A few weeks have passed since we were given the opportunity to teach a free session open to the public as part of the Learn What the Data School Learns (LWTDSL) initiative. Predictably, our manager assigned us all topics we were unfamiliar or uncomfortable with as a way to get us to realise just how much we knew already, and to reacquaint ourselves with any concepts we may have forgotten. To further drive home this idea, we were paired up in 3 hour blocks, both people taking turns to teach and assist. I was actually dreading this week since I’m not the most confident public speaker, so I thought I’d write this blog for future cohorts and anyone in a similar situation as mine.
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You Know WAY More Than You Think
At the Data School, we’re put through an extremely intense 4-month training period interspersed with occasional client project weeks to slowly get us used to the corporate world of consultancy. This means that content is taught at a very rapid pace without much room for revision and at times you may feel like you’ve forgotten something as soon as you’ve been taught it. LWTDSL is a great reminder that even though you may feel this, in reality, you’ve probably retained a lot of this information somewhere in your mind. When I saw the people I was teaching were largely all already industry professionals, I was terrified!
However, as soon as I started talking about the material and going through my prepared work, it was clear that I knew so much more than I realised, having answers for their questions, and being able to explain every step of the process. You know more than you think you do, so much so in fact that the Data School’s environment might make you think otherwise so don’t worry.
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Don’t let your age or theirs intimidate you
Much like the previous point, you might be scared that the people signing up for LWTDSL are much older than you and in the case of me and my cohort, we were always consistently the youngest people in the room. Even though this can be understandably extremely intimidating, remember that there’s a reason you’re the one teaching them and that they’ve come to you for help and learning in the first place. Age is no barrier for knowledge, and like point number 1, you’ll know so much more about Tableau and Alteryx compared to the average data professional.
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PRACTICE your lesson plan
This is perhaps the most important point, you need to practice your lesson plan thoroughly. Make sure you account for time lost from questions being asked, and people being stuck with your exercises, since that can eat into your 90 minutes, especially if you’ve been assigned a topic that is on the more difficult side. Additionally, make sure all your data is in a HYPER file, since a lot of the people showing up might be using Tableau Public’s desktop version, and can’t access files the same way we can.
That about wraps it up for the main areas to focus on in preparing your LWTDSL session, good luck with your presentation and classes.
