5 Inspiring Learning Resources That Help Me Stay on Top of Data Analytics
I recently hosted a breakfast session with a team of people at work.
We talked extensively about career journeys, brand value, mistakes made and lessons learned. A question was asked about what learning resources I recommend to keep abreast of changes in the industry but also general career and management advice.
Here is a list of 5 resources I refer to regularly for my dose of information.
Let's dive in!
People to Follow for Latest in Data Management, Engineering, Analytics & Contrarian Views
1. Prukalpa
Prukalpa is the Metadata go-to person.
I discovered Prukalpa via one of her articles, Data Governance branding problem. It resonated at the time because I was in the middle of one of the most complex governance implementations. The words helped soothe some pain that I am not in this alone.
Since Prukalpa is a co-founder of Atlan, she could write about her business; however, she chooses to focus her articles on Data Management as an industry, which helps provide more context. She also has a substack newsletter called Metadata Weekly.
2. Barr Moses
Barr is another industry thought leader and co-founder (Monte Carlo) whom I have followed for a while.
When implementing governance solutions, I always struggled to get clients behind Data Quality (DQ) and why it costs so much. Organisations like to fix tactically, build technical debt and complain about DQ when it's too late.
Barr writes extensively about Data Quality, Reliability and Downtime, which the data teams face daily.
I also recommend other thought leaders such as Chad Sanderson (Data Contracts), Ben Rogojan (Consulting and Engineering) & Teresa Tung (GenAI).
Key Takeaways & Lessons for Data Teams (Part 1)
There is a trend of more technical founders who have been part of data teams and continue to write about their challenges, which also resonates with an average Data Engineer/Analyst. This builds a flywheel of personal and business branding.
- Write about your daily technical challenges on Medium/Twitter; this helps connect with like-minded people and clarify your thoughts.
- New trends are not created by Gartner but by humans behind the data, so read and consume content related to your niche on Medium/Twitter/Reddit.
- No one person has all the answers, so read contrarian opinions and views. Chad Sanderson writes about Data Contracts. Ben Rogojan about quitting FAANG and working independently. Concepts you may not be used to, but they exist and helps shape your views.
- A personal brand is essential – climbing the corporate ladder can be unintentional, but choosing and following a specific path is more rewarding. Building a personal brand around your niche can help you differentiate yourself from your peers.
Books to Read for Managing Careers, Motivation, Productivity & Philosophy
3. The Making of a Manager
My first year as a manager was the most overwhelming of my career.
The expectation suddenly changed from contributing individually to motivating a team to contribute collectively. Once the fancy title wears off, the realisation sets in; this is a lot of work. I turned to this book by Julie Zhou, which helped me understand that I am not alone.
Great managers are made, not born!
I learned how to run productive meetings, give feedback, delegate, and be a leader rather than a boss. Plenty of improvement areas still; however, it gave me a leg-up!
4. So Good They Can't Ignore You
Following your passion is bad advice!
I was initially skeptical about this; we've all learnt that "enjoy the work you do, and you don't work a day in your life." However, this book changed my perspective, and I could relate to it. It advocates that as you hone your craft, you will build enough career capital so that you can control your work & life.
I didn't grow up wanting to be a leader in Data & Analytics; in fact, I didn't even know such a thing existed. Over the years of getting good at this craft, I have much more autonomy, competence and relatedness, the three things required to be happy in anything.
5. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Play long-term games with long-term people!
I don't know how else to place Naval, but his philosophical tweets and this book is a culmination of those tweets are incredible. Naval advocates for "specific knowledge," which you can't be trained for. If you can be trained, so can others.
At the breakfast session, I mentioned this to a few technical team members, you can learn many technical skills via courses and videos, but the soft skills only come with the application. And if you can marry them both, you become unstoppable.
Key Takeaways & Lessons for Data Teams (Part 2)
- When Naval says "specific knowledge" in the data world, it means bringing soft and hard skills together. Tailoring communication with different audiences, technical & business, can amount to "specific knowledge". You can't be trained for it; you must apply, iterate and learn it.
- Management is about understanding that each person is good at something and using them for those tasks. Using an Engineer to fix a data pipeline rather than create executive-level status updates as an example.
- Build career capital in your niche; i.e. spend time improving your skill, build specific knowledge that only you are known for, build your brand around this specific knowledge and then ask for more autonomy. Freedom of projects you work on, the teams you work with, the clients you work for etc.
- When Naval says "long-term" people, he means your engineering, business, infrastructure, and governance teams for a data analyst. The people you work with today will climb the career ladder in 10 years. Delivering using your specific knowledge to them now will allow you to build long-term relationships with them.
- Your network should be filled with people from all the companies and clients you have worked for; whether the project was good or bad, everyone has taught you a lesson or two along the way.
Conclusion
So – this became much longer than I anticipated, but hopefully, there are plenty of takeaways from the resources you can follow/read. If you think there are other awesome people I have not mentioned here, please leave their names in the comment below.
If you are keen to improve your Data skills, check out this article:
The 4 Small but Powerful Ways to Improve Your Data Skills This Year
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All opinions are my own
