Rachel Finch:

My name's Rachael Finch and I went from working the night shift as

Rachel Finch:

a quality assurance analyst to working fully remote as a business intelligence

Rachel Finch:

analyst in less than a hundred days.

Speaker 2 00:00:07

That's Rachel Finch.

Speaker 2 00:00:08

She's a biology major who later worked the night shift at an alcohol manufacturing

Speaker 2 00:00:13

company as a quality analyst who was able to become a business intelligence

Speaker 2 00:00:17

engineer in just 95 short days.

Speaker 2 00:00:20

And Rachel was actually just like you.

Speaker 2 00:00:22

She listened to this podcast for 365 days before ever joining the

Speaker 2 00:00:26

Accelerator program and then within four months landed her job And now

Speaker 2 00:00:29

we're interviewing her on the show.

Speaker:

They didn't get stuck on the fact that I didn't have data analyst

Speaker:

experience They were more intrigued by how passionate I was to learn more and grow In

Speaker 2 00:00:40

this episode, you'll hear Rachel's full story of how she was able

Speaker 2 00:00:43

to land the job using the SPN method.

Speaker 2 00:00:46

She learned the right skills.

Speaker 2 00:00:48

I've learned a lot in Tableau.

Speaker 2 00:00:49

Created projects and put them on a portfolio and was able to showcase

Speaker 2 00:00:52

them to recruiters and hiring managers.

Speaker 2 00:00:54

She was shocked

Speaker:

that someone who doesn't really have a background in

Speaker:

business intelligence using Tableau had created a project like that.

Speaker 2 00:01:03

And she was able to use her network to get her foot

Speaker 2 00:01:06

in the door in the data industry.

Speaker:

A friend I go to church with.

Speaker:

One of her friends works at UnitedHealthcare, so he kind

Speaker:

of gave me the opportunity.

Speaker:

Stay

Speaker 2 00:01:14

tuned to hear Rachel's full story and see how you can do the same.

Avery:

welcome to the Data Career Podcast the podcast that helps aspiring

Avery:

data professionals land their next data job here's your host Avery Smith

Avery Smith:

rachel, welcome to the podcast.

Avery Smith:

This is so exciting to have you because you were actually a podcast listener

Avery Smith:

for one year before you ever join my program or anything like that.

Avery Smith:

You were a podcast listener and now you actually made it onto the show.

Avery Smith:

What do you think about that?

Rachel Finch:

It's pretty exciting.

Rachel Finch:

I'm really happy to be here.

Avery Smith:

I'm stoked to have you as well.

Avery Smith:

Your background is in biology, so you got a degree in biology and you

Avery Smith:

thought maybe you'd go into medical.

Avery Smith:

You thought maybe you'd go into nursing or something like that.

Avery Smith:

You ended up as a quality assurance analyst at Anheuser Busch,

Avery Smith:

uh, this alcohol manufacturing company working the night shift.

Avery Smith:

Now, I don't want to, I don't want to you know, uh, Anheuser Busch I'm

Avery Smith:

sure makes some, some great products, but I can't imagine working the night

Avery Smith:

shift was particularly fun for you.

Rachel Finch:

Definitely not.

Rachel Finch:

It was a big change of pace, different lifestyle.

Rachel Finch:

I'm just happy where I am now for sure.

Avery Smith:

Let's talk about where, what you do now.

Avery Smith:

So you were working quality assurance analyst, uh, Anheuser Busch working

Avery Smith:

the night shift and, uh you were like, man, uh, data sure sounds interesting.

Avery Smith:

You listen to this podcast data crew podcast for a year and then January

Avery Smith:

21st you joined the accelerator program.

Avery Smith:

Uh, and then on April 25th, I think just 95 days later, you have an

Avery Smith:

offer for a business intelligence analyst role at Optum Healthcare.

Avery Smith:

That is not the night shift and is fully remote.

Avery Smith:

So let's, let's go through that journey in those 95 days.

Avery Smith:

What was, what was the biggest difference for you?

Avery Smith:

Like what, what changes did you make in your life in those 95 days?

Rachel Finch:

Well, even like leading up to that, in the year where I listened

Rachel Finch:

to your podcast I had a lot of free time and I knew I wanted to go back to school.

Rachel Finch:

Something data, we use Power BI Anheuser for reports showing some

Rachel Finch:

data every on a day to day basis.

Rachel Finch:

So I kind of looked for a podcast I could listen to at night and I found yours,

Rachel Finch:

not even knowing that you ran a bootcamp.

Rachel Finch:

So in January, I actually.

Rachel Finch:

Ran a half marathon.

Rachel Finch:

I, on the same weekend, decided to sign up for your boot camp.

Rachel Finch:

I think it was a very big momentum step for me.

Rachel Finch:

I was just ready to get out of where I was.

Rachel Finch:

And I actually had the opportunity to change from night shift to

Rachel Finch:

afternoon shift for a quarter.

Rachel Finch:

So I had about three and a half months which I dedicated my spare

Rachel Finch:

time to working throughout the boot camp, applying to jobs.

Rachel Finch:

And I think just knowing I had that almost like extra sleep gave me the power

Rachel Finch:

to work through the bootcamp and really gave me the motivation to get a new job.

Avery Smith:

I love that.

Avery Smith:

I didn't know you ran the half marathon the same day, basically same weekend

Avery Smith:

that you signed up for the program.

Avery Smith:

I wouldn't say I'm a big runner, but I do, I do quite a bit of running.

Avery Smith:

And actually, um by the time this comes out, you guys will have to wait

Avery Smith:

one week, but if you're listening, you know, after it came out, I just actually

Avery Smith:

recorded a podcast about, about momentum.

Avery Smith:

And, um, I actually talked about running races as like a momentum analogy.

Avery Smith:

So I love that you had positive momentum going into the program.

Avery Smith:

Love that you spent the extra time cause like, no matter what, what you do in

Avery Smith:

your journey, whether, you know, you join the accelerator, whether you're just

Avery Smith:

watching YouTube videos, you're doing it on your own, whether you're, you know,

Avery Smith:

doing Maven or data camp or whatever.

Avery Smith:

It's going to take a lot of effort and it's going to take a lot of energy.

Avery Smith:

So I'm glad uh, that you cleared your schedule and were able to, you

Avery Smith:

know, put in the effort for a sprint.

Avery Smith:

Really, it was only like you said, a quarter, right?

Avery Smith:

Just, just less than four months.

Avery Smith:

Um, and you are able to land this job at Optum Healthcare as

Avery Smith:

a business intelligence analyst.

Avery Smith:

Um, first off, do you have any business experience?

Rachel Finch:

I mean, I worked at a restaurant when I was

Rachel Finch:

in college selling pizza.

Rachel Finch:

That's probably about as much as I have for customer experience.

Rachel Finch:

Um, business background.

Rachel Finch:

So no, not really.

Avery Smith:

So, well, that's impressive that you're able to land this job.

Avery Smith:

Did they like your biology background at Optum or were they kind of

Avery Smith:

like, ah, we don't really care.

Rachel Finch:

I think it was more so like other experience that experiences I had

Rachel Finch:

that tied into my biology background.

Rachel Finch:

I, at one point I wanted to be a nurse, so I had some like care aid job experience.

Rachel Finch:

I worked in some different labs.

Rachel Finch:

I even worked in a research department of a Rehabilitation hospital.

Rachel Finch:

So I had some data experience with that as well as like working in

Rachel Finch:

that type of patient population.

Rachel Finch:

So they liked that part as well as the more like QA and technical

Rachel Finch:

skills that I learned at Anheuser.

Avery Smith:

I just think that's really important to highlight that even though

Avery Smith:

you maybe didn't have business experience and, you know, maybe you had a biology

Avery Smith:

background, your, your quality assurance analyst role, you know, you had some

Avery Smith:

exposure to BI, you had some exposure to KPIs and metric stuff and stuff like that.

Avery Smith:

And even like as a nurse, which are, or as a caregiver, which doesn't necessarily

Avery Smith:

seem like it would tie into data at all.

Avery Smith:

It definitely has some ways that it ties in which, which is really cool.

Avery Smith:

But with your background, even with the bootcamp you were applying for jobs and

Avery Smith:

you were kind of struggling to, to land interviews at first because you couldn't

Avery Smith:

quite figure out the whole ATS, right?

Avery Smith:

Like it was, it was tricky.

Rachel Finch:

Right, so when I first started, like, uploading my resumes

Rachel Finch:

to the ETS softwares, I had pretty good scores, and then when I started

Rachel Finch:

nitpicking my resume, my scores actually went down, which I thought was shocking.

Rachel Finch:

You know, using keywords, some of them didn't even pick up on the words.

Rachel Finch:

So that was kind of, you know, difficult experience and I think that's where

Rachel Finch:

I really dug deep into the SPN method that you talked so highly about.

Rachel Finch:

The networking part because that's when I started reaching out to other

Rachel Finch:

people I knew in, you know, insurance companies or other healthcare positions,

Rachel Finch:

and if they knew anyone that had openings that they thought I would

Rachel Finch:

be, you know, an asset to the team.

Avery Smith:

That's so cool.

Avery Smith:

And I think it's so, it seems so simple like I talk about the SBN

Avery Smith:

method all the time, uh, right.

Avery Smith:

That you need more than just skills to land a day job.

Avery Smith:

Skills are a part of it, but it's just a third.

Avery Smith:

You need the portfolio and then you need the network.

Avery Smith:

And it's so easy to be like, yeah, I agree with that.

Avery Smith:

I want to follow that but very few people ever actually get very far on the P and

Avery Smith:

even fewer get anywhere on, on the N.

Avery Smith:

And so the, let's talk about the N just a little bit here.

Avery Smith:

So you're like, crap, I can't get past these ATSs.

Avery Smith:

I'm never going to land a data job unless I can figure out

Avery Smith:

how to get my foot in the door.

Avery Smith:

And the easiest way to get my foot in the door is if I know someone that's

Avery Smith:

at the end part of the SBN method and so where did you start looking?

Avery Smith:

Just like friends and family, where you like going through your

Avery Smith:

phone, where you're going through LinkedIn or Facebook or something.

Rachel Finch:

I actually did take a step out of my comfort

Rachel Finch:

zone like you push us to do.

Rachel Finch:

I, you know, looked in, I'm in Florida in the Jacksonville area,

Rachel Finch:

so I was looking in this area.

Rachel Finch:

Just randomly cold messaging people that were in data roles,

Rachel Finch:

asking them how they got there.

Rachel Finch:

Oh, do you have any like you know, advice for someone like me that wants

Rachel Finch:

to break into this field that might not have the exact background, but has the

Rachel Finch:

skills and is working towards the skills?

Rachel Finch:

And I actually ended up a friend from my last job had a friend who worked

Rachel Finch:

for UnitedHealthcare, and just to break it down, UnitedHealthcare and

Rachel Finch:

Optum are kind of like sisters, they're together in the UnitedHealth group,

Rachel Finch:

so he would, he let me know if there was anything I saw job wide to let

Rachel Finch:

him know, and he would Recommend me.

Avery Smith:

Okay.

Avery Smith:

So you basically messaged a friend and you're like, Hey,

Avery Smith:

do you know any opportunities?

Avery Smith:

How'd you know this friend?

Avery Smith:

Was this just like someone from like high school or something?

Rachel Finch:

Actually, a friend I go to church with one of her friends works

Rachel Finch:

at UnitedHealthcare, so he kind of gave me the opportunity, if I had, if I saw

Rachel Finch:

any jobs that I liked, to let him know and he could, Recommend me or let me

Rachel Finch:

know a little more about that position.

Avery Smith:

That's so cool because actually the way I landed my first data

Avery Smith:

job was also through a friend at church.

Avery Smith:

So if you're, if you're trying to land a data job, I guess you

Avery Smith:

guys just got to get to church.

Avery Smith:

Cause that's, that's where all the data jobs are.

Avery Smith:

Mine was a little bit different where I was.

Avery Smith:

I was at, I was in college and I went home for Christmas and I went

Avery Smith:

to church with my family and I saw this guy that had been like a church

Avery Smith:

leader like a church youth leader.

Avery Smith:

And we got talking and at the time I was still a chemical lab technician and I was

Avery Smith:

basically getting paid, Basically minimum wage, maybe even less than minimum wage.

Avery Smith:

And, uh, I was just telling him about that and he's like, well, did

Avery Smith:

you know that I work at a lab right next to, you know, your college?

Avery Smith:

And I was like, no, I did not.

Avery Smith:

And he's like, yeah, you should come check it out.

Avery Smith:

I said, great.

Avery Smith:

I will.

Avery Smith:

And so I went and Took a tour and then they basically were like, well, you want

Avery Smith:

to be a chemical lab technician here?

Avery Smith:

That's that's a great offer.

Avery Smith:

Sure.

Avery Smith:

I'll do that.

Avery Smith:

You guys are paying more than minimum wage.

Avery Smith:

I'll take it.

Avery Smith:

And then eventually that's when I became a, the company

Avery Smith:

I became a data analyst for.

Avery Smith:

So I guess the moral of the story for everyone listening is they just, they just

Avery Smith:

got to go to church to find a data job.

Rachel Finch:

I think so too.

Avery Smith:

Okay.

Avery Smith:

Awesome.

Avery Smith:

So you, you reach out to this friend, you're like, Hey,

Avery Smith:

Just keep an eye open for me.

Avery Smith:

And how long did it take for, for them to send something back?

Rachel Finch:

Well, I had seen a job that looked interesting.

Rachel Finch:

It was kind of had a vague description.

Rachel Finch:

So I sent it along his way and just let him know I was interested in it.

Rachel Finch:

And I applied and he actually had emailed the manager directly.

Rachel Finch:

And I got a call back from the recruiter, maybe two days later

Rachel Finch:

saying that, you know, they kind of got a raving review about me.

Rachel Finch:

They'd like to set it up an interview.

Rachel Finch:

It was kind of just a brief phone screen at first.

Rachel Finch:

But I guess she liked what I had to say and it progressed from there.

Avery Smith:

I want to just pause because you basically went from, you're

Avery Smith:

getting like, like Fs on the ATS tracker.

Rachel Finch:

no, I'm not even kidding.

Rachel Finch:

It really must be a church thing.

Avery Smith:

You're getting Fs and then all of a sudden

Avery Smith:

you're talking to a recruiter.

Avery Smith:

You got, you got a direct line to this hiring manager right away.

Avery Smith:

And I think that just really goes to show how valuable the, the end was, because

Avery Smith:

if, if you didn't do that, if you didn't reach out to this person and from church,

Avery Smith:

You know, you, who knows if you'd have a job right now in the data world, right?

Avery Smith:

You might still be working the night shift, but it's all because that, and

Avery Smith:

was it nerve wracking, like sending that first message to that friend and being

Avery Smith:

like, Hey, can you help me out here?

Rachel Finch:

It was because I knew he had like a pretty high up role.

Rachel Finch:

I but I didn't want to like seem like I was using our connection kind of

Rachel Finch:

per personal gain, but I've realized like since kind of stepping out of,

Rachel Finch:

you know, comfortability that people really want to promote you and really

Rachel Finch:

want to help you when you're driven.

Rachel Finch:

So, that's what I've seen gaining this connection, now

Rachel Finch:

we have one on one meetings.

Rachel Finch:

He lets me know if there's anyone I ever want to talk to just by email to

Rachel Finch:

network with, like he'd set that up.

Rachel Finch:

So if anything, it was a great choice on my end to kind of like put

Rachel Finch:

the ball in his court and send it down, down court to other people.

Avery Smith:

I love that to send it.

Avery Smith:

I fricking think that's the way to say it right there is because like, it is super

Avery Smith:

nerve wracking to send these types of messages, but as long as you're, like you

Avery Smith:

said, like you're ambitious and you're, you're a good person and you're not.

Avery Smith:

Like just trying to use them like you actually value their

Avery Smith:

friendship and you're just like.

Avery Smith:

Hey friend, can you help me?

Avery Smith:

I mean, think about it.

Avery Smith:

If you, if your friend came to you and said.

Avery Smith:

Hey, can you help me?

Avery Smith:

And you actually could help them.

Avery Smith:

You'd want to help them.

Avery Smith:

Right?

Avery Smith:

So I think we get in our head and be like, wow, no one wants to help us.

Avery Smith:

But it's like, if someone came to us and we had the opportunity to help.

Avery Smith:

We definitely would.

Avery Smith:

And if we don't, we just say, you know what, sorry, I can't help.

Avery Smith:

And for, for us or for whoever's asking, they're in the same

Avery Smith:

boat that they were earlier.

Avery Smith:

So really there's not much of a, of a lose.

Avery Smith:

It's a low risk, high reward situation.

Avery Smith:

So I'm proud of you

Rachel Finch:

Thank you.

Avery Smith:

taking the initiative and doing it because there's a lot of people

Avery Smith:

who don't because they're, they have fear and you, you pushed past the fear.

Avery Smith:

I want to talk about when you did talk to that recruiter.

Avery Smith:

What, what did the recruiter say.

Avery Smith:

What were they like interested in you for.

Avery Smith:

Like what, what was that conversation like?

Rachel Finch:

I will say like, she asked me specific questions and I

Rachel Finch:

had mentioned I was in this bootcamp and she was really intrigued by that.

Rachel Finch:

I don't know if it's an up and coming conversation in a lot of these type

Rachel Finch:

of recruitment calls, but she wanted me to go into more detail and I

Rachel Finch:

was able to provide these projects.

Rachel Finch:

At this point I don't think I had gotten to the NBA Tableau project, but I did

Rachel Finch:

the education project at this point.

Rachel Finch:

So I got to talk on that a lot and she was from Massachusetts, so it kind of

Rachel Finch:

like made a further connection for her.

Rachel Finch:

So she got to see the project and originally in my resume, she didn't

Rachel Finch:

know that my projects were hyperlinked.

Rachel Finch:

So she was able to go back to the manager and the director and let them know they

Rachel Finch:

could actually see my work, not just read the little description about the project.

Avery Smith:

So that's super cool.

Avery Smith:

I think that, that one, you had the projects and, and that two,

Avery Smith:

they didn't realize it at first.

Avery Smith:

And then they're like.

Avery Smith:

Hey, do you have any experience with Tableau?

Avery Smith:

And you're like, yeah, just click that, that title right there.

Avery Smith:

And then boom, your, your beautiful dashboard pops up.

Avery Smith:

And I didn't know that the recruiters from Massachusetts and that particular project

Avery Smith:

that you did was on Massachusetts data.

Avery Smith:

That's just super lucky.

Avery Smith:

Once again, cough, cough church, probably.

Avery Smith:

But like the fact that like, this recruiter could go through and

Avery Smith:

be like, Oh, look at this County.

Avery Smith:

Like I totally understand the data that this County versus that County and, and

Avery Smith:

kind of enjoy and have those aha moments.

Avery Smith:

I think that's really what the portfolio is all about.

Avery Smith:

So you kind of nailed that being able to, to show them.

Avery Smith:

Hey, look, I, you know, I have a biology degree.

Avery Smith:

I've kind of worked in the medical field and now I'm kind

Avery Smith:

of working as quality assurance.

Avery Smith:

I might not have the ideal data background, but look, here's some

Avery Smith:

some evidence that I can actually do what your job description says I can.

Avery Smith:

.That must've been kind of a fun feeling to watch them look

Avery Smith:

at your portfolio in real time.

Rachel Finch:

It was cause like, I know throughout the bootcamp,

Rachel Finch:

I was like, Like we said, a marathon, no, it was a straight sprint.

Rachel Finch:

Like I wanted to learn as much as I could to build that portfolio,

Rachel Finch:

to show it off to my network.

Rachel Finch:

So it was really rewarding.

Avery Smith:

Worth it in the end.

Avery Smith:

Okay.

Avery Smith:

Let's talk about the interview.

Avery Smith:

So recruiter interview was, was the first phone call.

Avery Smith:

Is that right?

Avery Smith:

And then what happened from there?

Rachel Finch:

And then she set up an interview with the director of the BI

Rachel Finch:

team and then the manager of the BI team.

Avery Smith:

And how did those interviews go?

Avery Smith:

I

Rachel Finch:

That one was great.

Rachel Finch:

The first interview was great.

Rachel Finch:

She said at the beginning, like, this is just a conversation.

Rachel Finch:

Don't be nervous.

Rachel Finch:

And that's, All it felt, I didn't have any nerves.

Rachel Finch:

Usually I'm like kicking, playing with my feet under the table,

Rachel Finch:

kind of like moving in my chair.

Rachel Finch:

But I didn't have any nerves at all.

Rachel Finch:

It felt so easy.

Rachel Finch:

And I could talk on the projects we did.

Rachel Finch:

I could talk on Tableau.

Rachel Finch:

I could talk on some of the, you know, metrics and KPIs I learned while I was at,

Rachel Finch:

in my role at Anheuser and using Power BI.

Rachel Finch:

So they didn't get stuck on the fact that I didn't have data analyst experience.

Rachel Finch:

They were more intrigued by how passionate I was to learn more and grow in a role.

Rachel Finch:

so I think that's what made me stick out to them.

Avery Smith:

really liked that because in a lot of interview situations.

Avery Smith:

It can feel like, Oh wow.

Avery Smith:

You haven't done any data analyst work in the past, huh?

Avery Smith:

Okay.

Avery Smith:

But if you give them like so much stuff where you're like,

Avery Smith:

I'm super excited about this.

Avery Smith:

I paid my own money and on my own time, I'm learning to do this.

Avery Smith:

Here's, you know, seven of my projects on different themes.

Avery Smith:

Go look at it.

Avery Smith:

I think you're giving them so much stuff that they could think about and

Avery Smith:

talk about and relate to that it kind of makes the interview process a lot

Avery Smith:

easier for them and you in that way.

Avery Smith:

So, I'm glad, I'm glad it went well.

Avery Smith:

So that was, that was like the first, the first interview.

Avery Smith:

What about the final interview?

Avery Smith:

Did that go well?

Rachel Finch:

So the final interview was about two weeks later and

Rachel Finch:

it was everyone on the team.

Rachel Finch:

So I believe six, five or six people.

Rachel Finch:

And I was straight nerves.

Rachel Finch:

I was so nervous that whole time.

Rachel Finch:

I was like, I wonder if they can see me fidgeting.

Rachel Finch:

It was that bad.

Rachel Finch:

And I felt like I answered a few questions really well.

Rachel Finch:

But then it was like I got caught on some word and I just Down downward spiraled in

Rachel Finch:

my head the whole rest of the interview but I remember like a few questions that

Rachel Finch:

were just like probably to calm me down and kind of like joking with them and

Rachel Finch:

I think that might have You know, spark some connection, but they had mentioned

Rachel Finch:

that I was like one of the first people in the second round, so not to be, like,

Rachel Finch:

afraid if I don't hear back for a while.

Avery Smith:

That's, that's good.

Avery Smith:

I think it's really important to not necessarily make jokes, but

Avery Smith:

have that human connection as part of the interview process.

Avery Smith:

When I interviewed Alex, the analyst, we kind of talked about what he looked

Avery Smith:

for when he was a hiring manager.

Avery Smith:

And one of the things he said is like, I want to make sure that these people

Avery Smith:

are going to be part of my team.

Avery Smith:

I want to connect with them.

Avery Smith:

I want to be able to you know, vibe with them and kind of.

Avery Smith:

Be their friend.

Avery Smith:

So I don't, I want to say that's important, but that almost makes

Avery Smith:

it feel like even more nerve wracking in the interview, which

Avery Smith:

people probably don't need.

Avery Smith:

But I think, I think you're right that like that, that friendliness

Avery Smith:

and you're just, you're, you're kind demeanor in general probably,

Avery Smith:

probably went pretty far.

Avery Smith:

And so that was two weeks after the initial interview.

Avery Smith:

Is that right?

Rachel Finch:

Right.

Rachel Finch:

It might have been a little longer.

Rachel Finch:

So I left that interview thinking I did terrible.

Rachel Finch:

But even, even they reassured me a few things like, Oh, none of them ever do

Rachel Finch:

tab low before they started in this role.

Rachel Finch:

So I felt like, okay, I kind of have a leg up.

Rachel Finch:

But when they said like, don't be afraid, it might take a while.

Rachel Finch:

I was like, okay, I need to start looking.

Rachel Finch:

Cause I did terrible.

Rachel Finch:

But two days later waking up at five 30, you know, night shift, waking up.

Rachel Finch:

I was actually going to a concert that night.

Rachel Finch:

So I was going to go into work after going to a concert and I had an email

Rachel Finch:

saying the interview wanted to schedule a final offer call, which was just crazy.

Rachel Finch:

Cause I thought I bombed that.

Avery Smith:

That's a good feeling to have.

Avery Smith:

So that was right before the, the concert.

Rachel Finch:

And I called out of work that night.

Avery Smith:

That is, that is awesome.

Avery Smith:

Okay.

Avery Smith:

And then you scheduled the, the final offer.

Avery Smith:

Um, Wow.

Avery Smith:

Before we get into kind of, first off, congratulations.

Avery Smith:

that's amazing.

Avery Smith:

And hopefully everyone listening is clapping for you right now and jumping out

Avery Smith:

of their chairs because that's amazing.

Avery Smith:

I want to highlight two things.

Avery Smith:

That I think are, are worth pointing out that one, you mentioned that the

Avery Smith:

people interviewing your coworkers.

Avery Smith:

This panel, they, when they had gotten hired, they didn't know Tableau before

Avery Smith:

and you had at least known a little bit, maybe you'd never used it on the job,

Avery Smith:

but through the bootcamp you had learned.

Avery Smith:

A lot of people argue with me online that there's no entry level jobs

Avery Smith:

that don't require experience.

Avery Smith:

Now I think you, you had some good experience, like you said, as a quality

Avery Smith:

assurance analyst, but it's not like this required five years of data

Avery Smith:

analyst experience, but these jobs might not be available on LinkedIn jobs.

Avery Smith:

These jobs might not be available on Indeed.

Avery Smith:

It really took knowing someone that SPN method and the P part of the

Avery Smith:

SPN method to even make it that far.

Avery Smith:

So I just want to highlight that and the second thing I wanted to

Avery Smith:

highlight that you did well is you're like, okay, that interview is over.

Avery Smith:

I'm going to go back to applying for jobs because so many people will land

Avery Smith:

an interview and they'll get so excited and they'll make it to the next round

Avery Smith:

and they'll prep and they'll make it to the next round and they'll prep.

Avery Smith:

And like you said, this was like a two to three week period.

Avery Smith:

And if you're not applying for jobs in that two to three weeks and you get

Avery Smith:

rejected at the end, you've basically just spent a month And you have no new leads.

Avery Smith:

And so people often just like stop applying for jobs and they'll end

Avery Smith:

interviews and you got to keep applying because unfortunately rejections happen.

Avery Smith:

Like it's just part of the process.

Avery Smith:

So I love that you, you were like, okay, I'm going to start interviewing.

Avery Smith:

I'm glad I started applying.

Avery Smith:

I'm glad you didn't have to apply very long, but I'm glad

Avery Smith:

that you had that attitude.

Avery Smith:

Anyway, sorry.

Avery Smith:

Those, those are my two tangents back to your offer letter.

Avery Smith:

So you're excited.

Avery Smith:

You get the offer letter.

Avery Smith:

Are you, who are you calling?

Avery Smith:

Who are you telling first?

Rachel Finch:

My fiance, my parents one of my close friends at work,

Avery Smith:

That's awesome.

Rachel Finch:

and then I reached out to you when I needed some,

Rachel Finch:

some advice for negotiation.

Avery Smith:

Yes.

Avery Smith:

That was just one of my favorite parts of the bootcamp when I cause,

Avery Smith:

cause in the bootcamp, we have our community and some people update like

Avery Smith:

on everything that happens, right.

Avery Smith:

They'll be like, I got an interview.

Avery Smith:

I got rejected.

Avery Smith:

I got an interview.

Avery Smith:

I can't remember.

Avery Smith:

Yeah.

Avery Smith:

If you would, if you had told us about landing the interview or not, but I do

Avery Smith:

remember seeing your, I got an offer, come, come through on the community page.

Avery Smith:

And I'm always so stoked when that happens.

Avery Smith:

And then you and I went to some, some DMs because you were going to have

Avery Smith:

that call, I think like that morning.

Avery Smith:

And so we were talking about salary and, and You know, what you could possibly,

Avery Smith:

you know, try to negotiate salary wise.

Avery Smith:

And we were able to, to get a little bit higher salary than they

Avery Smith:

initially offered which is great.

Avery Smith:

But regardless, even, even if we didn't negotiate, you had a data job

Avery Smith:

that was fully remote, which is kind of the goal that you started off with

Avery Smith:

on January 21st, if I had to imagine.

Avery Smith:

Right.

Rachel Finch:

Yes.

Rachel Finch:

A hundred percent.

Rachel Finch:

I wanted, my goal was even if I didn't get a job by June, I was going

Rachel Finch:

to quit and then full time apply.

Rachel Finch:

That was my goal.

Avery Smith:

And you, you beat it by the, the crazy thing is you had an offer

Avery Smith:

in hand, I think, April 25th or 26th.

Avery Smith:

And like two to three weeks before it was like early April.

Avery Smith:

So basically like you went hard February and March, I mean, end of January,

Avery Smith:

February, March, beginning of April.

Avery Smith:

So really, yeah.

Avery Smith:

Like you, you had this interview two, two and a half, three months into, into this

Avery Smith:

journey, which is absolutely incredible.

Avery Smith:

Now let's talk about your job now.

Avery Smith:

You like it?

Rachel Finch:

I love it.

Rachel Finch:

It's, it's great.

Rachel Finch:

I'm still learning a lot.

Rachel Finch:

No, I just, Celebrated my three months there, but there's just so much more

Rachel Finch:

to be learned and I'm excited for that journey and I don't plan on leaving.

Rachel Finch:

So lots of growth for me.

Avery Smith:

Are they, let's, let's talk about that.

Avery Smith:

So are you learning a lot on the job?

Rachel Finch:

Yeah.

Rachel Finch:

So my team actually works with Tableau.

Rachel Finch:

We use SQL a little bit, Power BI a little bit.

Rachel Finch:

And then like an online platform called healthy analytics but a lot

Rachel Finch:

of the work is kind of separated.

Rachel Finch:

So there's like a data architecture team, a data management team.

Rachel Finch:

So we don't really use SQL.

Rachel Finch:

Like we can go in and see SQL views and query it a little bit

Rachel Finch:

to like check the data, but we're not writing anything in SQL.

Rachel Finch:

So, it's not super coding heavy, which probably is why it was a good

Rachel Finch:

fit for someone that was a beginner.

Rachel Finch:

But I've learned a lot in Tableau, and I think that's like the coolest part

Rachel Finch:

because originally I was like, I don't know if I'm so good at visualizations.

Rachel Finch:

The iFood project, I remember, I can, it's scarred in my brain.

Rachel Finch:

I made a bar chart with red and green, which is like colorblind 101 a no no.

Rachel Finch:

And I'm like, should I go and take that down?

Rachel Finch:

but, just like a bunch of, a bunch of like different

Rachel Finch:

accessibility things I've learned.

Rachel Finch:

For how to color and size visuals, and then of course like, a lot

Rachel Finch:

of those really cool visuals you see on like Tableau Community.

Rachel Finch:

They really are just way too intricate for like people to even understand.

Rachel Finch:

So learning how to make a bar chart and a line graph and like a

Rachel Finch:

scatterplot, like that's all really what you need to know fundamentally.

Avery Smith:

I, I love that.

Avery Smith:

And you, you are great at date making data viz.

Avery Smith:

And I love that you're learning that's, that's part of my philosophy

Avery Smith:

of getting paid to learn, right?

Avery Smith:

Is like, I, obviously like my bootcamp does not teach everything in Tableau.

Avery Smith:

One, I don't know everything in Tableau.

Avery Smith:

I don't think anyone does.

Avery Smith:

But two, if I did, it would be like a year long bootcamp of just Tableau stuff.

Avery Smith:

Right.

Avery Smith:

So, so my philosophy has always been, let's teach you the bare minimum that

Avery Smith:

you need to land a job and then you can get paid to, to learn the rest.

Avery Smith:

On, on the job.

Avery Smith:

That's, that's the goal.

Avery Smith:

So I'm glad to hear that, that you're learning and, and also you

Avery Smith:

have a pretty fun announcement in your learning journey as well.

Avery Smith:

You want to share with the audience?

Rachel Finch:

Yeah.

Rachel Finch:

So I started my master's in analytics just a week ago now through Georgia tech.

Rachel Finch:

So I will be taking that journey for a while.

Rachel Finch:

But I'm really excited about that too and that was one of the, you

Rachel Finch:

know, negotiation points is after six months, my company gives a really large

Rachel Finch:

stipend towards education, which was.

Rachel Finch:

Just like what I would have had at Anheuser Busch is just

Rachel Finch:

a fraction compared to this.

Rachel Finch:

So it really am getting paid to learn that and in downtime on my job they promote

Rachel Finch:

like the LinkedIn learning courses.

Rachel Finch:

Get to watch a bunch of tutorials and Tableau and Power BI.

Rachel Finch:

So really what you say about getting paid to learn is such a big thing.

Avery Smith:

That's that's an important, you know, caveat there that I don't

Avery Smith:

think maybe a quality assurance analyst necessarily understands or

Avery Smith:

like a teacher would understand is like as a data analyst, you're not

Avery Smith:

working from 9am to 5pm constantly.

Avery Smith:

Like on everything that needs to get, like, you have like a

Avery Smith:

free hour every once in a while.

Avery Smith:

Right.

Avery Smith:

And like you said, like your company pays for different trainings that

Avery Smith:

you could possibly, you know, go and participate in there.

Avery Smith:

You have this education stipend.

Avery Smith:

I am curious.

Avery Smith:

So you already have a data job.

Avery Smith:

Why are you getting your master's?

Avery Smith:

I'm curious to hear

Rachel Finch:

Honestly, just so I can learn more.

Rachel Finch:

I don't have a big, you know, programming background background,

Rachel Finch:

so I'd like to learn more in that.

Rachel Finch:

But also, I don't know if I wanna pursue like the business track or more

Rachel Finch:

of like, like machine learning and things like that, that maybe taking

Rachel Finch:

classes forces me to learn more.

Rachel Finch:

So I think, you know, take advantage of the opportunities your company gives you.

Rachel Finch:

So.

Avery Smith:

a hundred percent.

Avery Smith:

I'm with you.

Avery Smith:

I, I actually, I took the same masters that you're taking.

Avery Smith:

And I started that my like, really like after I'd been promoted from

Avery Smith:

my first data job right about the time I started my second data job.

Avery Smith:

That's when I, when I started that and it was, it was mostly because I

Avery Smith:

was like, I I'm already in the field.

Avery Smith:

I love the field, but I want to make sure that like I can teach in this field.

Avery Smith:

So I could eventually go on to start data crew jumpstart.

Avery Smith:

I didn't know that at the time, but, but that was kind of like

Avery Smith:

what, what I was thinking, you know?

Avery Smith:

So I think it's awesome.

Avery Smith:

I think it's, I think it's great.

Avery Smith:

And I think you did it in the right order, right?

Avery Smith:

Because I mean, the program that you're doing in the end isn't

Avery Smith:

millions of dollars but you know, it's, it's thousands of dollars.

Avery Smith:

I think it's a, it's a good program for price wise, but a lot of people will

Avery Smith:

spend, you know, 40, 000 and then still not have a data job by the end of it.

Avery Smith:

Right.

Avery Smith:

And so I think you did it in the right order where it's like, I got the data job.

Avery Smith:

I got my fully remote work.

Avery Smith:

I enjoy, you know, doing what I, what I like, and they're going

Avery Smith:

to pay for me to go to school.

Avery Smith:

I think that is the correct order to do it.

Avery Smith:

And so job well done on optimizing that.

Rachel Finch:

Thank you.

Rachel Finch:

Nice, nice little plan words there.

Avery Smith:

Exactly.

Avery Smith:

Okay.

Avery Smith:

Oh, I didn't even catch that.

Avery Smith:

I just caught it now.

Avery Smith:

Oh man.

Avery Smith:

Long day.

Avery Smith:

Okay.

Avery Smith:

Well, that is, that is so amazing that you went through this, this journey.

Avery Smith:

You know, going from biology landing this, this, this data role what do

Avery Smith:

you feel like was, was the biggest factor for you in your journey?

Avery Smith:

Like if you were to, to meet, you know, Rachel from let's

Avery Smith:

say a year and a half ago.

Avery Smith:

um, What would you tell Rachel?

Rachel Finch:

Probably sign up for the bootcamp sooner.

Rachel Finch:

Um,

Rachel Finch:

There's just so many like, similarities that my story has with yours that

Rachel Finch:

I was like, I have to do this.

Rachel Finch:

Like, and then just like not giving up.

Rachel Finch:

I know motivation gets really low when you're, you know, spending

Rachel Finch:

hours on the projects, and then the write up comes, and the write

Rachel Finch:

up's like the longest part for me.

Rachel Finch:

But just like being consistent, and I know I'm not super

Rachel Finch:

great at posting on LinkedIn,

Rachel Finch:

But throughout the bootcamp, I was pretty good about it.

Rachel Finch:

And just like working with the community.

Rachel Finch:

I know I had like talked to a few people in the bootcamp and I spoke with someone

Rachel Finch:

that was a BI analyst in Anheuser Busch.

Rachel Finch:

And then I got someone in the bootcamp to talk to him as well.

Rachel Finch:

So just like using that network was really important, I think.

Rachel Finch:

And definitely, you know, like you say, not, not letting

Rachel Finch:

fear get in the way of things.

Avery Smith:

I think you did a great job, a job of that

Avery Smith:

networking and, and ignoring fear.

Avery Smith:

Rachel, it's been such a pleasure to have you in the bootcamp and on the

Avery Smith:

podcast and, and hear your story.

Avery Smith:

And thanks for sharing your story with the thousands of people

Avery Smith:

that, that will listen to this.

Avery Smith:

I know that they can take a lot for you.

Avery Smith:

So thanks for coming on the show.

Rachel Finch:

Thanks for having me.