Hello to the lucky few that may be reading this, my name is Louis Phipps and this is my very first blog post! I have just completed my first week here at the Data School and what an introduction it has been. I thought I'd share some of my experiences on the past week for anyone who is about to start or may be interested in applying.
Advice From a Rookie
Firstly, if you're about to start - congratulations! And if you're thinking about applying, I couldn't recommend it enough. The application process is a unique one and can be very daunting at first (especially if you are new to this stuff like myself), but if you have a passion for analytics you'll be golden. My first viz was on car crashes in Brazil and my second on pigeon droppings in NYC 🤨 Although it's pretty difficult to get any more random than that (I got a few interesting reactions for my Brazilian car crash one), I think the key is that you can find analytics interesting in absolutely anything, an ace up your sleeve for a data consultant. If you're like me and spend an hour trying to figure out how to format a text box in Tableau the perfect way, don't get disheartened because it's all part of the learning process. And it gets easier (I hope).
The People
The first thing I noticed on my first day at TIL was how welcoming everyone is. It's a great community here and people will go out of their way to make you feel welcome and ensure you're exposed to any help you may need. The great thing about the Data School is that everyone has gone through exactly what you're about to go through, so they're eager to help and return the favour. Something that I will for sure be doing in the future.
It's also great to be surrounded by an amazing team of coaches and the rest of cohort 50 (solid round number), a great group of people who made the first week that much better. Here's us below:
Our first day was all about settling in, we spent the morning getting to know everyone and some of the previous cohorts before getting an introduction by Tom Brown, the founder of The Information Lab. He gave us a run-down on how and why he started the company, and it was extremely insightful to hear how Tableau influenced the data visualisation space. The afternoon consisted of downloading all the necessary software and setting us up to commence training, by the end of the day I was eager and ready to jump straight into learning.
The Learning
Our first week focused on data structure & terminology, data preparation, and an intro to consulting & the wider business. I gained a solid understanding on why data needs to be cleaned and how we can plan so that our dataset is looking nice and tidy for analysis. We also got stuck into some Tableau Prep, familiarising ourselves with the software and interface, before cleaning our datasets to get them looking exactly how we wanted.
The key takeaway from this weeks work was the importance of planning, having a watertight plan on how to prep your dataset is key - as this not only makes your life a lot easier when it comes to cleaning your data, but also gives some serious understanding and documentation of what you've done for the next consultant who may pick up your work. I found that there is definitely an urge to jump straight into Tableau Prep and start working on your data flow, but I quickly learnt that without a proper plan it can become pretty easy to get lost in it all. There are some things you may learn about your dataset that you didn't plan for once you get into building the data flow, but a solid plan provides you with the foundation you need and a reminder of the necessary steps you need to follow in order to get the desired output.
Our week then ended with our first Friday projects - where we received an industry specific dataset and a task to clean the data appropriately so that it is ready for analysis. By lunchtime we were presenting our plans, sketches, thought process and final workflows to the room. I'm not going to lie, receiving the dataset and project requirements on the Friday morning was slightly intimidating, but having the opportunity to put what we learnt throughout the week into practical use was an equally exciting and rewarding experience.
And just like that week 1 is over! I'm excited to see what the rest of training holds for us, and to carry on meeting more people here at TIL alongside cohort 50.
Bring on week 2 💪
