The first week of data school just flew by. First day introductions can be awkward and cause nervousness but fret not as it all passes very fast and the feeling of comfort takes over. Starting with your other cohort who are very inviting and quick to provide help with Data School teachers who make you feel at home and enjoy learning.
In the following days we were inaugurated to different data cleaning tools such as Alteryx designer and Tableau prep. Eventually these programs will become your bread and butter, therefore some of the tips (from my own experience) that I could give to newcomers are:
Tip 1: Look through your data and see what you're dealing with. Research it and make a plan of how you want to go ahead with it. For example, I ended up looking up how different parts of transport can influence CO2 emissions in London, to see whether it would actually impact the emissions. After doing my research, I made out a plan how I would like to clean up the data.
Tip 2: A good practice of hygiene whenever coding or preparing data is to always document what you're doing, while trying to stick to layouts which would be easy to read/understand (I am still not good at it, but trying my best :D). Therefore, remember document document document. It will help you down the line, or when you open the workflows later date making them clearer to understand. As examples I have added my two workflows from Tableau Prep and Alteryx:
Trust me these documentations will help you, I can not emphasize it enough. :P
Tip 3: The final and arguably the most important tip would be have fun and enjoy what you're doing. Do not let mistakes or anything like that get to you, as they are there to help to teach you, learn from them and if you're stuck just ask for help. Everyone is extremely friendly here.
Thanks for reading!!!