A Deep Dive

Last week saw much progress in terms of interviews. I had the opportunity to interview two lovely professionals who opened my eyes about the vast world of analytics from two entirely different perspectives- one who has seen the field as a professor and one from the perspective of warehouse optimization.

"Analytics is art."

This is what I was told last week by one of my interviewees. While at the start of the year I was left floundering at the idea of pursuing this field, these interviews have left me more sure that this is a valuable and exciting career path. The incorporation of mathematics, models, and numbers combined with creative thinking and problem solving skills has been emphasized to me. I find that I enjoy the creative implications of the field. Technology and artificial intelligence is involved in the process of this work, but it's only a helping hand. Human input is required to take data the next step of the way.

Storytelling with data is something that many find particularly difficult. Translating hard numbers into an explanation that is easily digestable for non-experts can be a challenge, but this idea is what excites me most about the job. Data is so much more than just a number or a graph- it's a story that explains a company's past, present, and future. To be able to translate a language is no easy feat, it's something that takes much practice and trial and error.

I am progressing in an upwards motion, but even still, I anticipate the next obstacle that awaits me- finding a mentor.