The packed four month training period at the Data School is finished. The question now is what I would recommend new cohorts to do and what not to do (under the assumption that they want a good and successful time.) Here is a list of key advices:
- Do not be afraid to ask for help. There will be a ton of questions arising in your training period and nobody expects you to know everything. Ask your coach, in the office or on Convo whenever you have an important question. Everyone is quite helpful.
- Do not stress yourself out. Plenty of people went successfully through the program. There is no reason why you should not. Naturally some challenges will arise, but it would be boring without them, right?
- Avoid Overtime. There is always an abundance of stuff you can work on. For instance, makeover mondays, workout wednesdays, Alteryx challenges, reading books, client projects. However, you cannot do them all at all times. Choose wisely when to spend time on what task. Some overtime is okay at times, but too much overtime can kill your creativity and lead to a less enjoyable time.
- Find distraction. It is easy to be busy thinking about the job all the time, but it is essential to have a hobby that distracts you in order to keep a fresh mind. That can be sport, friends, Sudoku or anything else. You do you!
- Find inspiration. Go on Tableau Public or read books about visualizations. And do not be afraid to use use similar elements in your dashboards. Everyone steals ideas all the time. Of course you should/give credit when you lean on a specific visualization a lot. Moreover, your coach might recommend the book Steal Like An Artist. It is quite a fun and short read. A 10 out of 10 on my book taste scale.
- Make a tech check before the Tableau Certification. Do not ask why I wrote that point, just do it.
That is it. I hope the list helps you to have good time. Enjoy the training :).
Cheers, Tobias