Data Analyst new role - culture shock at new place

Question

I recently changed from a 4 year consulence as Data Engineer in a big consultancy firm to a Data Analyst Role with Tableau and PowerBi in another consultancy company for a stable contract.

In previous company everyone believed in me because by mistakes and trial I managed to become a good,reliable and fast with several raises to salary. Performance reviews were good and I've always managed to become better. Now in this new company I managed to pass the trial thanks to me shortening some tasks of one week and by getting two certification in first month. I'm the only data analyst in the project.

Team is mostly formed from non technical peoples. I've been assigned some tasks and I did some mistakes due to lack of knowledge domain (not technical but functional) : there is no documentation on where data is, the model and the flow of data. They gave me some guidelines on how to do the task but I still have to interpretate what my manager wants and ask to several peoples pieces of information to get my job done.

To become fully operative I used 4 days(getting access,understanding domain)and thankfully there is a non technical colleague that is explaining me the whole flow and domain, helps me in a functional knowledge to get my work done.

I know that I'm a Junior, I'm open to become better and that I'm not fast and quick as a senior data analyst.

I feel at the same time stupid, but I'm managing to do the job and still clash with the lack of help from team in something that for them is easy.

I feel that they expect me to do the job with the speed of a senior, but I don't have a senior supervising me, so I'm alone with my speed, knowledge and mistakes.

Mood is low and I don't know if I'm being too harsh on me. Sometimes I feel that I'm not fit but I tell myself that I'm still working and completing tasks after 4 years. I don't understand if these expectations are correct, are they right and I have to tough up ?

Thanks for any suggestions

Tl:dr - struggling with short term projects, lack of supervision and help

Answer 1

I've been a statistician/analyst for 25 years, and 90% of success is good communication with non-technical people.

In a data analyst role, you are no longer in the interface between technical realms, but in the interface between technical and business realms.

Communication and translation will be critical, so work on that first. You are probably able to work with the data engineers at your new company pretty easily, so work on business.

Answer 2

It sounds to me like you have a case of imposter syndrome which happens pretty frequently to people joining new companies, especially if they're the only one on the team doing their particular role. There are several ways to help combat this, but the one that I would recommend is really making sure there's not a disconnect between the way you view yourself and others view you.

Talk to your manager on a regular basis and figure out if they're happy with your work/speed. Track the amount of work you're doing and see if it's similar to other people on your team. Often, people will feel they aren't working as fast as they "should" be, but it's actually a perfectly acceptable speed to everybody else on the team. You were hired as a junior, so unless your manager has explicitly said they're unhappy with your speed, they likely are happy with you. Imposter syndrome just steals your ability to realize that.

Answer 3

I would like to give a clarification of things have turned : I've been replaced from a senior but at the same time he's having my same difficulties and questions. My boss called and told me that it was not a problem of performance, so they will take disciplinary actions against the project team and I will be put on a new project.

While the PM of this team emailed all HR and made a shit of me, they still wanted to hear from next project a positive feedback to cancel this story.

The only problem is that with the load of work It's not easy to study for certifications and data model / BI new stuff.

A bad situation ended in a good way(kind of). Thank you for all your answers

After 1 year : Put in a new project where I'm always since that post, a senior narcisist colleague changed company and I've been left alone, they've been hell months in that time, but I've managed to do Data engineer and Analyst activities alone and fixing all his mistakes. Now I Do Junior PM, Create POC's (and since now two projects have been approved by client :-) ), Fix what others sometimes aren't able to do, Junior Solution Architect, DBA .

Answer 4

Trust yourself, ask for more details, listen more. Then listen more, even more. What people want really? They need more speed or someone reliable?

At work in my experience speed is important, but what is crucial is be part of the team, help team, explain what do you plan to do, how do you plan to do and then do it.

Then ask for review of the process, data, everything.

Non techical people can underestimate how much time need a simple task ( "why aren't machine able to understand how do this? " ) and amount of details you need to complete your work.

Be patient, work on details and talk with people and listen ( visually also ) what they really need.

Don't be shy! Ask questions, kindly, but continue to ask!