How I got into Data & Analytics?

Of recent, I’ve had the privilege of sharing my journey into data and analytics with a number of different groups and in the spirit of sharing, thought I should pen down some thoughts on this. This is not going to be a technical read so you can relax! ??

Growing up in Nigeria, there were few ways of making a living that would not warrant a slap or some other “deterrent” from most families. You were either a doctor, engineer, architect, lawyer, accountant, or some other well recognized profession that most parents at the time, perceived as bringing prestige to the family name. And guaranteed income of course. My parents never placed any pressure on me to choose my career path but that’s not to say I wasn’t affected buy the social norms of the day.

So, when many of my high school classmates indicated they were going to study mechanical engineering or electrical engineering degrees, I opted to do something a little different and chose Chemical Engineering. I felt I’d be the unique one of the lot and maybe more opportunities too. I did like Chemistry as a subject and had an exceptional chemistry teacher back then. Probably not a good reason to pick a course of study and by my second year, taking on transport and thermodynamics classes, I really questioned my decision. My goal at the time, unlike the popular trend of working for one of the oil companies, was actually to end up in a company like Dupont as I was fascinated with some it’s creations like Teflon.

So how did I end up in a career in data and analytics? I’d say almost by accident.

In my last year of college education studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Lagos, I was preparing to write my final thesis. At the time, it was the norm for students to write their thesis by hand as a manuscript, and then hand it over to any one of the many business centers that littered the campus, to have it typed for a fee. But I was broke and couldn’t afford to do that. Around that time, I learned that a friend of mine, had a computer in his cousin’s house. I didn’t have experience with a computer but with little to no options, asked if I could use it for which he obliged.

That was the beginning of my journey using computers. On that little computer, I learned to type. Very slowly! But with practice and having to re-type my whole these after the hard drive crashed, I picked up some speed. I really credit the pc game, Typing Tutor, for helping me learn to type without looking at the keyboard and increasing my typing speed to near professional levels. (Don’t underestimate gamified resources for learning, especially if you like games).

Not long after that, I got a few requests for help to type other students’ handwritten manuscripts. Not only did this expose me to a diversity of topics I typed on, but broadened my understanding of different topics and opened my mind to understanding different problems on a wide variety of subjects. I remember a time creating dual axis charts in Excel was such a need as many of the business centers would just type text. Charts were not really their thing except very simple ones. This opened me up to using Microsoft Excel which many of us still call the number one business intelligence tool today.

Still wondering what I’d do after college, a friend making personal greeting cards asked for help with that. We were using some card making software and printing on inkjet printers. But client requests became more sophisticated. “Can I have my picture on the card?” Hmm, how do we achieve that? Enter Photoshop. We figured out how to use Photoshop to create imagery that would blend in with the cards we were making to create totally unique greeting cards. ?What I didn’t anticipate was that I would be good at designing and applying creative techniques to the different requests we got which kept on expanding.

This experience actually opened up a whole new set of opportunities for doing graphic design work. I eventually partnered with a friend, and we started a company dedicated to graphic design. We started with flyers and invitations cards but grew to brochures and magazines and eventually to corporate identity and branding (a whole other story in itself and one for another day). But, I was always a quant at heart and couldn’t let that go. However, notice how the varying experiences are coming together.

I’d say the turning point came when the cousin of a friend, (let’s call him Cousin S) a technology consultant, invited me to do a small job. The task was to re-write an important report for a large company he was consulting with, that had been poorly put together. The report had lots of chemical terminology and formulas which were not written correctly so my chemical engineering education was very relevant for this particular task. I had also acquired some pretty good desktop publishing skills too so together with the small team I managed, was able to turn this around quickly with a good professional edge. Cousin S was happy with the work and said if anything else came up, he’d contact me.

A few weeks later, Cousin S asked me to help the client build a database to house some data the client needed organized. I knew nothing about databases at the time, but he said he’d help show me the ropes and I believe him. He did for 2 days and he was gone! He left me to figure things out by myself. We were using Microsoft Access to build the database and there I was, alone figuring out how to do it. With no one to help, I resorted to going to a local cyber café and spent a few hours after work each day, searching the internet on everything I could find on building databases. Unlike many database applications at the time, Access enables pretty decent backend database development with all the general data modelling capabilities need to build a relational database, but also a front end to create forms to manage structured intake and reports to share the data as well. I ate it all up and poured it into the work.

So, after weeks doing this, I learned all about how to organize data into tables, normalizing data, creating data models, referential integrity, relationships, etc. Coupled with my creative skills, was able to incorporate good design standards and aesthetics to build the reports and forms that made my work have an uncanny professional look. Not having anyone to really rely on or reference at work with what I was doing, I think contributed to the input because I thought that was how everyone worked with the too. So I just brought all my learning and creativity, and funneled that into the work. I take this as an advantage because as I later found out, others deploying the same software were not going anywhere as deep and it was showing.

Anyhow, I had built a pretty robust application that did a good job organizing the data that rendered professional looking reports and provided data to do some unusual analysis too. This was all supposed to be a temporary solution, as the long-term goal was to house the data in an application the client was going to implement from its headquarters. However, when the team to implement the company software arrived and saw what I had built, they saw there was functionality their software could not provide and would rather impair the efficacy of the work at hand so asked that I continue. Naturally I was elated! I was just trying to provide as much value for the client with the tools available using all my unique skills at the time to bring it together.

One moment I’ll say really crystalized this for me was one evening, we were analyzing some data and I had a few esteemed professionals behind me watching what I was doing as the data was important for a major decision that needed to be made. Here I was, a young guy in the midst of some highly accomplished professionals strategizing on the data I was analyzing and putting together. I think it was at that point that the importance of data dawned upon me and it was such a great feeling. It’s the same feeling I have every time I can take what looks like chaos and create order, take rows and columns and turn those into meaningful information and insights.

My primary area of focus is business intelligence, data analysis and data visualization. Unravelling patterns, zeroing in on outliers, surfacing interesting occurrences and telling stories with data, is such a gratifying thing. Or when you’re able to prove fraudulent behavior by looking at the data and connecting the dots, which leads to strategic decisions and changes in behavior, it’s a very rewarding outcome. And still is!

In an era where data is everywhere you turn and being touted as the “new oil”, it still presents several interesting challenges for the world we live in. With data, we make decisions and those decisions lead to outcomes. Wrong data can lead to wrong outcomes. Good data poorly brought together can also lead to subpar outcomes. Good data can also lead to wrong outcomes if wrongly interpreted. So, it’s not just the presence of data we are talking about, but the management of data, curation and interpretation of data that brings value to whoever is impacted by it.

- - - - - - -

You may have noticed that I didn’t get into too many specifics with the nitty gritty details of the projects I worked on, as I like to keep the nature of the projects I’ve worked on private. I have also not gone into too much detail on tools because those are not as important to this story and frankly, can be a distraction. The focus needs to be around your interests, willingness to learn and bringing all your unique qualities and experiences with you. I have a fairly technical degree but so what? You don't have to have a technical degree to work in this field. And I have met and worked with several very competent professionals that come from non-technical backgrounds. With all the resources available today, practically anyone with a desire to learn can enter this field and thrive. Besides, data and analytics is such a wide field that employs a wide variety of skillsets both technical and non-technical.

On every project, we typically encounter challenges that involve what I’ll call PPT: People, Process and Technology. You can’t solve a lot of data problems without embracing the fact that even with the best technology in the world, if you ignore people and process, that investment in technology won’t really yield meaningful returns. Therefore, thinking holistically is imperative and requires different capabilities working together to address not just the technology challenges but the people and process related challenges too.

I’ll leave you with a few parting words:

• Sometimes opportunities come to you. Other times, you create opportunities for yourself by doing something. Never stay idle.
• Opportunities provide a path to experience. Experience provides other opportunities. Now that’s not such a vicious cycle, is it?
• Bring all of your capabilities into whatever you do. They create the extra that inscribes your unique signature.
• If you don’t know how to do something, be willing to learn and put in the work. Resources abound and hard work never hurt anyone, so go for it!!!

And of course, hit me up if you'd like to chat. If I cant answer your questions, I work with a few thousand brilliant colleagues that I can tap too.

All the best.

#data #analytics