As a part of our training at the Data School, we were given the opportunity to shadow another DS-er who is currently on placement. Today, I've been shadowing Dorinna Pentchev at IAG Cargo which handles the cargo division of international airlines. I was excited to start my morning commute on the Elizabeth line, and arrive at Heathrow to get to the IAG Cargo office!
As a part of this experience I wanted to understand the ins and outs of joining a team on the client side, get a view of the work and processes Dorinna creates, and all in all see what a typical day may involve.
At the start of the day, after checking in and getting my visitor badge, Dorinna showed me around the office and spoke to me about what type of work she does. It was refreshing being in a new office and being greeted with so many friendly smiles. We sat down and spoke about what type of work Dorinna typically does from day to day, she showed me some of the existing dashboards for different projects and explained the use cases and importance. This was a great way for me to start to build an understanding of the work processes and conceptually wrap my head around the type of data IAG Cargo works with.
It was really interesting to see how she approached scoping a project successfully and seeing the ticketing system of tasks which was well structured. She spoke about the culture of work, in which the team is dynamic and has an agile approach. We also discussed the communication process with stakeholders, and how useful it is to be able to understand the processes of cargos from the stakeholders and be able to communicate back the perspective from the data team. Dorinna also mentioned how she had a tour of the cargo processes when she joined, and I thought that was a great way to see the data she is working with in real life and aid in adding context to conceptualise the data.
I wanted to get a sense of some hands-on experience, so spoke with Dorinna as she troubleshooted through SQL code and Tableau Desktop, it was great being able to see the use cases relevant to cargo operations and flights. It also made me sit down and refresh my own knowledge of SQL again, which was fun to recap.
Lastly, we went up to the canteen which had an amazing view of the planes taking off at Heathrow.
Overall, it was a great learning experience that has helped me think about my own progression as a consultant. Additionally, it has inspired me to apply what I have learnt from the approach of work at IAG Cargo and Dorinna to the last client projects I have in training over the next month.
Huge appreciation to Dorinna for allowing me to watch her today, and I hope this blog was insightful!