New Job Update

Two months in at a new data-centric job

On March 22nd, I started a new job at a large marketing company as a manager in the analytics department. I wasn’t expecting to get a job while still in the Flatiron Data Science program, but when a really good opportunity popped up, I decided to take the leap.

I was really looking for a job where I could actively apply the Flatiron curriculum I’ve learned over the past 8 months. A role where knowing how to clean, manipulate, and extract insights from data using Python and SQL would be key to properly lock in all of the material thrown at me in the program. I worried that some of these skills may atrophy (and some still might) if I don’t find ways to use them everyday.

This role is certainly data-centric. The Analytics team is in charge of developing reports and clearly articulating how different marketing campaigns are performing using vast reams of data from sources like Google Analytics. What’s most exciting is that I’ve found Python to be extremely useful for carrying out a lot of this analysis. One recent project assigned to me required I use time series data, which corresponded at the exact same time we were learning how to implement time series models in Phase 4. In addition to Python and SQL, I use Tableau pretty frequently, and Excel of course for when I only need simple analysis.

What’s been most challenging so far has been the managing aspect. I actually had applied for a pretty data-forward role (Business Science Analyst), but when I was called by the recruiter, she asked if I was interested in managing. Not one to turn down a bigger opportunity and a really exciting career step, I went through the interview process and ended up getting an offer. I’ve never managed before, so I was nervous (and still am a lot of the time), but the learning potential was so much higher than any pervious job I had.

After two months, I still feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. There are so many different projects and schedules to juggle, all while I have to essentially teach myself marketing on the job. The experience has been stressful, but really rewarding. When a meeting goes really well, or I deliver some really useful analysis, or I just find myself experimenting with Python, I feel like I’ve done a good job of applying everything I’ve learned in this program, and all the career experience I’ve earned since graduating from college back in 2015.

There’s a ton more for me to learn in this job, and I’m really excited to see what other parts of the curriculum I’ll be able to apply. It feels like I’ve been working here for years with how much I’ve taken on already, so it can be frustrating when I don’t yet know the answer to a question someone has or the intricacies of a marketing campaign. However, I know that two months is such a short period of time. I’m sure when I get to 6 months, I’ll look back at this blog and realize I knew even less than I thought, and then the same realization at 1 year and 2 years. For now though, I’m just taking it day by day.