If you're reading this, you're probably starting your application for the Data School. If so, I have got 5 tips you need to know to get started!
(psst if not, take a look here to get clued up on the process https://www.thedataschool.co.uk/apply/)
1.
Creating a Tableau Public Profile
This will act as your portfolio. It is important you show your progression in learning by including all the dashboards you have made. This is reflective of a growth mindset, someone who is willing to learn and draws attention to that iterative process of gradually building technical skills. Additionally, having your work documented in one place will be so useful to look back upon when you are learning.
Some actionable ways to demonstrate this when you are starting out are to try Makeover Monday Challenges, Workout Wednesday and any YouTube Tutorials you may follow.
Here is a link to get started on Tableau Public (https://public.tableau.com/app/discover)
Also, take a look at my own profile to get a sense of what building a portfolio looks like (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/numa.begum/vizzes)
2.
Use the community
It is a good idea to join Tableau forums (https://community.tableau.com/s/explore-forums), that way when you have questions or come across obstacles when building your application you have somewhere to post them and get answers! A lot of data schoolers are often on there answering and helping out too.
3.
Gain inspiration
Did you know that the Data School uploads blogs of all the applications of each incoming cohort called 'What did it take to get into DS_X' (https://www.thedataschool.co.uk/jenny-martin/what-did-it-take-to-get-into-ds41/). This is a great place to feel inspired by previous successful applications, it also gives you a benchmark of what the standard of work is to get in, this is really useful as the data school is becoming more competitive with each round of applications!
4.
Take time to sweat the small things!
This adds an extra polish to your work, cleaning up any small formatting points that most people overlook will help you stand out. Ensuring you take the time to fix this won't go unnoticed, and it takes your application to a higher level of quality so that it is a finished analytical dashboard. This can include, titles, grammar, tooltip formatting, and adjusting padding. It's what a consultant would have to do before presenting work to a client, so treat it the same for your application and don't those spelling errors slip through!
5.
What The Data School Wants To See
Show that you have dedicated time to learn the basic functionalities of Tableau Desktop. Ensure you allow yourself enough time to fully explore the software, and understand the interface. You can do this by finding YouTube videos (https://www.youtube.com/user/theinformationlab), reading blogs/books, and following tutorials from Tableau (https://www.tableau.com/learn/training).
Show that you understand and follow the best practices for creating visualisations, this is a combination of visual design and analytical reasoning. Here is a good link by Tableau that lays this out clearly (https://help.tableau.com/current/blueprint/en-us/bp_visual_best_practices.htm)
Overall, your application Viz should showcase you as an analyst consultant. This means it shows analytical insights from the data as well as showing a story within the data. You should really try hard to expose any trends, or patterns from the dataset. I know this can be hard starting from a complex dataset, but the iterative process of unpicking it in Tableau until you find answers is what will help you get closer to the good stuff.
It can be hard to wrap your head around what a data story means, here are some ways I think about it that helped me in my application.
- Be curious! If you have a question about the data, dig deeper to find the answer, if that leads to more questions then keep digging further! This will create a natural logical flow of your thought process of approaching the data with a broad question, and then branching into more insights from that.
- Imagine you are the audience, if you were listening to the presentation of your application with no knowledge you would want the presenter to start with the wider picture, and contextual findings, then help lead you into the real good insights they found towards the end. Now what if there was no presenter, how easy would it be for the audience to still be guided along from just the dashboard? The easier you can facilitate this in the layout of the dashboard, the better!
All in all, the interviewers know you are a beginner and won't expect you to get everything right. What they are really looking for is someone dedicated to learning, responds well to feedback, and shows the potential to grow whilst in training.
Best of Luck, and keep vizzing ~ Numa