I have some exciting news to share!
Starting Monday, I will be a Coach at the Data School - covering maternity leave for Coach Ruth! It’s a role I’ve aspired to for a long time, so it feels incredible to be getting started with DS36.
The journey here…
4 years ago, I hadn’t even heard of the Data School. I was in a role that didn’t align with my aspirations to develop technical skills and I wasn’t sure how to change that. At the end of November 2018, a colleague recommended attending an Alteryx training course run by the Information Lab. I went along with a colleague who was feeling similar to me and we definitely had the lunchtime chats about how cool the company was and have you seen they run something called the Data School? 👀
I waited for the busy Christmas period to pass and used every weekend in January to work on my application. By April 2019 I was part of DS14 and threw myself into training.
My next goal was to work hard on placement and eventually join the Core team - I didn’t want to leave this incredible company that I’d found! So when August 2021 rolled around, after 2 years and 4 months of hard work, I left the Data School and became a Core team consultant.
I’ve worked with a number of different clients during the last year and 3 months, but I’ve found nothing so fulfilling as a day spent training the current Data Schoolers. I’m so grateful for all the opportunities and support to develop my teaching skills, which has allowed me to move into this role.
Priorities as a Coach
You might be wondering how the coaching role differs from the teaching I’d been doing already. For starters, I'll be spending a lot more time in the classroom! As a coach, I’ll be overseeing the development of a cohort from start to finish, rather than popping in on cohorts at random times throughout their training. I hope this will enable me to better adapt to each cohort I teach and keep improving my teaching skills.
In addition to this, I hope to support each member of the cohort in navigating through all the hiccups and challenges that come with an intensive training programme. After all, I’ve been through it myself and remember the really difficult days (like trying to figure out LODs!) I'll do this by working closely with the other coaches to manage the organisation of training and keep things running smoothly in the background.
The other key area of focus for me will be feedback - both giving it and acting on it. In terms of giving it, there are plenty of opportunities to give feedback throughout training to help each Data Schooler improve. I want to make sure I'm fair and supportive, as well as giving constructive criticism. As with any new role, I'm conscious that I'll need to work hard to be good at it. I'll be seeking a lot of feedback from the rest of the coaching team, but I'll also be looking to act on the feedback provided by DS36 in due time.