Five Tips from My Journey in People Analytics (Oops Did I Think That Out Loud #21)

I love that more and more people are reaching out to me on LinkedIn for tips on starting or transitioning into People Analytics careers. I see this as a signal for the heightened adoption of People Analytics as a discipline in the market. If you are reading this and are in the same boat, the easiest way to find time with me is here.

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As a result of all the 1:1 conversations I have had, I had a chance to reflect on what advice I would give myself when I first started in People Analytics. This article is dedicated to the top 5 things I know now that I would like to be able to tell myself back then.

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So, in the spirit of not gatekeeping, here is what the Now-Me would tell the Then-Me:

Change will happen gradually and then suddenly

You will not change the world, how people work, and how HR thinks about data and analytics in your first week, first month, and maybe not even your first year. However, you shouldn’t stop dreaming and aspiring to the day that you will change the way people work with People Analytics. That aspiration will keep you going and doing the small, seemingly mundane things each day, like teaching someone how to do a pivot table, writing a page on the right way to calculate annualized turnover rates, and reviewing data dumps with 2000+ lines. Those small things will add up to the significant changes, the “cool” projects, the webinars, etc., but it will take time. You can be impatient, but you can’t give up. When the noticeable/significant change happens, it will be because of those little things that you have done. Keep at it.

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Discipline > Inspiration

You will have more days where you roll out of bed and question your professional choices than when you feel like you are on top of the world because of a brilliant idea you had or a thing you did. Create a routine for yourself and build discipline so you show up and keep showing up even on your worst days. Inspiration can be unreliable, especially when you are facing challenging situations and challenging people (e.g., you’re about to walk into your 10th meeting trying to tackle the Cost of Hire calculation, and you can’t stand having the exact same conversation one more time), discipline is what’s going to get you through the rough patches and keep you going.

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Fail hard, just don’t fail twice

Find a situation and position that allows you to test ideas, approaches, and theories. Learning about best practices online and at conferences and putting them into practice is like reading Gordon Ramsay’s Beef Wellington recipe and then trying it yourself—you will be the feature of your very own reality vs. expectation meme. Failure sucks, and it sucks even more when your annual performance plan hinges on the thing you just failed at (we still hate annual performance cycles all these years later; that bit hasn’t changed, but that’s a story for another day). Here’s the thing: yes, that moment absolutely sucks, but years later, you will realize that you learned so much more in those moments of failure than you would have otherwise. Getting your behind handed to you is embarrassing, and it will make you question your decisions. When that happens, refer to the point above, throw yourself a mini-pity party, and keep going.

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Build yourself a solid base so you dare to break the norm

There will be a point in your career where the right thing to do is not the popular thing to say/do. When that time comes, you will need all the courage you can muster to say and do the right thing. You will learn that sometimes, to do a great job, you must be ok with not having a job. So, while you can and have the time, define what a solid base looks like for you (e.g., family and support system). Prioritize that and build that. There will be a day when you will face tough professional choices before you, and you will need to look behind you to remind yourself that no matter what happens, your base/safety net will catch you. You will be incredibly glad you spent the time and effort leading up to that point to build your base.

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There is no “right” path

If something was easy to do and there was a blueprint for all of this, many more people would have done it. You will learn that almost everyone you encounter is on their own journey and figuring out their path. Standing where you are now, you might look at someone with a Sr. Director title and 10+ years in the industry, thinking they must have it all figured out and know exactly what they are doing. Being here ten years later, I can assure you that is most definitely not the case. Everyone has their process of figuring out what works for them, and your odd process of elimination works for you. Just keep doing it. You’ll figure out answers as you go along. You will soon learn that it’s about the learning and the journey, not the destination. Stay curious.