The saying “first impressions last longer” applies to me in my first career job. In this context, I’d say, “a first career job determines a lot.” Before delving (wink) into this, please note that this is my story, not necessarily a motivational one. One thing I want everyone reading this to keep in mind is that there’s a huge difference between training, boot-camps, online courses, and real-life experiences.
DATA COLLECTION
The first week of my job was all about collecting data from different departments for analysis, mainly from the marketing and finance departments. Learning about data collection and having to put the training into use were different. The data collected had to answer the company’s objectives and questions. I had to figure out the metrics and KPIs to measure while also putting them into tables without redundancies, keeping in mind that others should be able to understand what the data is about at a glance. In a nutshell, no unnecessary grammar, abbreviations, and the use of clear headers.
REPORT WRITING AND PRESENTATION
PowerPoint is a silent and unsung hero; most of your dashboards and reports will be done with this tool. Tip: Learn how to use PowerPoint. My first official report and presentation came with mistakes, yes, beginner’s mistakes. It was at this moment I knew I couldn’t navigate my career alone, so I sought out a senior colleague who is also an instructor for tips and guidance. I made my report with the basic knowledge of presentation I had from my undergraduate days. Hello! There’s a big difference between academic and career knowledge. I learned from this first presentation about the important use of percentages, ratios, fixed numbers, and most importantly, “Outliers are important.” They tell a story.
PRODUCT LAUNCH AND DATA CLEANING
I put out a tweet while cleaning this business data. Data cleaning is fun until you face reality. This task required cleaning messy data sourced from several businesses. Even with no pressure on me, the data put me through some pressures. Think of everything that can make data super messy and put me in that room. Yes, super messy data. It was challenging, but during and after the task, my data cleaning skills improved significantly. There’s more to this, but my advice for anyone reading this is, “Take that data cleaning class seriously.”
SPREADSHEET TO VISUALIZATION
Maybe not all, but during training, some of us probably learned how to connect spreadsheets to visualization tools. Hold on, before you say yes, I’m not referring to downloading CSV and Excel files and importing them to your visualization tools. This process requires loading your spreadsheet directly into Power BI. Each time new data is added or inputted into the spreadsheet, your visuals are updated as well. This was fun for me; a senior colleague helped a great deal in creating good visuals for this task. I remember a colleague in another department asking how filling out just a Google Form could turn into bar charts and pie charts in another app. It was my moment to shine and explain in detail how it works. Yeah, I’m proud of my job.
BUSINESS ANALYTICS REPORT
This was my favorite task! I used Python, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Power BI for this task. (Okay, not an ad.) If you are a business owner or you mostly buy your needs and wants online, download and use Parrot Customer Review to register your business. Users can drop reviews for businesses as well. This task tested my skills across all the tools I mentioned. Creating analytics for businesses registered on Parrot requires detailed and comprehensive thinking. I connected to the cloud service with PostgreSQL, joined several tables to answer a particular business analysis, and imported the data into Power BI for visualization. It was a long route, so I connected the PostgreSQL server to Power BI, wrote a query in Power BI, and got the information I needed. There are downsides to every method and methodology, so I had to figure out the best approach. Oh, I will give accolades to a senior colleague who supported me with this task as well. Another piece of advice from me to you: “If you use Power BI, make sure you stay updated on the use of the visuals and know when and how to use them.” “Please take cleaning or formatting date columns training seriously; date columns will make you doubt your skills.”
MARKETING ANALYTICS
I wanted an edge in my data analyst career, so I chose to niche down to marketing analytics. This is a story for another day. Fortunately for me, my former boss provided a lot of crash courses on this topic, offering several tips, hints, and pieces of advice for this journey. Yes, I intend to have domain knowledge, but as a beginner, I think it’s best to spread my wings first, explore all sectors, and gather various experiences before settling into a niche. I made mistakes, but I have no regrets. During marketing meetings, I learned a lot from the business, customer, and marketing points of view.
Oh, there is so much to talk about, so many experiences, from content creation, knowledge sharing, games, free lessons, to the birthday gifts and food in the office. The environment was friendly, supportive, and motivating. My first real-life experience left a deep imprint on me, and I’m grateful for everyone who supported me before, during, and after the journey. Before I drop my pen, my giveaway to everyone is: “Be ready to learn, unlearn, and relearn.” “You cannot go solo in your journey; you need friends, colleagues, and mentors.”
Don’t forget to comment and follow for more stories as I start another chapter of my career. I can’t wait to share more with you again.
Thank you! Merci Beaucoup! Vielen Dank!
About the Author
You can connect Olawumi Olabode to me on Twitter or LinkedIn