Business Intelligence Job Shadow
Professional development is crucial to planning for the future, and one experience that helped narrow my goals was job shadowing at the It Works! Global corporate office. It Works! is a fast-growing sales company, and I had the opportunity to spend a week job shadowing their business intelligence team to learn about what they do.
I was able to spend some time with them learning the basics of SQL querying, and seeing what ways they use that information. SQL querying allows analysts to pull specific information from massive databases. For instance, they can create reports on sales based on individuals, regions, time frames, or any other characteristics. In addition to regular reporting, they were also working to improve directed marketing. By looking at common correlations in purchases, they can predict what other products people are likely to buy. This type of predictive analytics was fascinating to me, because it is an incredibly powerful tool that can be used in nearly any field. At my USCIS internship, for example, they could use predictive analytics to determine what trends, if any, there are in the languages spoken by people visiting the field offices. Then, if there is one office which a significant, say, Japanese population, that office could take steps to hire more Japanese speaking adjudicators and thus improve the experience for visitors. Another way it could be used is in theme parks. The introduction of Magic Bands to Disney World has given them the ability to see exactly how and when people move throughout the parks. By tracking crowd movement, they can make improvements that will increase throughput of congested areas, allow guests to maximize their experience, and thus entice them to return. This experience helped me realize that a good analyst can tell stories with numbers, and those stories can drive decisions that will help lead companies toward their goals.
I was able to spend some time with them learning the basics of SQL querying, and seeing what ways they use that information. SQL querying allows analysts to pull specific information from massive databases. For instance, they can create reports on sales based on individuals, regions, time frames, or any other characteristics. In addition to regular reporting, they were also working to improve directed marketing. By looking at common correlations in purchases, they can predict what other products people are likely to buy. This type of predictive analytics was fascinating to me, because it is an incredibly powerful tool that can be used in nearly any field. At my USCIS internship, for example, they could use predictive analytics to determine what trends, if any, there are in the languages spoken by people visiting the field offices. Then, if there is one office which a significant, say, Japanese population, that office could take steps to hire more Japanese speaking adjudicators and thus improve the experience for visitors. Another way it could be used is in theme parks. The introduction of Magic Bands to Disney World has given them the ability to see exactly how and when people move throughout the parks. By tracking crowd movement, they can make improvements that will increase throughput of congested areas, allow guests to maximize their experience, and thus entice them to return. This experience helped me realize that a good analyst can tell stories with numbers, and those stories can drive decisions that will help lead companies toward their goals.