Data Origin Story, Part 1
How I got into the data industry after college
First off, thanks to everyone who subscribed to this newsletter. It was great to see the notifications come in over the past week when I first posted that I would do this newsletter.
My approach is to jump around a little. I plan to go back in time, share some of my origin stories, and discuss current thoughts and future theories. So, in each newsletter, I’ll try to set the stage for what I’m referring to.
Today, I’m going to dig more into my data origin story.
One of my superpowers is knowing who I am and who I am not. I came to data because I was a lousy engineering student. I studied electrical engineering for five years in college. During my last year, I realized something. I was surrounded by peers who were way smarter than me. Some of them truly loved engineering. They had their electronic setups at home. They would tinker with engineering stuff at home outside of the classroom. Some of them would hang out at the lab at nighttime. I did not. I recognized that I was “book smart” as it related to engineering, but I wasn’t good at the practical aspects. I could answer the questions on the test but I struggled to actually build it in the real world.
In my senior year of college, I had two primary tasks: graduate and find a job. A few months before graduation, I luckily got an initial job offer. I was going to work at General Motors. I cannot recall the job, but I believe it was related to vehicle HVAC. Despite having a job offer, I still wanted to see what was out there. I knew I didn’t want to work as an engineer after college.
After getting my job offer, I attended a college engineering conference in Columbus, Ohio. I walked around their career fair during the conference and spoke with many companies. I met a recruiter from a consulting firm (Accenture) and heard about the lavish life of consulting. You can fly around the country and work with clients on new projects. I was hooked. A few months later, I received a job offer, and it was “goodbye engineering.”
After graduation, I started working immediately. I spent two weeks in Chicago for Accenture’s Analyst Training program. Imagine how fancy I felt flying to Chicago, being put up in a hotel, and having a per diem? At the end of my second week, I was nervous because I had to find my first project. My peers around me were finding jobs, and I had nothing. Eventually, I got a phone call and was placed with a client close to where I lived. So, the fancy traveling wasn’t going to happen. Oh well, I found a job, though, and wouldn’t be sitting on the bench (being on the bench at a consulting firm isn’t a good thing). I’ll discuss that first job and its adventure in more detail later.
My experience isn’t foreign. I’ve worked in data for many years, and most people come into their data careers from many different places: biology, Marketing, Physics, Arts, Engineering, etc.… Nowadays, you can study data in college and intend to work in that field.
Even though I’ve never had an engineering job, the skills I learned in engineering school have greatly benefited me. The most impactful skill was the mantra, “Figure it out.” Lack of knowledge was not an excuse for not getting things done. We had hands-on senior projects. If you didn’t finish the project and build what you were supposed to, you didn’t graduate. That meant whatever was needed to get the project done, I had to figure it out. So, going to school for five years to study engineering wasn’t a complete waste. However, I’m sure there was an “easier” path than the gauntlet of engineering school.
Also, I graduated from college almost 20 years ago, but I still advise new grads to find careers and job fairs. Save up money and fly around the country if you have to. Having face-to-face interactions with potential employers is critical. On a career website, you are a name in a list. If you can see someone in person, they’ll remember you more. That’s how I started my data journey.