02 Oct 22

How I became a Data Consultant in under 100 Days

Andrew Harrison

The 100 Days:

 

After graduating with a degree BSc in Economics, I already knew that I wanted to work in the world of data. I was exposed to a whole load of it at university and I loved it!

 

After moving around after graduating, first as a recruiter and then as a Business Analyst, I was still looking for the perfect place to hone my skills to get into the world of data. That’s where Rockborne comes in.

I applied to them through LinkedIn and within 2 weeks I had an introductory email, passed the competency tests and had a final interview, after which I was offered the job on the spot! Luckily for me, because they have such constant year-round intakes of graduates, I was able to delay starting for a few months, so I didn’t even have to cancel the holiday I had booked!

Life at Rockborne starts fast, within the first 2 weeks you’re giving your first presentations to key stakeholders inside Rockborne. These include members of the coaching staff, as well as members in the HR department marketing team, and sometimes even the board of directors! But these stakes(good pun!) are important. Whilst at Rockborne you are learning, you are an employee, not a student, and these business projects really helped me feel and understand what it would be like in a working environment.

You will have regular projects that aim to give you an insight into what working as a consultant at Rockborne will be like, with a whole range of different stakeholders, both technical and non-technical you have to produce presentations that can satiate the need that allows key directors at companies

Soft skills are not the only thing you learn though. You also have to opportunity to learn several programming languages such as Python and SQL, and even explore some important data packages associated with them, like Pandas, a storage module and MatPlotLib a visualisation library. These allow me to create some cool yet informative-looking graphs such as the one below, which plots the serving size of Mcdonald’s against the number of calories the serving contained, categorised by the category of the food.

 

Before Rockborne I could never have even dreamed of creating something like this, but now I can do it in one line of code! This was my favourite part of the program because I have always wanted to learn programming but have never known where to start! It also beats using excel any day and really lets you explore the creative freedom that someone who wants to work with data can!

Now that I have my new presentation, programming and visualisation skills, I am ready to be placed as a consultant with an external client. I am already being put forward for interviews with potential clients, being given projects for potential clients, and also working on the bench and personal projects, to continuously improve and upskill to make myself the strongest data consultant I can be!

You will have regular projects that aim to give you an insight into what working as a consultant at Rockborne will be like, with a whole range of different stakeholders, both technical and non-technical you must produce presentations that allows key directors at companies to make key decisions as part of future business plans.

 

Find out more about the Rockborne graduate programme here.

Apply Today