Reflections: 2017

2017 is coming to a close, and I wanted to break my blogging hiatus to reflect on the last 12 months.

Working abroad

One of the best parts of the Data School was having the opportunity to not only work in the UK, but also abroad - and I was lucky enough to spend my final placement working between the UK and mainland Europe. The experience was really good fun, and the work exposure was awesome. I learnt about the trials and tribulations of working remotely, and across time zones - something I again was able to do later on in the year.


I also met these fun dudes while wandering around.

In fact, personally & professionally it’s been a fun year - I’ve visited 8 countries in total (OK, this list also includes Scotland…)

Uncharted territory

I joined the Information Lab permanently after finishing my 2 years as part of the Data School (but being a part of the Data School is forever, right?!) - and Carl Allchin (a great colleague, friend and mentor) encouraged me to shadow our Tableau Server guru, Jonathan McDonald. I’d had barely any experience of managing or administering a Tableau Server on my three placements, and while I knew some basic concepts, it was a whole new world to me. I’d thrown myself in the deep end with Alteryx Server on my final placement, and learned on the fly, but never had had the opportunity to do the same with Tableau.

Met some swans innit.

However, learning from JMac, I got more and more involved with Tableau Server - and I’m proud to say that between April and December, I pushed myself to pass both the Tableau Server Qualified Associate exam AND the Certified Professional exam. If you’d told me this on the 31st of December 2016, I probably would have laughed - Servers were a field and a concept I was alien to.

Marry this up with passing the Tableau Desktop Certified Professional exam, boom - I’m fully Tableau Certified! This is one of my biggest achievements of 2017.

Expeditions & conferences

I also was able to attend the Tableau Conference in Las Vegas this year, sandwiched between some travelling of the US - a bunch of us from DS1 road tripped across from Oakland to San Francisco, down to spend a few nights in Yosemite before driving through Death Valley to Las Vegas. The trip ended after the conference, where we spent some time around the Grand Canyon.

It was stunningly beautiful and super fun - and the Conference did not disappoint. Meeting & conversing with a vast range of people enthusiastic with Tableau was awesome, and developing my own knowledge was incredibly useful. My highlight, though? Meeting and speaking with Devs. Simply awesome.

So what’s next?

I’m never one to goal set across a long period of time - because both personal and professional life is fluid - but guidelines can be fun. And my only guideline to myself is to continually reinvent & develop my own skillset and knowledge. And of course, have a ton of fun on the way.


I hope to pick up my blogging routine and branch out across other media - and most importantly share more about my ideas for Tableau, for Alteryx and as much as I can in this space (with some room for sports analytics, of course)

I hope you, Reader, the very best health, wealth and happiness for 2018!