Data Analyst | Tableau Consultant | Author of How to Become a Data Analyst

If you're reading this you probably either:
1. Want a job in data. 
2. Want a friend in data.
3. Need a data analyst. 

If you're #1, I was you, just one year ago! I've shared how I went from beginner to experienced data professional since the beginning.

Its my goal to create the kind of content a younger version of me would have wanted to consume!

#2, thanks for being here! Feel free to give me a wave. Lets be social!

#3's, hello 👋. If you haven't yet, check out my portfolio site, or my Annie's Analytics company page on here where I offer consulting services.

Heres my story. 

In February of 2022, I decided to learn data analytics for fun. I created a Tik Tok account, and started documenting my journey to learn this new hobby (@anniesanalytics). 

Very soon, I realized that every day I was waking up and just wanting to write SQL, build visualizations, learn Python.... Work with data! So, I decided that once I finished graduate school (in Healthcare) in July, I was going to become a data analyst. 

Along the way, I have shared here and on Tik Tok everything I can about what it's like to learn data analytics, and how you can do it for free or at least very cheaply. I've shared about the ups and downs of job searching. I've even shared about how I have built a portfolio, and set myself up as a real analyst. 

Now I also do YouTube videos, especially my series where I invite other data analysts to have a coffee chat with me, but we live stream it! We talk about our journeys into data and what our jobs look like now. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3wIL0Blsv2vf8aAjTQXo017YntAXqrZc


Want to see my Portfolio as it was when I got my first job in analytics? I left it here in exactly the same state that it was when I got my job in July of 2022 to serve as an example to you, if you are a job seeker now! https://anniesanalytics.wixsite.com/annie-nelson/projects-6 

Want to see my current portfolio I am using now that I have gained some more skills? https://anniesanalytics.carrd.co/

Or the LinkedIn group here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12635532

Discord here! https://discord.com/invite/m9vZKtReFM

Annie Nelson

Hitting the title of "senior data analyst" was a revelation for me, because I realized that the path ahead suddenly had a lot more forks and turns than it did on the way here.

Progressing Junior -> Senior felt like a very linear path. I took detours by becoming a SME in Tableau as a junior, but the corporate path was still well paved.

I try to be proactive about my career - I am very happy where I am right now and I'm not in a rush to keep progressing, but I understand that career steps are not done in the moment. I should always have a direction.

But what IS my direction now?

The next level on my team is "staff", which could be a target. But what does it even mean to be a staff level data analyst?

Since I got promoted 2x this year, I know it would be quite a while before I could be promoted again to staff. I suppose that would give me a long time to figure out what staff even means on my team.

Up isn't the only way to go.

I enjoy working with the business - more than I enjoy data for the sake of data. One option could be moving from the data team to a business team.

Or, like many do analysts, I could go the way of taking on a true business role and drop the 'data analyst' from my title - such as product manager.

Since I haven't held any of those roles before, I would have to do a lot of research to figure out what steps I'd need to take if I wanted to make a change like that.

Another option is to move to an organization that is bigger / smaller. If I worked at a startup I would get the chance to wear a lot more hats, and likely be much closer to the business strategy than I do now as an analyst on a data team at a public company.

I suppose the road has always been this wide, but I didn't realize it because I had been focused on what was right in front of me - improving myself and my skills to go in the direction of senior.

For me, it wasn't really about the senior title. What appealed to me was that "Senior" gave me a benchmark of qualities and skills that I (a former nanny) could aspire towards as I learned to be an effective tech person.

I guess you could say that I'm looking for my next benchmark - who do I want to be? What skills do I need to cultivate? What kinds of projects should I be getting experience with?

Eventually I will figure it out 🫡

If you want to know how the AI bubble is going, here's the top comment from a news post about big AI changes to coming to Gmail.

AI will be implemented throughout - it can read, respond to, and prioritize your emails for you. And it's turned on automatically! 

Notice the likes.

I'm considering counter-pitching the AI company that reached out to me to help me "10x my posting efficiency by recycling my existing popular content" 

and offering to pay them $10 to send me their client list so I can make sure to unfollow them.

One of the reasons LinkedIn has become so tedious recently is that it's nearly impossible to find an original thought on here.

The space once occupied by thought leaders is now crowded by people who know how to gather an emotional reaction out of the largest amount of people.

Yes, it's conventional content creator wisdom to reuse your old posts that have performed well. I don't care. Its boring. 

Followers is just a vanity metric if most of your followers are just going to skip all of your posts because they've seen the content before (multiple times).

Thomas Philipps GmbH & Co. KG

I lead a team of 4 core members - expanding up to 11, depending on the demand.
I manage the Goods Preparation Department - if our stores don’t want 144 units of a product, maybe we need to break it down into 24 units. That is Goods Preparation in our warehouse.
I plan the order, equipment, and space for each of my team’s tasks.

Tasks that include: 
- building 140 displays (making and filling 140 displays is a logistical nightmare, if you don't plan ahead) 
- rebuilding, or securing, pallets that are unstable 
- Quality Control (rebuilding pallets that have damaged product in them, as well as random quality checks on pallets in the High Shelf Storage warehouse) 
- downsizing the quantities we can send out

These are all done as efficiently and as fast as possible, by me planning the best people, and way, for the job to get done. 
And, as with any real 'fast-paced environment', I am constantly watching to see if it is being done the most efficient way.

Koordinator Warenaufbereitung - Co-ordinator Goods Preparation Dept

Warehouse Operative

Sunday Natural

Expanded the ammount of inbound product through team process optimization by 50% 
Adjusted storage space and planning my team, improving product intake-to-shelf turnaround of 1 day for 95% of products.

Warehouse Intake Team Lead

Restructured processes for tracking and production and adjusted planned schedules. 
Optimised machine cleaning times and production speeds to decrease product loss and downtime, resulting in reduced downtime by 1-2 hours per 14 hour day.

Shift Manager - Production

Supplement production worker

CareersPortal.ie

Validated provided information by sourcing, collating and comparing data through various data sources. 
Ensuring data consistency, delivering 100% correct data for the website.

Data Controller & Collator

MarketVision / Netech Ltd

Audio, Visual & Security solutions company.

In this job I:
- recorded and produced both web and hard copies of audio & visual recordings of auctions
- installed & maintained all manner of audio & visual equipment into buildings for auctions and conferences
- worked with and debugged unique systems built by Netech to cater specific clients

AV Technician

EVENTSEC LTD

Maintaining the flow of people in and out of events in 3 Arena, Slane, Electric Picnic, Belfast. Directing and helping people get to their assigned seats safely and making sure health and safety standards were adhered to at all times.

Event Steward

Schooldays.ie

While working here I have:
- run both the company's Facebook and Twitter accounts
- created images and banners using Photoshop
- dealt with customers queries/problems via email, phone, Twitter & Facebook
- moderated the discussion forums
- ran many competitions for Schooldays.ie and other companies
- maintained the validity of the information on the website
- kept the content up-to-date
- researched new data
- wrote/designed tutorials for customers to use
- redesigned pages
- debugged new pages/systems
- designed and arranged e-zines

Website Administrator/Customer Service Agent

VisitTheIrish.ie

VisitTheIrish.ie was a website dedicated to getting tourists to do more on the island of Ireland, in both Northern Ireland as well as the Republic of Ireland, whether they were here for holidays, meetings or events.
I managed every aspect of the website and business including:
- Finding and inputting data on events, locations and businesses
- Liaised with businesses to get listed on the website
- Wrote weekly blog posts about what tourists could do and expect when they came to Ireland
- Traveled Ireland so I could get a feel for what the tourists would actually see and do

Link attached is to a Wayback Machine snapshot of the website.

Owner

J.B. Havens

For the fully published, full length, novel - Core of Steel
- Proofread for spelling and grammatical errors
- Proofread, and edited, for linguistic issues – book was written in AE, but also for a BE audience
- Proofread, and edited, for continuity issues.

Proofreader

While working here I:
- data collation & comparison
- input of data
- maintained the validity of information on the site
- debugged new pages/systems
- set up and ran multiple Facebook accounts, multiple Twitter accounts and a LinkedIn business page for the company.

Helpful, encouraging, enthusiastic, always ready to give the task my 100% - This is what people will say regarding my extensive volunteering. But it is also what I bring to my work – I step up, when there is a need, when there is a problem or just when things need to keep moving forward.

After deciding I needed an actual career I thought Data Analysis would be something I would like doing. And now I am addicted! I find joy in working with data, whether it is cleaning it, interrogating it, or visualising it for reports or dashboards.

My key skills include:
Data Analysis - PostgreSQL, Python (Pandas), Excel
Data Management - SQL Databases, Excel, Python (Pandas)
Data Visualization - Tableau
Analytical Skills
Communication
Problem solving
Attention to detail

You can view all my scripts on my GitHub page: https://github.com/WillMc-DA
Here is my Portfolio Website where you can see all my Projects: https://willmc-da.github.io/

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Annie Nelson

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