The company culture of The Data School

by Aude Cazein

Tuesday the 4th of December was the last Meet & Greet event of 2018 at The Data School.

For the first time, I have been on ‘the other side’, as a person who was being asked questions, and rather than asking them. It was a great experience! However, visitors seemed quite puzzled when they realized that it was only my second full day at The Data School, and I was so excited about my short experience. But I must say, even if I have not become a Tableau expert yet, I have seen a couple of things about the company’s culture, and I wanted to share about it. 

In general, I found that company’s culture is quite underestimated when choosing a place to kick start a career. Many companies carefully write their Mission Statement, Values and Corporate Culture description on websites, but they often forget about them almost immediately.

However, TIL has set up a special work culture, and I am going to talk you through some of the main points that I have noticed so far:

Transparency

On the first day at The Data School, we are already allowed to access what other companies would consider sensitive data, such as clients names, days spent on premises, types of services we provided and evolution of the company activities over the years. We were ASKED to play around with data sets and make the most out of them. We were also invited to ask any question that can sometimes be a bit “taboos” in other places, such as recruiters messages and how you should react – spoiler alert: Crack the bottle of Champagne, it means that we are on the right path of learning!

Communication

Communication in a business is quite complicated to keep flawless, especially when the company is evolving from a small structure to a bigger place, and/or when employees are split on several premises. The Information Lab combines those two criteria, the growth and the split of people around different placements, and yet they have built a strong community mindset and a team spirit that is quite hard to find. One of their main tool to achieve that is Convo, an collaborative instant communication tool that allows every person in the company to instantly communicate pieces of information to everyone, and I mean everyone! That is certainly a great use of collective intelligence!

Flat Hierarchy

At TIL, everyone is there to help. I have already grabbed a beer and discussed with so many people, I don’t think I have spoken with as much people after a year in my former company! Of course, being intimidated by the coaches or the Core Team members is normal, and I won’t pretend it never happens. But everyone makes so much efforts to make you feel good, and that even during my interviews! Every coach, Core Member or Data School learner will make sure you have the support you need and that you are not left alone.

Hence the incredible number of people that have popped in the classroom, because they want to get to know us and include us! So if you plan on joining, prepare a 1 minute presentation pitch about you, it will be useful!

Inclusiveness

As a girl in a quite masculine industry, it matters a lot! In our cohort of 8 people, we are 3 girls, which is a cool 37.5% of the group. We are also quite a lot of girls in the building and it really is very appreciable ! Similarly, everyone has a different background, with people having completed a Bachelor, others having a PhD, some are native English or foreigner, some have a small working experience already, some don’t! .. Everybody gets a chance, no matter what, you are welcome as long as you show hard-work and passion!

Of course, after a few days only, one could argue that I know nothing. But it is already clear that the DNA of the company has been built around those values and it is definitely something I appreciate.

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Aude Cazein

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