We dived into the crazy world of Alteryx and covered a huge amount of content. The potential of the program were immediately ostensible. The second week covered Tableau and wasn’t too bad considering I spent so long on my application that I was somewhat familiar with the basics. It was still invaluable to learn all the small tips and understanding what all the buttons in Tableau do.
What made the experience even better were the different mentors from MIP that would teach us specific aspect such as spatial analytics, predictive analytics, data warehousing, project documentation, business requirement gathering and much more. Even lessons in how project management works, how to conduct yourself in the workplace as a consultant and PK’s lessons on how to be a better presenter were all extremely useful in becoming a better consultant. Coupled with the constant Friday presentations, I came to realise to think of the bigger picture when creating a dashboard and presenting it. Being able to create a story with the data helped me understand what’s important to analyse and what can be left out when presenting back to a client. This avoids the dreaded ‘so what?’ after presenting which means that you produced a nice chart but there was no value created from it.
Working with clients was a really good way of getting a taste of what it will be like in the real world. Getting a business problem Monday morning and delivering by Friday afternoon gave us just enough time to come up with results. We learnt to work as a team and distribute tasks among us effectively.
What was most telling that I have learnt a lot from the Data School is during the Alteryx Inspire Grand Prix in Sydney and confident that I could have given the contenders a run for their money. You realise in hindsight the sheer knowledge that is transferred from the Data School down to you that makes you more equipped in Tableau/Alteryx than most people.
Looking Forward
I am looking forward to my placements and impressing my clients with the skills learnt from the Data School. It is reassuring to know there are a lot of people I can get in touch with from the Data School, MIP and even the Information Lab if I am ever stuck.
