Dream Job & Fit Body/Mind
Reflection on my last year!
How I found my dream job (for a dream company) and physically & mentally feel the best I have in many years if not my life?
This blog is out of traditional context or the typical purposes of my blog as I reflect on my today on my birthday. Because I am about to enter a dream job with a dream company, I thought it might be beneficial to talk a little on the ‘how’ in my journey. A lot of this had to do with having extra time during covid while also owning my direction during this extra time. Because our social lives were shut down, I found myself embracing two significant pieces in my life that I wanted to own more. The first being jumping into Reporting and Tableau Analytics and the second being fitness. I will talk to both during this excerpt as I believe both are intertwined.
THE JOB: Two weeks ago, I was offered, a dream job; A Senior Reporting and Analytics Role at Workday. It is not Tableau focused but my skills/experience in both Tableau as well previous years of experience will carry over to the role well. How did I get there?
With my extra hours during 2020, I decided to embrace Tableau and dig deeper into analytics. What did that look like?
From the Tableau Side:
· Makeover Monday (MM); I set a goal to do every other week tableau MakeoverMonday and push to my public page AND listen every week to the recap. I gave myself some wiggle room by not committing to submit for review so if needed the full week; that was available. It taught my the ins/outs of the tool but also many best practices of analytics.
· With MM, I was exposed to many amazing reporting experts doing amazing work.
· Tableau Community; I found myself finding many amazing Authors, Blogs, podcasts, utube chats through following certain authors
· Twitter: I was NOT looking for another social media platform to follow but feel the tableau community is very interconnected in Twitter and so added that to my list of social media accounts.
· Volunteer work; see below
Outside of Tableau.. (its not all about the tool)
- Continually look for opportunities to present yourself [NOTE: I used Tableau for this, but it also helped me to showcase talents beyond the tool]
- USE any opportunity to showcase my thoughts/ideas/awareness on analytics
· Volunteer Work: Echo Dogs/Chicago Food Depository
o I saw opportunity to help some volunteer organizations present data better so I jumped on the topic and now help 1 organization monthly with this data.
· Workday; Fun and better ways to see things
o I decided to do a plank challenge with some of my colleagues and push it into a tableau dashboard
o From a conversation with my boss, I knew how Managers consumed who had completed their certifications could be presented better so spun up this data.
· Client Pain Points
o Sometimes decisions help from a visual perspective, so I presented some data to help frame the conversation better
- Read/Learn/Attach yourself to experts (of
course, this list is ever evolving)
o Some of my favorite Podcast- ers (with a Data Viz Focus)
§ Tim Ferris Show (not data viz but inspirational)
o My favorite authors (no particular order)
§ Zak Geis
o A few of my favorite reads
§ Data Visualization made simple
- Build your portfolio (and start with the thought that it doesn’t matter if anyone reads it; its for YOU!)
o
Tableau public or any platform you can showcase
some of your work; I used tableau public to do that and actually have 3 tableau public profiles (One for my volunteer work;One for work and my main one that has most work)
o Teach what you learn. Through this blog, I tried to talk through my lessons learned and it is said that this the last piece that solidifies learning.
- Internally, Have the discussions/Find the leaders: I continually look for the opportunity to have discussions. DO NOT BE shy.. have the conversations.. people typically are more then willing to share time (at least at my company and the tableau community!)
- Be Strategic on what you do and do not want; I had interviewed for a couple of other jobs that were outside of the Higher-Ed space. I did some soul searching on if that was the direction I really wanted to go. Its important to recognize your passions and follow your heart. Sometimes you can’t control a timeline BUT its important to continue to be persistent.
THE BODY: HOW did I get to feel the best I have in years from a mind, body, spirit perspective?
I was
fortunate to come upon an organization that was offering free fitness classes in
the early months of Covid. A great leader
presented herself with this group (NOTE a common theme; find the good leaders)
who was in the process of branding herself and offering additional free classes,
working on elevating her social media presence. To my excitement, towards the
end of Covid, Kristi opened her own fitness studio. I worked with Krisi virtually for a year before
I finally met her. Her business is not
all about the weights and or weight loss.
She has created a community of women who support each other, weekly
meetings where we talk about what work/what doesn’t. At the end of the day, its
about the whole self. Anyone who want to find this wonderful studio LevelUp Health & Fitness - Niles, IL (she offers Virtual options as well)
How does my fitness and thus mental state relate to being stronger in my work role? Because I was able to feel better about myself, found a way to relieve my stress and learn about healthier food choices, I had the energy to focus on pushing myself beyond work hours towards my goals.
#neverstoplearning, #neverstoppushingyourself, #neverstopdreaming
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