It's been almost a year since my last blog post, needed to face things out of my control. But here I am continuing what I want and aiming for that same goal I started from. I guess it's okay to pause and quicksave then press continue every now and then
Entry
I could describe the whole experience as pleasant. Imagine having an excellent work environment, Supportive teammates, and Superiors that are keen on making you grow and catch up as quickly as possible. The Company itself is very inclusive and considerate with its employees. As per the Data Analyst profession entry experience, you can really appreciate the flexibility it has to offer. You are able to work from home or any place that is conducive to quiet work and meetings. Whenever you are curious or struggling you can always learn, discover, and experiment just by bingeing on materials that are available on the net.
The first few months were full of training and immersive experience. There is this thing that was called shadowing which you will be with a senior analyst just monitoring what they do and explaining to you some concepts that may be new to you. So as a new data analyst all you have to do is just sponge in all the training and experience you can gain, the support will always be there(also that's why you have to embrace being a novice and not lie about your experience hehe)
Tools
I realized that you really don't need to master it all to start as a Data Analyst. You just need the basics of the ETL process and visualization experience, because you will master all the tools you need in the job. So a solid foundation is a must then mastery comes after knowing what you need to master. You do not know what you do not know so better not stress about perfection from the start.
We are using Alteryx and Tableau for the most part and other tools for communication and organization.
-Alteryx: Alteryx is a program for the whole ETL process, but it makes the process very simple and straightforward. Little to No coding is needed. Really a game changer(More of Alteryx in a different blog post). It is basically a canvas that has tools and connects it to other tools that in summary make it look like a flow chart. Tools are in sense the code you put in python or SQL that commands what you want to do to the incoming data.
-Tableau: A visualization tool like google data studio and Power BI. Personally I like tableau more now. It feels more straightforward to use with less of the Syntax intricacies like on other platforms. Also, the community sure is alive here. I attended a conference virtually and it was such a great experience. It felt like a TV channel with different programs to be honest, but it kinda makes you look forward to knowing more about the tools and having fun in the process
Other tools
-Microsoft teams: Primarily used for engagement of stakeholders and teammates. This might look as trivial but communication is an essential element of the job. The Job basically builds upon proper communication of requirements and feedback. Without this, your outputs will more likely fail or have little use in the long run
-ASANA: This is a task tracker for the most part. You can have visibility of ongoing and due tasks here as a whole. This can be utilized especially for teams running scrums and other management approaches
Challenges
The biggest challenge for me was knowing the business concepts, and am struggling with it till now. I came from an Engineering background and mostly handled machine data like pressure and temperature. But now I work on Sales data and terms so I'm always kinda left wondering. The best solution for this is to ask and ask. Ask a lot of questions and seek assistance or mentorship. Try to be bothersome now than be bothersome and do damage in the long run. No one really starts off great so don't hesitate to reach out. Lucky for me my teammates are very supportive and helpful. But also be mindful of others' time so better schedule things out and prepare for it to make the most of the time given to you.
What am I doing now and what's next
Right now I am handling my own segment in the team. The tasks are Dashboard Making and Modifications, Report making(Ad-hocs), Reports with scheduled outputs, Data QA and Validation (Most tedious part), and Workflow building. Workflow building is done in the Alteryx tool which handles the extraction from a given data source then blending and transformation then outputting it to usable reports or dashboards. So it also feels like we are also Data Engineers in a way we construct our own databases and pipelines(Correct me if I'm mistaken). I'm excited for the next part of this journey because recently I was assigned to train on the ML side of Alteryx tool. Meaning, that I can continue on my Journey of being a data scientist or ML engineer. Really thankful for this bit because it seems the universe is pushing me and giving me chances to pursue what I want even though there have been challenges and Huge bumps on the way.
I will be posting more on Alteryx stuff but Sideline on other material I see interesting enough to share
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