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.