I missed the boat on starting DS9 on June 11th with the rest of the team. I was on a different boat. In Fiji. Glide on over to my Twitter feed (@AdiBop_) if you want to see many repetitive images of sun/sea/sky.
Anyhow, after 30 hours of travel, I made it to Data School HQ just in time for presentations. Talking in front of the peer group, potential clients, and other viz professionals is an integral part of the training. Here we dive right in, in week 1.
It was simultaneously exciting and frightening to see what the rest of the DS9 group had been up to all week (and therefore what I’ve already missed). Within a few days they’ve been able to harness the power of Alteryx tools for data cleansing. By taking the time to create workflows in Alteryx data processing can be automated. This allows time to be directed more effectively in interpretation, visualization and delivering the parts of the ‘data story’ that really matter.
If you have read the blogs or come to any of our events, you’ll know that making a success of a place at the Data School does not involve taking a back seat. So when Head Coach Andy told me 3 minutes before presentation kick-off that I’d be getting involved as well it was a surprise though not entirely unexpected. I offered to talk to the group about my holiday but he felt it might be more prudent to share my DS interview presentation instead. It was a bit uncomfortable for me since I hadn’t looked at the material for a while but it was great preparation for situations that are almost definitely going to arise during my career.
We also got a cameo from Kirsty who interviewed for the August intake earlier in the day. Congratulations on your first Friday presentation, Kirsty, and we’ll see you in a couple of months!
You can take a look at what happened on Friday afternoon here.
To celebrate the end of the first week we went off-site accompanied by the wider Information Lab team for some liquid refreshments, (the absolutely essential) pizza, good chat and good times.
It’s one of the few times in my life I can say that I can’t wait for Monday.
