DS32 Week 1 - What to expect during the first week at the Data School

by Imogen Emmett

The first week of any new job can feel very daunting as you don’t know quite what to expect. However, there is really no need to worry as everyone in the team is so friendly and welcoming, and this instantly makes you feel at ease.

Here is a breakdown of DS32’s first week:

Monday: the day consisted of meeting the rest of our cohort and other members of the team, as well as undertaking general admin and setting our laptops up with the relevant software. Overall, it was a very relaxed and informative day.

Tuesday and Wednesday: The hard work begins! Over these 2 days we were introduced to Alteryx – a visual data preparation tool that is used to clean, reshape and prep data in preparation for importing into Tableau (or similar tools) in order to create visualisations. The training focused on learning about Alteryx’s essential functions and their best practice. We also completed a weekly challenge which helped test our understanding of what we’d learnt over the 2 days. The drag-and-drop functionality as well as the useful tips on the interface make Alteryx a nice software to use.

Thursday: the teaching was focused on Tableau’s version of Alteryx - Tableau Prep. Like Tableau, Tableau Prep has a nice interface and is quite easy to use. Like the Alteryx training, we gained an understanding of the best uses of Tableau Prep and practiced our understanding with some weekly challenges.

Friday: Project day! We were set our first project at 9am - we had to find a new dataset to complement our original application, prepare the data in either Tableau Prep or Alteryx and then - if we had time which most of us didn’t - update the original visualisation in Tableau...all in the space of 3.5 hours. Key tip: before you delve straight into the project, make sure you devise a project plan to ensure that you use your time effectively and complete the project within the 3.5 hours (note that it is OK if you encounter problems and don’t completely finish the project - just make sure you explain what problems you encountered and how you tried to overcome them).

Overall, the first week at the Data School has been a little daunting but also great fun with lots of new people to meet, new surroundings and new pieces of software to learn. I look forward to seeing what challenges next week brings.