What I Want to Get Out of The Data School

by Kamilla Dombai

Hi! My name is Kamilla and I am part of DS14. This is a very overdue post, but I thought it would still be worth writing down my goals and expectations of the DS so I can take a look back at them when I am heading out on my first placement. So here it goes:

My Top 5 Goals and Expectations

1) Improve my analytical and presenting skills

This might be an obvious goal, but it is still important and my top priority. I would like to feel comfortable and confident presenting my work by the end of the 4-month-training. Regarding my analytical skills, my goal is to ace the Tableau Desktop QA and Alteryx exams.

2) Networking

I am not naturally good at networking and meeting new people, however, I do realise how important these things are. This is why my second main goal is to improve my networking skills, ‘build my own brand’, and be an active part of the community. My LinkedIn profile has already exploded compared to how sad it looked prior to starting DS14 – now I just need to keep this up and expand my network even further.

3) Stay in the PreppinData 100% club

I think I am enjoying Carl and Jonathan’s challenges way more than I should be – they are always challenging but not unsolvable, which means I learn something new every week but I am still proud of myself for being able to solve them. I am very keen to continue doing them and keep my place in the 100% club week on week.

4) Decorate my Tableau Public profile

Like many of my fellow cohortians, I’ve set a goal to have at least 30 vizzes by the end of July. Before starting my training, I had a very sad number of 2 vizzes on my profile. Now we are at week 3, and I managed to bump this number up to 6! (If anyone can tell me how to publish a viz that uses more than 15 million rows, this number could increase to 7.)

5) Stay fit!

I am determined to take part in at least two TILGym sessions every week. I’ve yet to try boxing and the run club, but I found the sessions I have attended so far to be both fun and challenging (something I can’t say about my local gym), and a great way to start the day. If only we had more than 2 showers, I would immediately cancel my gym membership!

So these are my goals and expectations of my next four months. I look forward to coming back to them and evaluating whether (how!) I managed to achieve them.