What to know about the first day at the Data School

by Ozlem Sigbeku

One by one, members of DS32 piled into 25 Watling Street, the doors slightly more monolithic than the company had alluded to. But as the proverbs suggest, do not judge a book by its cover, or a company by its office’s reception. In the flurry of introductions, we were instructed to collect the backpacks TIL had prepared for us with all our tech and other goodies. Although grateful, we realized we should have heeded Luke’s joining instructions more carefully: all, but one, had brought a backpack from home. I immediately felt like an overprepared Year 7 on my first day of secondary school.

Photo by Shunsuke Ono / Unsplash

Tip 1: You do not need anything on your first day, aside from the clothes on your back. Resist the temptation to bring your whole desk.

Tip 2: It would be wise to ask about the backpack situation beforehand.

Installation made the bulk of our morning. It dawned on me that these applications I was setting up, the applications that are still very foreign to me, would be our bread and butter in the next few weeks. Craig very dutifully led us through various tech-noob troubleshooting issues we had. We signed into Tableau, Alteryx, Google Drive, Convo, Tableau Server, FreeAgent, and the DS Blog. During a respite, I, a self-proclaimed expert tea drinker, made very good use of the tea/coffee station to make myself a nice Yorkshire cuppa. When we had ticked off all the applications that needed to be installed, we had opened a new chapter of a book yet to be written.

Tip 3: Craig and Robbin are very patient.

Tip 4: You will be introduced to many new applications; don’t fret. You will be walked through all of it and eventually it will make sense.

Lunchtime came, and a group of us set out onto the streets of Cheapside. While trying to decide what fancy place would have the best food, we ended up in Tesco for a meal deal for the rather inflated price of £3.50. When we got back to the office, we were once again demonstrated the very friendly nature of TIL employees. An almost rave like crowd had gathered around the office ping-pong table with that characteristic sound of the light ball bouncing from table to paddle until the crowd let out the irregular cheer, gasp or jeer in reaction to the two contenders.

Serving of a table tennis player during XMUM Sport Month
Photo by Wan San Yip / Unsplash

Tip 5: Practice ping-pong in the lead up to starting at the DS. It is a key skill, possibly even the most important skill.

Tip 6: Feel free to introduce yourself to anyone and everyone you meet in the office. They are very friendly.

When that had died down, we were led around the office. The beer fridge was established as a point of topographical significance, alongside the ping-pong table. As the tour went on, we were introduced to DS31 and DS30, albeit at behind a meeting door as they were in full swing of their own training. One of my main interests in the office was the library (and I will be having a closer look in the next few days).

Tip 7: Be careful picking drinks from the beer fridge. Some are alcoholic and some are not. That distinction is very important, so pay close attention to detail before you down a drink.

Tip 8: Top off the water bottles in the fridge when you use them.

We then had a session of who’s who in TIL and what to expect in the next few weeks. We leveled plenty questions at Robbin – everything from how to use Convo to how to deal with imposter syndrome. We had an hour Q&A with Edoardo and Liu from previous DS cohorts. They showed me the diversity of the types of people you could find at the DS and TIL. One, a more laid-back mentor type, finishing his introduction with an empathetic invite to questions we may have; the other, a sports coach type, openly competitive and obviously endowed with various achievements he was proud to tell us about. It was comforting to see the diversity of character, interests and experiences and be told that we were here not by brute luck or by some strange twist of fate, but by careful selection.

Tip 9: If you secured a place on the DS, best believe you belong there.

Tip 10: Liu will challenge any person to an ultimate showdown of the following endeavors: ping-pong, blogging or Alteryx. Proceed with great caution.

When the clock hit 5:00pm, we all pilled out, one by one. And so concluded day 1 of DS32.

TLDR: Ping-pong is higher than any other skill in TIL.

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