Starting off
In May 2021, I started an internship at D&M Research.
I still remember the first moment of the interview, when I introduced myself to Derek and Tiffany, talking about how much I love data science and how much it can help businesses. Even though the analytical tools they use are different from the ones I am experienced with, I look forward to learning new things.
I could feel a sense of openness and respect during the interview. We ended up having some interesting conversations about our favourite sports and fun things to do in our spare time. They actually appreciate and value my résumé, experience, and me as an intern.
Here are some of the tasks I was assigned in the first few weeks:
- Familiarising myself with Q, a software we use to analyse survey data.
- Migrating data from different sources into Q for analysis.
- Understanding and learning the programming skills in Web Survey Creator which is used to run surveys online.
Fortunately, my colleagues are a group of amazing people who are willing to spend time teaching and guiding me, especially Emre and Katie. It helps me learn efficiently and effectively as I can always raise questions whenever I have them and they will give me a hand without any hesitation.
I soon got my first real project. It was research about the quality of teaching sessions from the Canterbury Referees Association. Derek entrusted me with this analysis task, giving me valuable hands-on experience and I really appreciated it.
Challenges
Unfortunately, at the end of last June, Sydney saw a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. Shortly thereafter, Derek asked all employees to work from home as he believed it was the right course of action. With more and more cases to follow, a lockdown was announced by the NSW Premier and the whole team was ordered to work from home until further notice.
It suddenly changed everything, and it was definitely disappointing for someone who had just started their internship and looked forward to contributing and learning. Daily greetings and chit-chat were replaced by communicating through and waiting for emails, and daily online group meetings.
Even though technology provides a rich experience in terms of presenting, communicating and meeting, it is far removed from the in-person experience. Also, technology issues are another obstacle when working from home. For example, a document may not be compatible with both Mac and Windows, or a piece of software may not be available at home without a licence. These difficulties have given many businesses and employees a hard time. Particularly for an intern like myself, I was restricted in learning and practising software which I needed frequently for my work.
Like the broader economy, our company has experienced a slowdown in business due to the continued lockdown. But I am looking at it in a positive way; I have plenty of time to upskill myself and reflect on my work since joining the company. I took some online courses, studying how to make better data visualisations and comparing the theory learned from courses with real projects. Also, I learned more about financial analysis and modelling. It didn’t seem to benefit my internship in terms of knowledge and skills as the company works with data differently, but it somehow broadened my perspective and knowledge in the aspect of numerical and data analysis.
Dream projects
One day, to my surprise, Derek asked me about what kind of “dream” projects I would hope to work on in the next few weeks. I believed that small projects that could help me develop my independence as an intern would be ideal in the short term, as I am eager to feel and achieve a sense of achievement in my career.
Derek asked me to analyse and report on a number of mini polls, which gave me incredible hands-on experience since I could actually start my own projects and work through them till the end. Even though they won’t be for specific clients, the findings will be posted on this website soon, so I feel like I am helping the company in some way.
From my experience of project at university, I was more of an “analysis guy” who only focuses on cleaning data, building models and finding insights. However, during the mini poll analysis, I am finding that the way the data is presented is just as crucial as it needs to be clear and engaging to the audience. D&M Research has high production values in its reports, and I look forward to developing my skills in this area.
Looking to the future
The future is unpredictable and there are so many things that aren’t in our control. However, there’s no reason to be pessimistic. We are a small but strong team, who always care about each other, and have an owner who always puts himself in our shoes, trying to empower and grow his employees. I am glad that I am still sailing the ship with the team while Australia fights COVID’s stranglehold. While we all look forward to the return of our freedoms, I will keep upskilling myself and grab any opportunity to contribute to the company.
Alex is from Taiwan and has a Sociology background but recently graduated from The University of Sydney, majoring in Data Analytics. He is a data analyst with skills in data processing, ELT and modelling. He is experienced in turning data into insights and delivering actionable analytics to support decision making. One of the reasons he loves data analytics is that he can understand the big picture through analysis. Before D&M, he interned at ShopItEzy, an online grocery shopping store, and AdoptAI, a IOT company mostly doing data collection and visualisation.