The first week of the data school was a whirlwind to say the least but it was an enjoyable one with much learnt. The week was filled with meeting new people, learning new skills and was finished with the first dashboard presentation.

Monday: Months after my successful application the day had finally arrived to begin my new role at the data school. I arrived eager to start my training as well as with nerves about meeting the team. After being introduced to the other data schoolers we spent the morning with Craig who helped us set up our Laptops with all the software we were going to use, and become  well acquainted with, in the coming weeks. This was followed by an overview of the company including information about its beginnings, how it operates, size and who the clients include. After a Lunch break we were introduced to Luke and Erica, data schoolers who are now out on placements. They went over some more information about the company outlining what to expect on placements as well the support available to us throughout our time at the data school.

Tuesday-Thursday: This is when the real training began with an introduction to Alteryx, a data cleansing tool. Learning a brand new software was quite challenging and it was easy to get overwhelmed. However, this is when the biggest message given to us data schoolers was hammered in:  if you do not understand then ask. You will never be struggling alone and the more you ask the better your understanding will be. It was a rewarding process and it was cool to see how in just a few days I was able to complete beginner Alteryx Challenges on my own. During this time it really became clear how open and friendly those in the data school were with everyone in the office who I met quick to over advice and support when needed.  I look forward to in the coming weeks to developing my Alteryx Skills in particular my ability to use the transpose and cross tab tools. These tools were challenging to visualize how they altered the data and  I honestly still do not really understand them. Maybe there will be a future blog post about them. Stay tuned!

Friday: Presentation Day. This was the first presentation my cohort had at the data school and it was quite nerve wracking. We had  3 hours to find data to supplement our applications, clean it and input it into the application viz. The biggest challenge to this was definitely the limited time and lessons were definitely learnt, mainly not to overthink the data you are using. Presenting what I had created was a little daunting, since it only came together at the last minute, but it went well with useful feedback given on how to improve.

The first week definitely had a learning curve but it was a fun and worthwhile endeavor. It definitely set out what to expect in the coming weeks of training and I look forward to building upon my understanding of Alteryx and tableau in the coming weeks.