First week in the Data School has been a mix of intensive training and getting to know people (especially at after work drinks) - I learnt early on that everyone loves socializing and parties just as much as they love data!
First day of work was more of an introduction day where we got to meet the coaches, the founder and the CTO of the company, plus many other members of the Data School. It was a very relaxed and informative day that ended with everyone in TIL going to the pub for after work drinks - what better way to end your first day of work, right?
In the next two days we were introduced to Alteryx. The training focused on learning about essential functions and their best practice. I have to admit that Alteryx always scared me because I would see these intricate workflows with tens of functions and think to myself it would take ages to understand how they work.. After only one day of training I was shocked at how easy to grasp the functionality of Alteryx is and at the same time how easy it is to use. We worked on some Weekly Challenges and by the end of these two days we were already very comfortable using it.
On the third day of training, we met The 'Other' Head Coach, Carl, who introduced us to Tableau Prep. Similarly to the Alteryx training, we learned the best uses of Tableau Prep and practiced our understanding with some weekly challenges. The day ended with after work drinks and a great Christmas party where we got to meet even more people from the Data School and TIL and learn more about their experiences.
Friday was project and presentation day - You're given a task in the morning involving the use of what you learnt during the week - Alteryx and Tableau Prep. You're expected to finish the task by 1pm, when you go on to watch other cohorts' presentations. Around 3 pm you start presenting your work in front of the coaches and the rest of the cohorts.
Probably one of the most important things I learnt in my first week came with this task..
I got stuck with my work at some point and I was stubborn enough to believe I can solve the issue on my own. Boy, I was wrong.. As I ended up presenting a half-finished task, I realized how important it is to ask for help in this kind of situations. One of the biggest advantages in the Data School is that you have this big community willing to help and guide you at any time with any issues you might encounter. You'll learn that this is one of the main things about the Data School: asking questions. It will be the first thing you hear on your first day and probably every single day going forward in your role - and they do mean it, so make sure you take full advantage of that!
Having learnt this important lesson, I'm now curious and excited to see what the second week of training brings when we'll be focusing on Tableau.
Stay tuned for the updates!