Macallik's Professional Development Thread

[macallik]

Time and Money. Two things that go hand in hand. I am at a point in my life where I believe that if I made more money, I could have more time to myself to pursue other goals in my life. Right now, most probable way for me to do that is by proving to my employer (or my next employer if necessary) that I am worth more money than I currently receive. I currently work as an Analyst at a company. It sounds fancy but I was promoted internally to the position, so my skillset could definitely use some refining.

This journal will document the steps I take to increase my value to employers. One of the main points that I want to illustrate is that, much like the dating world, you don't need to spend a lot of money to display value.

Additionally, one theme of the journal is how, in life, setting goals helps to guide me towards success. I belief that with structure and accountability, I will have a much higher probability of achieving my goals. Feel free to comment in this thread and give me advice/feedback or scold me if I am not keeping myself honest.

Current goals:

1. Start an online journal to hold myself accountable
2. Create a list of goals to achieve
3. List the skills that would be advantageous to me and my company.
4. Using the ideal skillset from #3, create a list of online courses that are ideal
5. Enroll in the most relevant course (if possible one that is currently open instead of an archived course)
6. Schedule when you will take the course as well as how much of the course needs to be completed on a weekly basis
7. Set a deadline for completing the course
8. Plan a reward that can only be unlocked once I pass the course

I read that having someone else taking the course at the same time greatly increases your chances of completing an online course, so please PM me or post a comment if you are interested in taking a course with me.

 

[PrettyBoyAJ]

What type of analyst are you? What income level are you at now and what do you want to make?

 

[macallik]

Hey AJ,

Didn't want to put too many personal details in the thread so I sent a PM

 

[macallik]

Crappy day at the office today. Nobody said/did anything bad to me... I am disappointed in myself because I spent most of my day watching The Breakfast Club interviews on Youtube. At my job is the holidays, so hardly anyone is in the office, but I know I can do better than the effort I put in at work today. It is harder for me to believe that I am worth more money if my day-to-day actions aren't congruent.

The main reason for the lack of focus at work today is that a female friend spent the night yesterday and I only slept for a few hours. When I don't get enough sleep, I am easily distracted at work and make poor decisions in general. Luckily, I am aware that I can still try and make the day productive by tackling my goals in this journal.

Advantageous Skills to Work On

1. Excel/VBA:
   • My job does a lot of work in Excel. Adding some automation to those spreadsheets will definitely be a good look. Specifically anything related to VBA.
   • Currently I do not have Microsoft Office at home so I would have to take lessons on my downtime at work and/or bring my work computer home with me
2. Data Visualizations:
   • I attended a Data Viz seminar recently. It wasn't that great but the textbooks might have some good insight perhaps...
   • There are some client reports that are in dire need of being reworked. I can volunteer my efforts for this project and supplement my usual insights with an online course.
3. SQL (Database Language):
   • I use SQL on a consistent basis at work. I bought a book and was working through it for a while but never finished it. My learning kinda plateaued after a few months. I developed this habit where when code would get too long, I would almost mentally check out. This stunted my ability to excel for sure but noticing the habit I have made some improvements in the last few months. I definitely want to find time to brush up on my SQL but I think that studying SQL is a lower priority. I think that digging into it at work on a daily basis should be sufficient for now, and in the future I will work specifically on improving my foundational SQL skills
4. R (Programming Language):
   • I have taken some online course that taught R (as well as some packages inside of R that teach R.. talk about meta). However, my understanding of Statistics is nowhere near where it needs to be. As a result, even when I use R for data, I am never 100% sure that my assumptions are logical. Although it is an area of interest this may not be a high priority for the time being
5. Statistics:
   • Never took Statistics in College. This is a monumental hill for me to climb. With that said, it should be a top priority if I want to become more confident in my job. It is a high priority but because of the time required in order to make a dent, it is not the top priority for the time being.

My Decision
After some digging around this afternoon, I have decided to take an online edX course on Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Excel. I think this works well for me because it tackles Visualization of Data as well as using Microsoft Excel. As a result, I am tackling Skill #1 and Skill #2, and tackle an existing problem at my company that needs to be addressed (Client Reports need to be updated). I enrolled in the course today, but I will not pay for the Verified version of the course until I am 100% sure it is compatible with my company's version of Microsoft Excel.

I also came across another course that I am interested in taking... The course is: Introduction to Actuarial Science. This course will allow me to tackle Skill #5 on my list in a structured way.

I do not have the time to take both courses at once, and even if I did, I don't want to risk burning myself out like I have done in the past. The Intro to Actuarial Science is on the back burner for now, but I would like to have both courses completed by mid-March because I vaguely remember that being around the time of my Yearly review.

The next time I post in this thread, it will be to confirm that I bought the course, spelling out a schedule to stick to, setting a deadline and thinking up a reward for completing my task.

Current tasks:

1. Start an online journal to hold myself accountable
2. Create a list of goals to achieve
3. List the skills that would be advantageous to me and my company.
4. Using the ideal skillset from #3, create a list of online courses that are ideal
5. Enroll in the most relevant course (if possible one that is currently open instead of an archived course)
6. Schedule when you will take the course as well as how much of the course needs to be completed on a weekly basis
7. Set a deadline for completing the course
8. Plan a reward that can only be unlocked once I pass the course

 

[macallik]

Great day at work today. No procrastinating and I definitely felt like I earned my paycheck and then some. In addition to completing my regular work tasks, I managed to pay for the Excel course and complete the first section. It is split up into 8 sections so it was good to make a dent in the course already. My goal is to complete 2 sections per week, take a week off, and then, take the Actuarial Science course and complete that by the end of February.

Current tasks:

1. Start an online journal to hold myself accountable
2. Create a list of goals to achieve
3. List the skills that would be advantageous to me and my company.
4. Using the ideal skillset from #3, create a list of online courses that are ideal
5. Enroll in the most relevant course (if possible one that is currently open instead of an archived course)
6. Schedule when you will take the course as well as how much of the course needs to be completed on a weekly basis
7. Set a deadline for completing the course
8. Plan a reward that can only be unlocked once I pass the course
9. Adhere to the schedule below:
   • Complete Sections 1-2 of the course by 1/4
   • Complete Sections 3-4 of the course by 1/11
   • Complete Sections 5-6 of the course by 1/18
   • Complete Sections 7-8 of the course by 1/25

In terms of planning a reward... there are not a lot of things that I am interested in buying. I thought about upgrading my TV, but my current TV isn't giving me any problems.... I thought about buying a PS4, but I don't make time for my PS3 as it is and I have a lot of games I want to play before I move to the latest and greatest. I already have a tablet that I like and although my phone is giving me issues here and there, I will try rooting it because I don't want to pay any more money for a phone for the near future.

 

[macallik]

Yesterday I successfully completed the sections allocated for this week. Got a head start on the current week as well. Feeling a little tired and having trouble staying focused today but I will try and make some more progress.

Right now, the things that I am learning in the course are interesting but more importantly, if it does what I think it does, it could be a real game changer at my job. Time will tell though...

In terms of a reward that can only be unlocked after I complete the course, I am leaning towards a book that I read about online. Still undecided but that looks to be the leading reward as the book costs +$60.

Current tasks:

1. Start an online journal to hold myself accountable
2. Create a list of goals to achieve
3. List the skills that would be advantageous to me and my company.
4. Using the ideal skillset from #3, create a list of online courses that are ideal
5. Enroll in the most relevant course (if possible one that is currently open instead of an archived course)
6. Schedule when you will take the course as well as how much of the course needs to be completed on a weekly basis
7. Set a deadline for completing the course
8. Plan a reward that can only be unlocked once I pass the course
9. Adhere to the schedule below:
   • Complete Sections 1-2 of the course by 1/4
   • Complete Sections 3-4 of the course by 1/11
   • Complete Sections 5-6 of the course by 1/18
   • Complete Sections 7-8 of the course by 1/25
   • Watch Youtube video on Power Query to get a better understanding of the capabilities

 

[macallik]

Completed section 3 already and am working my way through Section 4 to accomplish my weekly target. I have already watched the +1 hr Youtube walkthrough on Power Query and it is a game changer. It can scrape data from a website and refresh the data if the website is refreshed as well. I am thinking about making my reward for completing the course an inexpensive Windows 10 computer so that I can play around with Excel more.

I had a few meetings with my boss today and the information that I learned in the course indeed looks like it could assist greatly in reworking our external reports. As it stands right now, I am the only person on the team with knowledge of Power Query and Excel Data Models so this makes me the SME (subject matter expert). I want to make sure I am well-versed as a result so I want to make sure that I finish the course on time (if not sooner). It looks like this was a great goal to set up and is reaffirming my worth at the company already.

The one other concern in the back of my head is that the reports are a big task and I have some other tasks that will pile up and become bigger issues if left unresolved. I need to get my ducks in a row overall before I dive 100% into the report redesign.


Current tasks:

1. Start an online journal to hold myself accountable
2. Create a list of goals to achieve
3. List the skills that would be advantageous to me and my company.
4. Using the ideal skillset from #3, create a list of online courses that are ideal
5. Enroll in the most relevant course (if possible one that is currently open instead of an archived course)
6. Schedule when you will take the course as well as how much of the course needs to be completed on a weekly basis
7. Set a deadline for completing the course
8. Plan a reward that can only be unlocked once I pass the course - I will be buying an expensive book and/or an inexpensive laptop.
9. Adhere to the schedule below:
   • Complete Sections 1-2 of the course by 1/4
   • Watch Youtube video on Power Query to get a better understanding of the capabilities
   • Complete Sections 3-4 of the course by 1/11 - making progress and almost finished
   • Complete Sections 5-6 of the course by 1/18
   • Complete Sections 7-8 of the course by 1/25
10. Catch up on your other work so that you don't fall behind anywhere else

 

[macallik]

I knocked out Sections 3-4 on time and I chipped away at Sections 5-6 over the weekend. Feels good to learn things that can be advantageous to me personally, my company, and my resume at the same time.

I maaay have jumped the gun and purchased my reward before finishing the course... I saw a great desktop computer that I couldn't pass up on. Having a Windows Computer at home means I don't have to lug my work computer home on the weekends to take the course. Not sure when I will have the time, but it also means that I can start analyzing open sourced data as well which I've been meaning to do.

I need to definitely get a hold of things at work this upcoming week. I am not falling behind or anything just yet but I need to make sure I am executing on my deliverables and that my overall work doesn't suffer in the mean time.

Current tasks:

1. Start an online journal to hold myself accountable
2. Create a list of goals to achieve
3. List the skills that would be advantageous to me and my company.
4. Using the ideal skillset from #3, create a list of online courses that are ideal
5. Enroll in the most relevant course (if possible one that is currently open instead of an archived course)
6. Schedule when you will take the course as well as how much of the course needs to be completed on a weekly basis
7. Set a deadline for completing the course
8. Plan a reward that can only be unlocked once I pass the course - I will be buying an expensive book and/or an inexpensive laptop.
9. Adhere to the schedule below:
   • Complete Sections 1-2 of the course by 1/4
   • Watch Youtube video on Power Query to get a better understanding of the capabilities
   • Complete Sections 3-4 of the course by 1/11
   • Complete Sections 5-6 of the course by 1/18
   • Complete Sections 7-8 of the course by 1/25
10. Catch up on your other work so that you don't fall behind anywhere else

 

[macallik]

Currently working on Section #7. I am so close to finishing, I can almost taste it. Did a little bit today but I am not as motivated as I could be. Going to place my efforts on something else productive today and maybe try to knock this course out tomorrow. I am downloading Microsoft Office on my new computer as we speak. Nothing can stop me now *evil laugh*

Current tasks:

1. Start an online journal to hold myself accountable
2. Create a list of goals to achieve
3. List the skills that would be advantageous to me and my company.
4. Using the ideal skillset from #3, create a list of online courses that are ideal
5. Enroll in the most relevant course (if possible one that is currently open instead of an archived course)
6. Schedule when you will take the course as well as how much of the course needs to be completed on a weekly basis
7. Set a deadline for completing the course
8. Plan a reward that can only be unlocked once I pass the course - I will be buying an expensive book and/or an inexpensive laptop.
9. Adhere to the schedule below:
   • Complete Sections 1-2 of the course by 1/4
   • Watch Youtube video on Power Query to get a better understanding of the capabilities
   • Complete Sections 3-4 of the course by 1/11
   • Complete Sections 5-6 of the course by 1/18
   • Catch up on your other work so that you don't fall behind anywhere else
   • Complete Sections 7-8 of the course by 1/25

 

[SmooveMooves]

Great read. Alot of guys start these sort of things & don't finish them. Nice to see someone sticking to their goals and improving.

Keep working bro.

 

[macallik]

Thanks @SmooveMooves ! It definitely is good to hear some positive feedback in the journal. I have tried a few online courses in the past year and have had mixed reviews. A few times I got burned out, distracted or lost my motivation. Thanks to this journal though, I can say that today I successfully completed my Excel data course. What makes it even better is that I am already finding ways to use it at my job and become more efficient so it was a great choice on my part.

I planned on taking the week off and starting the new course in February, but I think I will ride the positive momentum and jump into the next course (Introduction to Actuarial Science). I am going to spell out a plan again so I need to come up with another reward, set a timeline to stick by, etc. As always, if anyone is interested in taking the course with me, shoot me a PM or post in this thread.

Current tasks:

1. Start an online journal to hold myself accountable
2. Create a list of goals to achieve
3. List the skills that would be advantageous to me and my company.
4. Using the ideal skillset from #3, create a list of online courses that are ideal
5. Enroll in the most relevant course (if possible one that is currently open instead of an archived course)
6. Schedule when you will take the course as well as how much of the course needs to be completed on a weekly basis
7. Set a deadline for completing the course
8. Plan a reward that can only be unlocked once I pass the course - I will be buying an expensive book and/or an inexpensive laptop.
9. Adhere to the schedule below:
   • Complete Sections 1-2 of the course by 1/4
   • Watch Youtube video on Power Query to get a better understanding of the capabilities
   • Complete Sections 3-4 of the course by 1/11
   • Complete Sections 5-6 of the course by 1/18
   • Catch up on your other work so that you don't fall behind anywhere else
   • Complete Sections 7-8 of the course by 1/25

 

[macallik]

I've slacked off in a major way after taking the last course. Going to have to recalibrate and set some goals again to get back on track

 

[macallik]

Quick update. I am starting a new course right now on Statistics. Going to create a schedule and make some progress over the weekend. It is not my first choice for courses I wanted to take, but it is starting now and I need to get on board and have something to show for my time so yeah.

 

[macallik]

Alright I drafted a schedule to tackle the current online course I will be taking:

Current tasks:

1. Complete Descriptive Statistics Course on Udacity
   1. Complete Lesson 1 & (part of Lesson 2) by 3/13
   2. Complete Lesson 2 & 3 by 3/20
   3. Complete Lesson 4 & (part of Lesson 5) by 3/27
   4. Complete Lesson 5 & 6 by 4/3
   5. Complete Lesson 7 by 4/10
2. Review what you learned and then take the rest of the week off decompress (through 4/17)
3. Complete Inferential Statistics Course on Udacity
   
   1. Complete Lesson 8 & (part of Lesson 9) by 4/24
   2. Complete Lesson 9 & 10 by 5/1
      
   3. Complete Lesson 11 & (part of Lesson 12) by 5/8
      
   4. Complete Lesson 12 & 13 by 5/15
      
   5. Complete Lesson 14 & (part of Lesson 15) by 5/22
      
   6. Complete Lesson 15 & 6 by 5/29
   7. Complete Final Project by 6/5

The website says it takes about 2 months to finish at 6 hours/week. I am trying to knock it out in just under a month and a half so I am going to try and put in 9 hours/week. I don't want to destroy my weekends, so right now, the plan is 2 hours of studying after work on Mondays & Wednesdays, 1-2 hours of studying during work on Thursdays and then 1-2 hours of studying over the weekend.

Glad to finally plan things out. Things feel more productive already. I already started the first lesson of this course on Friday and it is definitely a much better experience than the John Hopkins Statistics Statistical Course on Coursera.

 

[macallik]

Successfully completed my 3/13 tasks with time to spare.

In fact, it has been a pretty productive start to the course. I just finished up Lessons 3 today so I am ahead of schedule. I can feel the tasks requiring a bit more concentration so I make sure not to rush through anything. I have finished my task for the entire week already, but I am going to still put in six hours of studying to keep my progress and sense of accomplishment going.

Current tasks:

1. Complete Descriptive Statistics Course on Udacity
   1. Complete Lesson 1 & (part of Lesson 2) by 3/13
   2. Complete Lesson 2 & 3 by 3/20
   3. Complete Lesson 4 & (part of Lesson 5) by 3/27
   4. Complete Lesson 5 & 6 by 4/3
   5. Complete Lesson 7 by 4/10
2. Review what you learned and then take the rest of the week off decompress (through 4/17)
3. Complete Inferential Statistics Course on Udacity
   1. Complete Lesson 8 & (part of Lesson 9) by 4/24
   2. Complete Lesson 9 & 10 by 5/1
      
   3. Complete Lesson 11 & (part of Lesson 12) by 5/8
      
   4. Complete Lesson 12 & 13 by 5/15
      
   5. Complete Lesson 14 & (part of Lesson 15) by 5/22
      
   6. Complete Lesson 15 & 6 by 5/29
   7. Complete Final Project by 6/5

 

[Glumix]

Great job macallik! Keep up the good work!

 

[macallik]

Been an abnormal two weeks and I've fallen behind in sticking to my tasks. Going to redouble my efforts tomorrow.

 

[macallik]

Slacked off a bit but back on the grind. I'm about 1.5 weeks behind at the moment. I have done about a Lesson and a half in the past two days so I can catch up at this pace.

One thing I like about the course is that it is broken up into such small pieces that if I don't get a concept, I usually have to go back, at most, 30 seconds. Really makes the learning less daunting.

Current tasks:

1. Complete Descriptive Statistics Course on Udacity
   1. Complete Lesson 1 & (part of Lesson 2) by 3/13
   2. Complete Lesson 2 & 3 by 3/20
   3. Complete Lesson 4 & (part of Lesson 5) by 3/27
   4. Complete Lesson 5 & 6 by 4/3 (did not meet the 4/3 timeframe)
   5. Complete Lesson 7 by 4/10
2. Review what you learned and then take the rest of the week off decompress (through 4/17)
3. Complete Inferential Statistics Course on Udacity
   1. Complete Lesson 8 & (part of Lesson 9) by 4/24
   2. Complete Lesson 9 & 10 by 5/1
      
   3. Complete Lesson 11 & (part of Lesson 12) by 5/8
      
   4. Complete Lesson 12 & 13 by 5/15
      
   5. Complete Lesson 14 & (part of Lesson 15) by 5/22
      
   6. Complete Lesson 15 & 6 by 5/29
   7. Complete Final Project by 6/5

 

[macallik]

Procrastinated for half of a year but time to get refocused. Updated timeline for the Inferential Statistics course:

Current tasks:

1. Complete Descriptive Statistics Course on Udacity
   1. Complete Lesson 1 & (part of Lesson 2) by 3/13
   2. Complete Lesson 2 & 3 by 3/20
   3. Complete Lesson 4 & (part of Lesson 5) by 3/27
   4. Complete Lesson 5 & 6 by 4/3 (did not meet the 4/3 timeframe)
   5. Complete Lesson 7 by 4/10
2. Review what you learned and then take the rest of the week off decompress (through 4/17)
3. Complete Inferential Statistics Course on Udacity
   1. Complete Lesson 8 & (part of Lesson 9) by 11/13
   2. Complete Lesson 9 & 10 by 11/20
      
   3. Complete Lesson 11 & (part of Lesson 12) by 11/27
      
   4. Complete Lesson 12 & 13 by 12/4
      
   5. Complete Lesson 14 & (part of Lesson 15) by 12/11
      
   6. Complete Lesson 15 & 16 by 12/18
   7. Complete Final Project by 12/25