- Managing a data team of 100
- Owning the P&L of a 1,500 person data business
- Leading data at a unicorn startup
And have learned a lot of lessons along the way.
There's tons of great content out there about the technical skills required to break into a data career.
But there's not much written by people who have actually managed data teams about how to be successful once you break in.
And unfortunately, it shows.
Work hard, wait, and hope to get promoted is a terrible strategy.
Wandering around aimlessly has never been a good plan if you want to actually get somewhere specific.
Sure, all you need is a heartbeat to go from junior analyst to analyst, or junior data scientist to data scientist.
And bouncing from job to job might bump your title, but it's also clear from your resume that the people who know your work best didn't promote you.
To become more senior, there are specific things you need at each stage.
Either you have them or you don't.
Hard work is necessary, but it's all for nothing if you don't have the other key ingredients.
Flooring the gas doesn't do any good if your car is in park or pointed in the wrong direction.
So, what are the things I need?
Only you know what you want to achieve in your career, so only you can answer what specifically you need to get there.
However, I've learned many lessons over the years mentoring and coaching all kinds of different data people.
I've got a framework to help people think through the specific things they need to reach their goals, whatever those goals might be.
It incorporates the various skills, expertise, experiences, and mindsets you need as a data person to progress in your career.
I'm putting together a bunch of content going through this framework and how you can apply it to your data career.
If you're new to working in data, you can use this as a map for how to structure your career development.
If you've been in the data world for a decade, this can help you analyze your career the same way an exec would, and uncover insights that help you get to the next level.
I'm also going to be writing about data career topics on the Delivery Layer newsletter, and on LinkedIn.
Why are you doing this?
I'm the founder of a data startup called Delivery Layer which focuses on customer-facing data.
As a data person, you might occasionally find yourself in a situation where you have data that needs to get to customers, but no way to get it to them.
If you're considering building a web application or API to productize data that needs to get out of your company, Delivery Layer can accomplish in days or weeks what otherwise would take months or years.
This content is part of my marketing strategy, where I try to help as many data people as I can, and the small percentage who come across this problem will consider Delivery Layer.
I also believe that in the world of data, either we all win or we all lose, and I'd like for all of us to be winners.
What will this cost?
The newsletter below is free to join, and you can also follow me for free on LinkedIn where I post almost every day.
Some content will likely be paid eventually, but the cost will be negligible.