Considering a career in the ever-evolving data industry? Want to know what inspires people to work in the world of data? Dufrain is proud to have a team filled with talented, data-driven individuals, collaborating together to optimise and unleash the power of data.
In this article, six Dufrainians from across the organisation reveal how their career paths led them to Dufrain, and what their ambitions are for the future.
Calum Roach, Manager
“Despite some exposure to MS Access and Stata at university, I never made a conscious decision to get into the data industry, I had originally wanted to pursue a career in management consultancy.
However, following an IT-focused industrial placement as part of my degree, I decided that consulting within the tech space was the direction for me. I managed to land a place on a graduate scheme with an IT consultancy which was my first introduction to coding and the SAS language.
For me, over the next 12 months, I’m excited to develop my skills and knowledge of cloud solutions as interest and demand from the market and our clients continue to grow in this space.”
Gordon Burns, Manager
“I knew I was going to work in data from about 5 years old, my Grandfather worked as a programmer and I idolised him when I was growing up. He spent years letting me tinker with his work which helped my passion to grow. After high school, I went to college to study software development for 2 years before going to university to study Business Technology.
Over those years I learned to code in VB, C++ and PL SQL. I then got a graduate role that allowed me to grow my SQL skills working in both PL and T environments. After this, I held many data-related roles before moving on to lead a team. The natural next step was to move into data consulting at Dufrain.
Over the next 12 months, I would like to become more hands-on with Python as things have progressed since my days as a Data Engineer using tools like SSIS.”
Georgina Burton, Senior Consultant
“I originally worked as a Research Assistant for Cancer Clinical Trials in the NHS across the Greater Manchester region. My master’s degree was in Cancer Biology and Therapy, so I was pursuing a career utilising this.
One weekend, I was showjumping and the horse mistimed a jump. This resulted in 4 broken ribs on my left-hand side and an inability to use a gear stick for a very long time.
Due to this sudden change in circumstances, I had to find a job working closer to home – preferably within walking distance. Lo and behold, a data analyst job using SQL was advertised and it was 1 mile from my house. At this point, SQL – and coding in general – was an unfamiliar concept to me but luckily, after several online courses and memorising “SQL for dummies”, I was successful in my interview and my new career in coding and consultancy started from there. 13 years later, I no longer need that book!
Over the next 12 months, I’d like to extend my knowledge around AWS and tooling for design work, such as Visio and wireframing tools for designing data visualisations and creating proof of concepts.”
Mike Haresnape, Director
“My exposure to coding and digital innovation at school was non-existent. In fact, we only had 6 PCs for a school with 1,200 pupils! The only computer I had at home was a Super Nintendo followed by a PlayStation, and whilst my skills allowed me to make a banging track on Music2000, I’m not convinced they progressed my digital career.
At university, I studied biology followed by genetics and intended to work in a similar field to my wife, who is an Embryologist. Here I started to use some MS Excel (I know!) and that was about it.
I spent a year or so jumping between temporary clinical jobs, and then I applied for a graduate SAS Consultant role out of desperation! It was the best decision I ever made. Whilst I was less experienced than others in coding at the start of the course, I took to it well and made good progress technically. I then found my sweet spot as a consultant.
Over the years, I’ve never allowed myself to become too specialised, although I’d like to think I’m pretty nifty in SAS, SQL and DAX. Although my current role is primarily non-technical, I hope that those I work with still see me get my hands dirty where I can.
As for the future and what I plan to learn this year, I’m finally going to swallow my pride and dive into Python… utilising the Udemy learning pathways we’ve created. I’m also focusing heavily on cloud architecture and have a number of O’Reilly reference materials that I’ll be using to grow my knowledge and gain experience by implementing as many of these techniques as I can.”
Mike’s current reading list is:
- Fundamentals of Data Engineering: this is filled with best practices, including frameworks and approaches.
- Data Management at Scale: featuring trends and developments, scaled architecture, security, privacy and more.
- Data Governance – The Definitive Guide: does what it says on the tin and includes techniques I’ve been adopting this year.
- Data Mesh: a detailed introduction including designing an architecture, strategy and execution.
Tim Bowes, Associate Director
“My sister and I were given a BBC B microcomputer in the early 1980s. There weren’t that many games available for it and I spent hours trying to load each game from the cassette, only for it to fail (sometimes after 40+ mins) so I had to start the whole process again. This led us to buying books you could follow to write code (using the language BBC Basic) to create your own, mainly text-based, games that I could then play instantly with no need for the pesky cassette tapes. This was my introduction to coding.
There wasn’t much in the way of IT education at the schools I went to; what little there was educated me on how to use a word processor, which was rapidly making typewriters redundant. I’d also moved on to an Atari ST and a floppy disk drive so I was no longer coding my own games, I was just playing them.
The next time I coded was during my physics degree. We had 10 hours of labs plus 20 hours of lectures and quite often I had to write a programme in PASCAL to process some of the lab results. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I graduated from university. The only thing I knew was that I was reasonable at coding and there was a shortage of IT professionals as the millennium bug was about to strike, so I landed myself a job with a consultancy that had started to take on large swathes of budding IT bods. Having completed some short and intensive training in Visual Basic and C++, I found myself on a client site writing mainframe-based COBOL programmes, SQL stored procedures, and JCL scripts to operate heavy machinery.
I quickly realised that whilst I enjoyed the problem-solving aspect of coding, I didn’t enjoy the hours of testing, refining and regression testing. I wanted to write a piece of code that solved the problem and then move on. I progressed into business analysis and really found myself working in data when it became obvious to me that changes in banking regulations would lead to banks investing in their data management. I figured there was probably a career in this new specialism.
I’ve always been very thankful for my technical background, which has meant that I have a basic understanding of how all technology components work. I have always been able to tell when a developer is trying to pull the wool over my eyes, and I still rely heavily on this knowledge when we deliver a discovery assessment for new clients etc.
I hung up my coding gloves years ago, so I’m not looking to upskill in any of the latest languages, although I’ve dabbled in codeSpark and a couple of other languages aimed at getting children coding and have introduced this to my kids.
I feel very lucky in the work that I do, I understand how organisations operate and what help they need on their data journeys. This means I need to keep current on new data concepts and how to apply data principles to different sized and shaped organisations.”
Joseph George, CEO
“I went through a schooling system back in the 90s/early 2000s where at age 12, I had to decide whether I wanted to be a doctor and if not, computer science was a mandatory subject. So, at ages 12-16, I picked up programming languages such as BASIC, LOGO, Pascal, general algorithm and flowcharting skills.
At ages 16-18, I delved into C, C++ and all the details of OOP concepts and enjoyed it as an addition to all the regular school subjects. During my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, I picked up basic .NET and JavaScript/J2EE skills.
My first job was in a large IT company in 2006 as a Software Engineer. The company encouraged everyone to complete 4-6 months of training. I was randomly allocated to the mainframe stream which, at the time, everyone said was dying and pointless; I didn’t have much choice, and now I’m glad I didn’t. It was months of COBOL, JCL, DB2, CICS and a lot of black screens with green letters!
I then decided this wasn’t for me long-term as a full-time job, and I left to study for a postgraduate degree.
My main lessons learnt are:
- Regardless of the actual coding languages, any such experience helps one think more logically, improves critical reasoning and analytical skills, and programmes your mind to think through solutions to problems in a structured, disciplined manner. These are invaluable skills to have in any job at any company. It’s easy to pick up any coding language once you have a solid foundation.
- I’m grateful that I’ve had these experiences, as I’ve never had to lead a project where I don’t understand the tech and IT language, which is fundamental to any role in any sector in any business function these days.
- It’s great to see the UK learning lessons from Asia and kids in lower school start coding at an early age! This is necessary, even if children choose not to work in coding/software engineering as an adult.
- In 2006, one of the Co-Founders of Infosys said that he wanted everyone to be a consultant and not an IT engineer. I didn’t understand what that meant then, but I do now.
- Coding and technical competence are important, but to progress in your career and add value, skills such as communication, building relationships, leadership and translating challenging business requirements can help people to become successful. These skills go beyond coding.
I spend time understanding how businesses are adopting digital and moving to the cloud, learning what it means for businesses of all sizes and sectors at a high level. We must understand and adapt to the needs of clients of all sizes.”
Considering a data-driven career?
If you’re seeking a new challenge and want to take your career to new heights, we’re looking for even more data-driven people to join our ambitious team. View our current vacancies and discover what it’s like to work at Dufrain here.
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