As I now reach the halfway point of my training period, I’ve decided to reflect on this voyage through Data and Analytics that I embarked on. My name is Nikhara, and I am working at The Data School as part of the 28th Cohort in Sydney. I began my journey here in 2025, transferring from my role as a Mathematics and Statistics teaching associate at Macquarie University and I am now 8 weeks into the training period at The Data School.
Whenever I come across Data School graduates or coaches they ask me: “How are you finding it so far?” or “What are you learning?” or something along those lines. Every time it’s difficult to fully answer these questions in a few short words.
That’s because there’s so much that has happened! So much that I have learned! I had to transition from a role of teacher to student.
In these 8 weeks, we’ve learned how to use a vast array of tools – some of which are Tableau and Power BI and Tableau Prep and Power Query and Alteryx. Within each of these programs there were different types of calculations, types of languages that each of them can understand.
There are similar and different uses for these tools. Unfortunately, the worst is that many of the similar features have completely different names, for example: Power Query has “Merge” and “Append”, which is the equivalent of a “Join” and a “Union” respectively in Tableau Prep. We have a “Group by”; in Power Query but an “Aggregate Step” or a “Summarize Tool” in Tableau Prep and Alteryx. In Power Query, we can “pivot” (columns to rows) or “unpivot” (rows to columns) while in Tableau Prep, we would utilise a “Pivot Step” and in Alteryx that would be a “Transpose” or a “Crosstab” respectively.
Is the confusion clear? Now, these were just the tools, but what about the theory of data modelling, databases and other data concepts that have been covered?
Yes, we’ve covered these as well in these past 8 weeks.
Every single day brings new experience and new knowledge. We have literally learned one tool on a Monday and completely different one on a Tuesday. Missing a day at The Data School is the equivalent of missing every lecture for Calculus and Linear Algebra and expecting to catch-up the day before the exam – a disaster in the making.
Let’s not forget to mention that every Friday includes a presentation! Unless it’s client project week, we get a task at 9am on Friday and need to present our solution at 2pm on that very day. Believe it or not – as stressful as it may seem – I enjoy Friday presentations because they’re extremely beneficial.
Why? Well, that is because we gain valuable feedback on our presentation, we learn to work under pressurising time constraints and we have to apply everything we have learned – consolidating our learning.
These week’s have flown by and as I reflect, I find it hard to believe how much time has passed and how much I have learnt. I can already tell I will really miss this training period, but I look forward to the opportunities that will come my way and the experiences that I will gain.
Thank you, to all the amazing coaches here at The Data School!
