Learn more about Pablo's experience, from the time he applied to The Data School, to his career as a Lead Solution Engineer at Tableau. Pablo was part of Cohort 1 of The Data School London, which took place from June 2015 to June 2017.
Interviewed by Mel Niere | Edited by Vivian Ng
Before The Data School
Q: What brought you to The Data School? What factors influenced your decision to apply and ultimately join The Data School?
A: The way I discovered The Data School was a little bit random because I think there was not even a Data School website at the time I applied. I had discovered Tableau a few months before applying and was looking for courses or a Tableau guide to learn Tableau when I found The Information Lab’s website and wrote them an email asking for any online course or anything. That was when they talked about this program that they were going to start in a few months and suggested I apply.
To be honest, initially, I applied because I thought that I was not going to be selected—I was just looking for a way to learn Tableau. There were not as many resources as nowadays, so I thought applying would be a good way to force me to learn. I am from Spain, and I was living in Madrid, the capital. I thought, they'll have plenty of people from the UK applying for this program—what are the chances that they will select a guy from Spain!
During The Data School
Q: What was your training experience like?
A: The training experience probably was one of the best working experiences that I have ever had in my entire life, to be honest. It wasn't all easy, so it wasn't everything green and shiny. Especially for me, because I was also moving from Spain to London. I know English, of course, but I wasn't used to speaking in English and listening to English 24 hours, 7 days a week. It was initially very intense, in terms of mental load, for the first couple of months, so it was challenging, but the training experience itself was amazing.
Probably the fact that I joined the first cohort of Data School made it even more special. Everything was new for everybody, for all eight of us in the cohort, as well as for The Information Lab. There was no right or wrong way to do something; it was trial and error, a learning process for everybody.
I also liked the fact that in the cohort, there was a huge variety of people. There were two people originally from Italy, one person from Latin America, a few people from the UK, one person from Canada, and me from Spain. All different backgrounds, all different ages. With a wide range of experiences, we had so much to learn from each other while training together, and I found out just how much you can learn from somebody who maybe just finished university.
Coming into The Data School, I had more than 10 years of working experience. But when I started training, I learned that your ego basically disappears. You are learning from people that can be much more younger or older than you. Or skills that you consider your strengths suddenly are not and you discover new things you are good at that you didn't know. You learn from everyone and everyone learns from you. And of course, their contributions are huge, not only in a professional way, but also in a personal way.
Q: What was your experience during placement?
A: My first placement was at easyJet, an airline. Very interesting, because it was a business. I didn't know anything about it, apart from the obvious fact that we all take planes and all those kinds of things. A great learning experience, great team there. There was a team that really believed in Tableau and what we could provide there as a Data Schooler in those placements. Intense, but super safe environment at the same time.
My second placement was at Deloitte. In the UK, that was much more intense, in terms of a consultancy role. I was a consultant doing data consultancy inside a different consultancy company. Everything needs to be fast, and there are a lot of little projects you must deliver us as soon as possible, with very high expectations. It was intense, but also one of the best experiences and one of the fastest ways to learn and to grow as a professional. This year, at the Tableau conference in Las Vegas, I met with the person who had been my manager at Deloitte. He told me that they still use some of the developments and Tableau dashboards I created, which was more than 8 years ago, so it's quite nice.
My last placement (at the time, The Data School only offered three placements) was at Inmarsat, a satellite telecommunications company. Was a bit the opposite to Deloitte: the pace was much slower due to data security rules and everything took much more time. But met them very smart people and I worked with consultants I met from my easyJet placement, and was a great way to learn from a very complex industry.. Three different types of companies, all very nice learning experiences.
Q: What support did you receive from The Data School?
A: It's a great learning experience but also intense—you must learn Tableau, you must learn Alteryx, you must learn skills you don't have and all in four months. It sounds like a lot of time, but it’s a very short period of time to become an expert at something.
When you finish the training, you start feeling the pressure you put on yourself. I was like okay, now I need to show that I'm ready; I need to show that I know everything. But when you struggle, as you may in any other role, that is when you realize that there’s no problem at all in asking for help from The Information Lab and The Data School when you need it.
Probably one of the best learning experience I had from The Data School is to not be afraid of asking for help. At the Data School when you ask for help there are always two, three, four different people putting their hands up and saying, “I have some time, I will help you.” Probably was the the best environment I’ve ever been in, in my career.
After The Data School
Q: How did The Data School and The Information Lab serve as a launching pad for your data analytics career? Can you tell us more about your role now?
A: I'm a Solution Engineer at Tableau / Salesforce now. As a Solution Engineer, you are more involved in the sales process, kind of like pre-sales. Actually, some of the work I do as a Solution Engineer is similar to the cases we had as a Data School consultant. At the end of the day, as a Solution Engineer, you don't deliver the final solution; you demonstrate Tableau’s capabilities. You show what Tableau can do and help customers solve issues. They may have some challenges, but you’re not developing the final solutions, it’s more like guiding them and showing them what it can do.
Before that and immediately after The Data School, to put things in perspective, I wasn't expecting anything at the beginning. When I started training at The Data School and when I started my first placement, I thought okay, this is a two-year program, so I will try to make the most of it. After the two years, they gave me and a few other members in our cohort an offer to stay at The Information Lab, as a part of the Core Team.
At that point, I was very happy in London and my experience there had been great so I decided to stay, joining the Core Team at The Information Lab UK for more than one year after the program. Then, I missed my home country a little bit, my hometown, so I was looking forward to going back to Madrid.
The Information Lab offered me the chance to work remotely as a consultant from Madrid, back in 2018. I was doing a lot of professional services for Tableau and running a lot of training sessions for several companies. It was fun because it was a great way to travel around Europe and catch up with colleagues more frequently, since I was based in Madrid by myself and working remotely was not as common as it is today.
Then, the opportunity to open the Spanish branch of The Information Lab came up and I became one of the leaders of it. We opened the Information Lab Spain in fall of 2019, a few months before COVID. [Editor’s note: Pablo was The Information Lab Spain’s Managing Director.] Starting a company can be challenging, especially during COVID, but it was a great learning experience, to be honest. I had the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and do something I wasn't sure about how to do it well; I didn’t know if I was going to be able to manage my own company.
Advice About The Data School
Q: What advice would you give to individuals considering applying to The Data School?
A: Don't be afraid to ask for help, even if you are just starting to apply for The Data School. The most important thing to be aware of is: Nobody expects you to know everything. Part of the process is also about showing that you can ask for help, that you want to learn, and that you are happy getting feedback and improving based on that feedback. That's probably one of the most important parts of not only the application process, but also being part of the Data School itself. Feel free to ask for help.
Get ready to get out of your comfort zone, be curious. You need that curiosity to push yourself a little bit.
I would also suggest getting the most out of it that you can because the program is two, almost three years long. Sounds like a lot of time, but time flies. Not many companies offer you opportunities to learn from the best for four months (during training), as well as for the remaining duration of the program period. Squeeze out the most you can from the program, learn as much as you can.
Q: Any additional advice for our Data School consultants?
A: The Data School New York, you started not that long ago. Don't be afraid to ask for help or contact people from your office—but from all the offices around the globe, too. The fun part of it is, you have the chance to chat and learn and meet people from all around the world, all around Europe, different countries, different cultures. For me, that was just as valuable as learning about data and how to be a consultant.