How do you become a good data consultant?

Marloes wrote this article based on an interview with Rogier Kamer, our Development Manager 

Digital Power is a people's company. We do not sell products. Our team is our strength. We share our knowledge with our clients and each other. Customers who ask for our data expertise count on us to have the latest knowledge in our field. That is why we as an organisation become better as our people continue to develop. Fortunately, our culture trajectory in 2020 showed that our employees, each and every one of them, consider their development very important! 

What does my development as a data consultant at Digital Power look like in daily practice? 

If you are new to Digital Power, start onboarding. You first get to know the organisation, people, systems and processes. You can participate in weekly content meet-ups, learn from the challenges of others through your peer group and see which questions colleagues ask each other in Teams. By observing and listening carefully, you will hear and learn from your new colleagues what they are doing.

If you are thinking 'I want this too! ', your development has really kicked off. You determine your development goals and we will help you find experienced colleagues who can guide you in achieving your goals. They prepare you from their own experience for challenges you may encounter and share what how they tackled issues in achieving the same goal. So they are not trainers who explain everything from A to Z, but rather sparring partners. We call this the Golden Triangle.

"You determine your own development goals, choose your supervisors and determine the frequency of the conversations you have with them. This way you are in control of your own development."

Have you reached your development goal? Then you set a new goal. Your colleagues in your current Golden Triangle may not be able to help you with this. In that case, together we will look for someone who can. Over time, you therefore work with different sparring partners that you choose based on your current development goals.

If you have been working with us for some time, we assume that you will be primarily deployed for your specialisation. As a Data Analyst you are therefore mainly concerned with Data Analytics issues. Do you also want to develop in another area and, for example, gain leadership skills? You can also achieve such a type of development goal under the guidance of your Golden Triangle. If we cannot find anyone internally who can help you achieve your goal, we will look for an external sparring partner for you.

Can I really develop in all directions? 

You decide what you want to develop. As long as it fits your position, assignment and/or matches the data theme, everything is negotiable. As a Data Analyst, this way you can 'taste' CX optimisation, as a Technical Web Analyst at Data Engineering, etc. 

Do you get super excited about another specialisation at Digital Power? Then you can have yourself retrained.  

What are examples of development goals of data consultants at Digital Power? 

There are two types of development goals:

• Learning a specific hard skill. Think of a tool or programming language. To achieve this goal, you follow workouts. You choose these training courses in consultation and discuss progress with the supervisors from your Golden Triangle.
• Learning a soft skill. Think of managing stakeholders, working more efficiently or presenting effectively. We offer in-house training on these topics throughout the year. You can also discuss work situations with your supervisors, learn to recognise and change them. In this case, your supervisors act as a sounding board.

Do you find it difficult to determine your development goals? We use an app called TruQu with which you can request others' feedback. You might be inspired by that! You can also exchange thoughts with our Business Managers about gaining knowledge and skills that are commercially interesting. After all, they know exactly which themes and questions are relevant to customers.

What if I discover that a development goal doesn't suit me? 

Halfway through a development process, you can decide that a development goal does not suit you after all. This is ok! Even if you discover that you do not find something fun or interesting, you have learned something and you did well as far as we are concerned. You will of course stop working towards this goal, and we would like to challenge you to formulate a new goal.

How can I follow training courses if I am on a full-time assignment for a client? 

Depending on your development goal, we ask you to learn (partly) in your own time. We invest in you the time you would normally work for your client and now put into your development. In addition to the costs of the training/education you want to follow, we therefore take into account the hours invested during working hours.

All Digital Power employees have an unlimited training budget. This can be used, in consultation, to gain knowledge and skills that make you a better professional. You can always use this budget, regardless of how long you have been working with us.

In order to record that you are following a course or training programme, we work with a training agreement. The greement confirms that we have invested in you and therefore appreciate that you continue to use the knowledge you gain for us. Think of this as a car lease agreement: if you go to work elsewhere, your new employer usually takes over this contract. Of course, this also applies the other way around: have you entered into a training agreement with your current employer and are you coming to work for us? Then we will of course take over the agreement.

Looking for a job as a data consultant where you get plenty of room to develop? 

We are looking for curious talented minds who always want to go one step further. Discover more about working at Digital Power or view our job vacancies. 

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