My Data Analyst journey – 2020 to present

Posted on: June 9, 2024

Post Category: Personal Development

---

I was in my second year of my actuarial studies degree.

I got good grades, but I felt like I didn’t really learn much; to be candid, learning the content was still challenging but I failed to see the context of what I was learning.

It felt like a repeat of high school, where I was learning content for the sake of filling out test papers… but somehow I have to be prepared for the job market over the next few years? What?

Long story short, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my career – and I decided to take matters in my own hands.

Fast forward four years, and I’m currently a data analyst at one of the largest data analytics/science consulting firms in Australia.

Here’s the entire story of my data analyst journey…

For context: I guess the four main pathways you could take to build a data analyst career would be (1) going through a university programme, (2) going through a bootcamp, (3) teaching yourself, and (4) learning from a data analyst-adjacent role.

My pathway was a mix of (1) and (3): going through University, and teaching myself.

I did a fairly technical degree: Actuarial Studies (with Commerce).

But after the epiphany I had in my second year, I started teaching myself through online courses.

At first I wanted to catch up with my peers. I learnt SQL and R because they seemed like marketable skills for an Actuary (which they are).

Then by chance, I feel into this data analytics/science rabbit hole. I started teaching myself through courses offered by SuperDataScience.

I was just so interested in the idea of making an impact, while being quantitative. And I consumed (easily) 150+ hours worth of data analytics/science content over the next three-or-so months.

In May that year (May 2020), I started taking part in data science competitions and data analytics competitions. I wanted the exposure and opportunity to practice my skills.

And to be honest I wouldn’t have gotten very far without meeting some people along the way.

After applying for one of the competitions, as an individual, I met someone who aligned with my interest in data analytics/science and he helped me accelerate my learning. He was a year ahead of me in the Actuarial Studies program, and pretty much every project I put up on my portfolio that year was because we worked together.

At the same time, I also volunteered my time running workshops.

Contrary to other Actuarial Studies students who got involved at Uni, I helped an organisation named Robogals – and basically they inspire young girls to get into STEM. During that commitment, I supported with the development of workshop material for volunteers who would then teach coding to kids with some LEGO robots. Back then (to be candid…) I would cringe at myself whenever I talked about it – because it was so foreign to everyone who pursued my field of study. But now that I look back at it, I’m grateful getting involved in teaching (which I completely sucked at).

After that, I had the confidence to co-organise an Excel workshop for a student society I was a part of. I got to talk for about 20 minutes, about data-cleaning and tracing dependents (whenever an Excel error occurs), and at the time it was really challenging – even when it was held over Zoom.

The reason I mention these experiences (as uncomfortable/crappy as they may sound), was because they helped me unlock an opportunity that accelerated my career growth:

A few months later, after all the workshops and data competitions, I applied for the Tableau Ambassador program and I got accepted in. It was a program where I could teach the Tableau software and also get certified.

And it was a very fruitful experience because I met so many people from the community who were very supportive. I built up my portfolio, wrote some Tableau tutorials, and started sharing my opinion on LinkedIn.

And I got a few starry eyes looking at my resume; I would be in an interview for an internship and some of them casually told me about how they were using Tableau (this happened during two interviews and I got offers from both companies).

I ended up staying in the program for two years because I found it so rewarding – and I still keep in touch with a lot of members from the Tableau Community.

Anyway, *while* all this volunteering and voluntary data analytics work was happening, I was applying for internships.

Late-2020, after doing all these voluntary experiences, I applied for a job opening I came across which was shared by the Actuarial Society at UNSW. I applied for it, ended up getting an interview with the founder (of the small consultancy), and I started working under him, one day a week, from the beginning of the next year.

I did some work in Excel and a bit of automation work, automating an analysis process from Excel using R… and that was kind of the extent of my contribution (it was a tough time because lockdowns were still happening).

But later in the year, mid-2021, I applied for an internship at American Express through my Uni’s Co-op program. I got rejected from Co-op scholarships/internships 5+ times at that point, but I applied anyway.

I ended up making it to the interview stage for an Analyst position, which I was surprised by. And when I went into the interview, I was interviewed by three representatives from the company (while every other candidate got one interviewer). Honestly, shocking.

I actually fumbled the interview. But because they saw I was nervous, they gave me another chance with another interviewer. And honestly, I wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or happy that I got another chance… But anyway, they mentioned that the experience on my resume looked good and figured they’d give me another chance.

I sat the interview, and I wasn’t much less nervous than the first time… but I got in!

I got my first internship at a large company, which I started around July 2021.

And before applying to American Express, I also actually applied to Deloitte – to join as a Summer Vacationer. I applied very early in the year, like March 2021, and I actually got an offer to join in December, in their Data & AI Consulting team.

Both experiences were insightful – even though the Deloitte one was rather short.

Now, at the same as my Deloitte internship, I also took part in the Future Leaders Competition – which was organised by GradConnection and the Australian Financial Review.

Basically, the competition was akin to any ordinary company’s job application process, and I was in the running for the Quantium Data Science award. And I ended up making it to the finals (as part of the top 10 candidates for the award).

Unfortunately I didn’t win the award… But I did speak to one of the people from the Graduate Academy.

I decided to leverage that interaction to help me with their graduate application process, which happened shortly after, in Feb 2022. I went through the application process and kept in contact with her when I had any questions/concerns, and I ended up securing an offer.

And I took that offer over my return offer to Deloitte.

Come the middle of 2022, after doing these three internships and my graduate job offer, I took a data science course offered by the school of Actuarial Studies.

And for the course assignment, it was actually sponsored by the largest insurance company in Australia and New Zealand, IAG. IAG basically gave a real-world-like business problem for the students to work through, for them to get some industry exposure.

But that’s kind of besides the point.

The important part was actually, because of this partnership, IAG advertised an internship to past students of their course. The internship opportunity was circulated by email and I figured I’d apply anyway.

I applied for it, surprisingly made it to the assessment centre stage, and surprisingly got an offer to start at the end of the year (2022).

I got to do technical data analytics-oriented work in one of IAG’s pricing teams, and I actually had a great time.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2023, I started work at Quantium in their Finance team. And at the same time, I made it a commitment to share my learnings and projects regularly on LinkedIn.

In the Finance team, I did alot of data-pipeline work and automation work. And while working, I got noticed by current students, people within the company (who I eventually caught with up) and a representative from a large publishing company, who asked me to write a Tableau certification guide (which I turned down because of imposter syndrome, unfortunately).

Now… early-mid 2024, I got headhunted twice – by two recruiters who both sent me direct messages on LinkedIn (which haven’t really turned into much – at least, as of yet). And I got asked to do a presentation for a non-profit based in the United States (which I should do – I’ve just been busy).

And that’s kind of the whole story so far.

Now here’s some advice I would give to people who are earlier in their journey

(And some of these are applicable, even if you’re going down another data analyst pathway).

One piece of advice I would give to anyone who is a student who wants to build their career in data analytics is that like most other students don’t depend on uni on your learning.

As much as I admire Uni’s for trying to keep up with what’s happening with the industry, University won’t teach you everything.

You might go to university and learn a very quantitative degree, but there will be points during your programme where you learn tools and concepts that are very niche and more geared towards academia – which is not a *bad* thing, it’s just not aligned with what most data analysts use.

I think if you want to position yourself well for a job in the industry, you should be taking some of your learning into your own hands. Take some online courses to supplement your learning, and learn from people in the industry – get mentored.

Another piece of advice I would give is also to apply more than you consume information (from formalised learning).

This benefits you in two ways: (1) you learn the skills better, and (2) you’re actually building something tangible for your portfolio and resume. In essence, you learn the tool faster, and employers can see what you can do.

So don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable and stretch your skills a bit to make your goals happen.

Another… piece of advice would be to leverage others.

During my early career I thought that the job market was one big competition, and that I had to be against everyone else who was applying for the same roles I applied for.

But this mentality kind of holds you back: you avoid opportunities where you could be part of a community, you avoid finding and connecting with like-minded people, and ultimately you don’t build a network that can help you land a role that you want.

If you’re someone who’s not talkative like I was, I would say just put yourself out there and don’t let your introverted tendencies and limiting beliefs get in the way of your goals.

And last thing I would say is that… you will have a plan of how your experience might go, and it won’t happen (unfortunately).

It’s easy to have a plan, a dream company, a dream job, etc.

But our lives/careers rarely align with our expectations, because there are a lot of things we can not control and there are a lot of unexpected things we learn along the way.

So never be afraid to wing it sometimes. When an interesting opportunity pops up out of nowhere, *seriously* consider applying yourself to it. Even if it’s not the most glamorous opportunity, that thing might be the next step you needed for your career.

For me, looking back, things just… happened. And now I’m here.

______

My name is Jason Khu, and I write about data analytics/visualisation and professional development for young professionals.

You can read more of this type of content by checking out my personal blog Data & Development Deep Dives and by following or connecting with me on LinkedIn.