How to train a data analyst? From juniors who want to learn

Before moving to the position of data analyst, she spent a year dealing with complaints in Customer Support. How does this experience make her job easier and how is the training of juniors at Dateio? It’s the next episode of our new Data Girls series and this time we take a look inside the Product Operations team.

You have a degree in project management with a focus on industrial engineering. What led you to work with data?

In my last year of college, I was clear that I didn’t want to pursue my field, industrial engineering and logistics, professionally. And that I wanted to go more into IT or data.

What was the most important thing for you in your job search after college?

I wanted to make sure that if I started somewhere, I could develop there. At Dateio, I already had the feeling at the interview that the company was trying to grow, to create new positions, to give people opportunities to try new things.

The Customer Support position appealed to me at the beginning because I knew it was already connected to data and it was a starting position in a data company.

I could work with SQL and I knew I could move up within the company early on. Outside of work, I was learning to code in Python.

And you knew SQL before you started?
When I joined, I only knew the very basics of SQL from school.

What was your first year’s agenda and what did you learn?

When I joined in September 2021, claims were handed to me by a colleague who was going on maternity leave. There, the use of SQL was marginal, we tended to have other tools.
After a while, the claims agenda stopped working for me. It was too operational and repetitive. There was also no possibility to plan the work in advance. However, apart from claims, I already had opportunities to look into other activities. Maybe we were setting up a process with the bank, or I could improve the interfaces that banks use to deal with claims.

How big of a change was the move to Product Operations?

There was a period of three months when I was handing over the claims agenda, while training for the new position. It was definitely easier in that I knew the product, the company and the environment, but the hard part was that I had to learn a lot of new things and use a lot more SQL in a short period of time.

In Customer Support, you learn a lot about the company and then it’s easier to float into other processes and projects. How was your training when you left support after a year?

Very individually, my colleague showed me everything with concrete examples. I learned directly the things I use in my position.

How do you divide the work? Do you already work independently or in a team?

We tend to be given tasks that we work on independently. If I need help with something, a more experienced colleague will take the time to explain it to me and I’ll finish it myself.

What does your team look like and what is the agenda?

Even with our manager, there are currently four of us. As a team, we are responsible for the product in terms of coordinating the implementation in the new banks, we are in charge of the project plan and we try to manage some of the company processes, like commission accounting.
In terms of implementation in the new banks, we help with testing, for example. At the same time, we also provide technical support to existing banks. For example, when we get a call that something is not working in the application, we solve it either ourselves or most often with the programmers.

Open Positions at Dateio?

So it’s also about project management?
Yes, especially the implementation of new banks is project management and I enjoy that.

You’re learning a lot of new things and you say that’s important to you in your job. What else do you value at Dateio?
Dateio is very cool, it gives opportunities to even complete newbies who are willing to learn. We have colleagues here who studied something other than IT and then did a course, for example from Czechitas. I would advise newcomers to educate themselves in their field and not be afraid to find a job at the same time.

What are your next plans?
I don’t have any plans to change at the moment. I want to improve on my current position.