Fast Learning in Action
How time flies! When I realized it was already the end of the year. 2021 was a busy year for me:
- I finished my study of the Master of Business Analytics Program at UBC;
- Interviews…
- I joined Social Nature, a dynamic online sampling platform for natural brands, as a data analyst.
Today, during the Christmas flex week, I would reflect on my interview journey and takeaways.
As a ‘new grad’ (actually, I have some data experience several years before), I feel the most-frequent interview question is: ‘How do you make up the gap that you don’t have abundant experience in xxx field?’.
I also met this question during my interview with Marco Ciffo, Director of Product Management at Social Nature. The focus here is on the tool usage for digital marketing, especially Google Analytics / Google Tag Manager. Though I have run some experiments before, I have not officially worked in the field.
On the spot, I answered the question with my true heart: ‘It won’t be a blocker as I am a fast learner.’ This is definitely not a bad answer, but it makes me unrest during the night after the interview: I guess 99% candidates would answer the same.
What bothers me most is that the answer sounds like an empty talk. In reality, I know that fast-learning and action-taking ability are my sharp advantages (I have learned and programmed a product prototype from scratch within a month during an internship), with all the data and programming knowledge learned from my studies and work, I am very confident. On the other hand, I am excited about the chance to grow with an enthusiastic start-up as a data person, which means I could take on a wide range data challenges that potentially shape myself into a full-stack data professional, proficient in areas from database query to descriptive analysis; from pipeline engineering to machine learning model building, etc. I feel my skillsets and mind set match the position. I felt annoyed not not being able to fully express myself.
So, take actions.
I completed items below after the first interview (besides the very first code interview) and updated the recruitment team:
- Completed Google Analytics for Beginners & Advanced Google Analytics at Google Analytics Academy
- Passed Google Analytics Individual Qualification
After Marco and I discussed about Google Tag Manager and Salesforce in the second and third interviews, I completed:
What’s next? Credentials are not everything, they just show that people spent time learning. How these knowledge and skills can help grow business are the real question, that I, as a potential member of the team, should think and answer. So I organized my thoughts and the emailed my thoughts in a mind map.
Lucky enough, my interviewers are supportive, reasonable and super open-minded people (Tina Hashemnia People Ops at Social Nature, Marco Ciffo, RamiGlez.NET, and Annalea), with the encouragement and trust I passed all 4 rounds (1 code test + 3 interviews) and became a data analyst with Social Nature in November.
Takeaways:
- Interview questions are opportunities (not challenges) to let others better understand you. (Marco asked a lot of questions regarding previous data projects, I appreciate the chances)
- Actions speak for itself: prove you can and want to learn fast.
- Not necessary to upsell your knowhow, but do the due diligence researching the company, thinking about growth strategies and sharing insights, even in the interview phase. Because it is what you will continue doing in the job after the interview.
Instead of sending thousands of job applications (no offence, just different strategies and focus) I sent 14 in total through the post graduation job-seeking season. But I spent enormous time on researching and learning the wanted skills, I feel interviews can be great growing time if you see them as learning — testing — growing sprints. Finally I got 6 interview chances and decided to join Social Nature as it is the first and best match, and canceled the rest ongoing ones. I hope my experience could shed some lights to peers who are on the way.
It Is Not the End
Now I have been with Social Nature Product & Engineer team for a month, I am happy with the choice as I met many pretty and capable co-workers and team leaders, and growing my data skills day by day. Here are some links & resources alone the way I find useful, I just want to organize, record and share (the list will be updated irregularly) :
Google Analytics & Google Tag Manager:
Google Analytics Breakthrough: From Zero to Business Impact (Book, by
Feras Alhlou) — I borrowed it from Vancouver public library and used it as a bible to check up if any function not familiar.
Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics (Book, by Brian Clifton) — Borrowed from Vancouver public library, good behind the scene tech insight of GA
Advanced Google Tag Manager — A LinkedIn Learning course
Tag Naming Conventions — It is important to form a good tag naming habit from the beginning.
Google Data Studio
Personal Growth Plan
In 2022, I plan to take some courses and pass some certifications as below to accelerate the growth:
Javascript — to understand better how data tracking embedded at the front-end
Google Optimize / Google Ads — A/B testing and digital marketing data plan
AWS Cloud Partitioner — Thanks to Rei Colina’s advice, I would prioritize passing this which can be applied to work fast.
Google Cloud Data Engineer Certification — Get better ideas of how to utilize Google tools to build pipelines and ETLs.
Interviews are like sprints, while career is like a marathon. I would happy to grow with like-minded professionals while celebrating along the way. socialnature.com/careers
