I just want to preface this by saying I have no idea how to write a blog so apologies in advance.

Anyway. as it’s my first blog, I’ll start with a little bit about me.

It’s fair to say I’ve followed a pretty normal life so far, coming from the Home Counties to study at Bristol (Bio) to then study at Imperial (Biotech) . I discovered TDS out of the blue while applying for various analyst type roles; I liked it so much that I got the job after reapplying when I got rejected.

Outside of work, I’m quite sporty – I love playing sports; not so much watching. Sadly I’ve mainly been doing solitary stuff since moving to London – running, gym – but will be getting back into football. I also picked up bouldering recently which has been surprisingly good (anyone wanna teach me?). I’m also obviously into tech and like playing around with computers and data (as do you!).

Why are you writing? You don’t know anything yet.

To be honest, I was originally pretty reluctant to the idea of blogging at TDS. I’m not the sort to write about myself on social media, let alone offline (I’ve never written a diary). Also, what’s the point of blogging 4 days into training when I don’t know anything? Why bother? Well, for the latter point, I figured I will always have a potential excuse to not do it (e.g. too busy, not learnt anything), so the best approach is to just get stuck in and just start rambling. Also, I figured it’s not just about the technical learning anyway…

Why I’m blogging:

• A few paragraphs in to my blogging career and it seems kind of therapeutic to just get my thoughts down and reflect
• It’ll help reinforce learning of new skills
• It will help me capture a snapshot of different times at TDS to look back on later
• Get out of my comfort zone to challenge myself
• Help someone somewhere along the line when I know stuff!
• Hopefully get some conversations going – be it with colleagues or fans

So 4 days in… what am I thinking about TDS so far?

1. Everyone is smart. I understand where the big focus on imposter syndrome at TDS is coming from – everyone seems to be on the ball and is passionate. I’m from a massive family (1 of 6) where my siblings are mostly smarter than me. So I don’t think I’ll struggle too much in DS13 with (a) getting things wrong while others don’t (b) the natural slight competitive atmosphere in each cohort.
2. Everyone is nice. I’ve only known people for < 1 week of course, but so far so good. There’s an real community feel to the place that I haven’t experienced in a job before.
3. All of my life I’ve been surrounded by a fairly homogeneous group of people (be it my hometown, school, or university). So I really appreciate the diversity at TIL – it’s so refreshing to be around people from all walks of life with different views and not just other Joe’s.
4. Alteryx is really cool. I like how mathsy it is and am genuinely amazed by how useful it is already (1 day in!).
5. I’ve forgotten quit a bit of Tableau knowledge and lost some speed by being lazy between being accepted and starting. So I’ll need to put in some extra work to catch back up.
6. Lastly, I feel a sense of purpose that I’ve been missing for a while. I’m excited to see how I will develop over the next few months.

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