It’s not a secret that I fell into a career in data analytics. After a scarily close encounter with a medical degree and then a stint at a well-known beverage company, I left my in-house barista, unlimited snacks, and free beer allowance, to join ECC’s Data and Analytics team.
“Why did you give up such luxuries?!”, I hear you cry. To be honest, I was wondering the same thing as I turned up at County Hall on my first day with my own mug, teabags, and milk. I heard words like “dashboard” and “PowerBI” and “R” being thrown around in the office, and it was like my colleagues were speaking in a different language. The only thing I could understand was “pub later?”.
Five years later, I am now a Senior Analyst with plenty of experience translating complex analysis into impactful solutions. Day to day, I could be identifying problem statements within priority service areas, scoping insight-led solutions to those problems, undertaking complex analysis, building recommendations, and engaging stakeholders with our key messages. As a Senior, I’m expected to cover all bases, and help other analysts along the project life cycle too.
Being a Senior Analyst in local government isn’t just about the analysis, though. We get opportunities to inform key decisions that actually make a difference to those who need it most: Essex residents. I’ve led projects that have influenced changes in how ECC will deliver its services now and in the future, that have targeted support to the most vulnerable in our communities, and that have encouraged the move towards a more data literate and transparent organisation.
To do all of this, I have had to focus on both my technical and professional development. I needed to know about supervised and unsupervised learning models, I needed to know how to extract, transform and load data from a warehouse, and I needed to know how to apply all of this in our coding software. I've had to learn how to forge trusted relationships with stakeholders, build recommendations, and often deliver incredibly complex data analysis in ways that highlight the key messages I needed to get across. Coming from someone who thought a “dashboard” was where all the buttons were in a car, that sounds like a lot. But I had the right support from the team, and have been offered countless training and development opportunities along the way.
So, what’s the fool-proof method to becoming a Senior Analyst? Well, I’m going to have to disappoint everyone: there isn’t one. Here is the Analytics and Data Science team at ECC we celebrate the fact that everyone is going to bring different skills and abilities to the table. People come into the team with different interests, but we all have the same goal: to enable our colleagues across the organisation and those working in our partner organisations, to make better, evidence-informed decisions for the residents of Essex. After five years of working with like-minded people, I personally think this makes up for losing my access to unlimited free beer and cider (just about).
If using your analytical skills to make a difference to local communities sounds good to you, and you don’t mind bringing in your own snacks, then why not check out the latest vacancy in our award-winning Data and Analytics team: Senior Analyst - Analytics and Data Science
Leave a comment