My Journey to the Data School

One of my favorite things about The Data School/The Information Lab is the breadth of diversity within the company. It's very diverse, not only in common diversity metrics like race and gender, but also in things like age and background. Each and every person here has their own unique story, but the one thing we all have in common is that we ended up here, at the Data School New York. This is my story.

This story begins at the end of May 2022, when I graduated from Boston University with a Degree in Business Analytics. I'll spare you the first 20 years of my life lol. At this point, I had locked down my post-grad job as an analytical consultant at a massive international cloud software company that focuses on the pharmaceutical industry. I'm leaving the company name out of this blog (you'll see why soon). I started working here in July 2022 and I loved it! It was a great (rich) company with pretty good pay, great benefits, a strong culture, and a lot of perks. The work itself wasn't exactly exciting, but I was more than willing to do it in exchange for everything that we received in return. I was very comfortable here. However, my entire life got flipped upside down on April 7, 2023, when I got fired.

I felt completely blindsided. For about a week, the only feeling that I felt could only be described as "paralyzed." I truly had no idea what to do. And I didn't tell anybody—not even my roommates—as I faked my way through the motions of what they had come to know as my normal daily routine. Just acting like everything was fine because I was too ashamed to admit what had happened. Looking back, this entire first week is very blurry. I was basically just floating through the days, completely dissociated from reality, just wishing the hours would go by quicker. Every daily action became a chore. I was eating, not out of hunger, but because I realized that I hadn't eaten in 18 hours. I was sleeping, not because I was tired, but because I didn't want to face reality. I was taking walks, not out of a desire to go outside, but because I was worried that my roommates would wonder why my lifestyle had changed so suddenly. It's quite a special type of despair. To be surrounded by the beauty of nature finally thawing from a long winter, just as the leaves have finished falling in your own world.

Of course, this needed to end at some point, so after I mustered up the courage, I was able to have the difficult conversations that I needed to have with the most important people in my life (my girlfriend, my sister, my mom, my roommates). With the help of their gentle reassurance and unwavering support, I was able to pull myself out of my trance and start figuring out how I was going to get my shit together. There's a lot of pretty horrible things that comes with getting fired, but the worst one is what it does to your self-confidence and general sense of self. I consider myself a pretty confident, thick-skinned guy. The perception that I have of my identity and the confidence that I have in my abilities does not waver easily. I don't normally get things like imposter syndrome or feeling like I'm not good enough. But yeah... that kind of all goes out the window once you get fired. Especially when it's from the first proper job that you ever landed out of college.

One of my biggest concerns was how other companies would react. I would try not to mention it, but as you can imagine, most companies would be curious about why I only worked at my first company for 9 months. Additionally, I didn't really have enough time to confidently develop any new transferable skills during my time there, so my resume wasn't much stronger than it was in my senior year of college. As I began my job search—especially with each accumulating rejection email (or non-response)—I couldn't stop having all of these doubts. "I always thought I was a hard worker, but I guess I was wrong." "I always thought I was pretty smart, but maybe I'm just not." "Did I even learn anything in college?" "Is my resume good enough to land a new job?" "Is it even good enough to land interviews?" "Do I even have anything to offer as an employee?" "Am I, as a person, even good enough?" And on and on.

The truth is, I was always good enough. And no matter how hard it was for me to believe then, I know this to be true now. The job search was grueling. It was basically 4-5 straight months of sending out 10+ job applications daily. It really became a quantity over quality thing because I was running out of money and I was getting desperate for any type of stable income. I literally had no desire to work for half of the companies that I was applying to, but I was running out of options. A job was better than no job. Throughout the journey, however, there were a few glimmers of hope. Getting more interviews, making it to technical interviews, meeting with CEO's, etc. One company that I was actually very enthusiastic about waved me on to final rounds for a very well-paying retail analyst position. By this point, there were only 2 other applicants left. For the final round, we were given a massive excel file filled with sales data and 3 days to conduct a thorough analysis. The structure was intentionally left loose, and the only requirement provided was to give a presentation communicating strategic recommendations for the company's future. I had doubts about a lot of my skills at this point, but the one thing I still felt confident in were my analytical skills. My time had finally come! I felt that this was it. Until I got the email.

The moment I saw the words "Thank you for your participation..." I just collapsed on my bed. I'd held up pretty strong until then, but this was brutally demoralizing. The floodgates opened and the tears that I had held in for months came surging through. I cried until I fell asleep. My world wasn't just flipped upside down anymore, it was fully shattered. I didn't know how many more rejections I could take. It was early July at this point, and after paying rent for the month, my bank account was effectively depleted. I gave myself the weekend off to recover and to grieve the loss of the job that I was so close to securing, but I quite literally could not afford to waste another minute. Back to work.

It was around this time when I first came across the Data School. I found what seemed to be your average, run-of-the-mill Indeed job listing for a data consultant position. I'd seen this a million times before—whatever, I'll apply. However, as I continued reading, I realized that this listing was far from average. This quote (copied directly from the listing) immediately caught my eye: "Our application process is aptitude-based." Given the fact that I would have to learn an entirely new program before I could even begin, I knew that the application process would be long and difficult. However, something about this company and program just seemed right. As I continued to conduct more research, I got more and more excited to apply. It was exactly what I wanted in a company, but more importantly, it was exactly what I needed. Another quote that stuck with me was, "We don't care what you HAVE done, we care about what you CAN do." The aptitude-based nature of the company was so important to me, as it assured me that my foot was at least in the door. A level playing field where I can actually showcase my skills rather than just list my achievements? I'm taking that any day of the week. Additionally, PAID? COMPREHENSIVE? TRAINING? FOR SKILLS AS VALUABLE AS TABLEAU? AND ALTERYX? FIRE ME UP! By the end of the day I felt rejuvenated in my job search process, and I had made up my mind: This was the springboard that I needed.

I immediately cut out all the quantity over quality stuff and decided, for better or for worse, to put all of my eggs in one basket: DSNY6. To be honest, I was scared shitless. If I failed here, I probably would've had to cut my losses and close out my New York Chapter. But I kept my head down and I worked hard. For about a month, I devoted all of my time and effort into this application, and it ended up working out for me. When I got the call from Sam that I had been accepted, I felt like I'd just received the Golden Buzzer on America's Got Talent. The 5 long months of my bitter winter had come to an end, and I could finally feel the warm spring sun shining down on me from up above. At last, it was time for me to bloom.

Author:
Tyler Ha
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