Read Heta's career story and learn what working with data is like.
Companies are now investing in understanding and managing data at an unprecedented pace – after all, business decision-making increasingly relies on data that has been pre-processed, organized, and visualized by data professionals.
Technical experts navigating the depths of data, especially data engineers, are currently highly valuable in the labor market as they play a key role in making organizations operate smarter. Heta Strömberg, who graduated from the Academic Work Academy Data Analytics training in the spring of 2021, also realized the future of data.
What made Heta change her career to data? And what does the work of a data engineer involve – read more below!
Problem-solving drew her in
Before Academy, Heta worked in emergency care for 15 years, but shift work began to feel too heavy over the years.
“I started to think about what other job could feel as exciting as emergency care. My friend encouraged me to look into data analytics because they knew I like mathematics and problem-solving,” Heta remembers.
At the same time, her friend also mentioned the training provided by Academic Work Academy.
“Since the Academy training model is designed specifically from the perspective of adult students, I was immediately interested in the possibility of changing careers through a 12-week intensive training program.”
When she was accepted into the Academy data analytics training after the application process, Heta quickly noticed both the challenges of studying and its rewarding aspects.
“From the start, it was repeated to us that we should trust the learning process. During the studies, a lot of new things come in a short time – you cannot and should not internalize everything at once.”
Through her studies, Heta learned to trust that as knowledge grows, her own understanding and skills would gradually develop.
“The mindset of lifelong learning fits the IT world particularly well, where tools, platforms, and ways of working change constantly. Internalizing this mindset has also helped me move forward in my new career,” Heta says.
Every day with data is different
There are many types of roles within data analytics. A data engineer is above all a technical expert who processes data into the most usable form possible. This can mean, for example, collecting data from different sources, combining it, and refining it. Based on this information, a data analyst creates reports and visualizations or models analyses that support organizational decision-making.
These tasks are also part of the workdays for Heta, who currently works with Business Intelligence tools.
“Along the way, my role has changed so that I now also develop and create working models for using the Power BI platform. At the same time, I get to teach others the best practices for using this specific platform,” Heta describes her job.
In Heta’s work, it is good to have experience with the entire data lifecycle so that functional reports can be created.
“All the different stages of utilizing data require a lot of reflection and testing. These are exactly the factors that made me excited about this field. In data processing, every day is different and problem-solving is part of daily work – it keeps the interest high day after day.”
Heta believes that data analytics is the future even more than we understand at this moment.
Variety brings meaning to work
After Academy, Heta has continued her studies, and her IT Master’s studies are already more than halfway through. Data analytics and developing herself in that field still interest her.
Career progression is also important to Heta, as learning new skills keeps motivation for work high. The best things about working with data are the meaningful challenges. Sense of meaning increases when days are not routine but have enough variety.
“I don’t know a better feeling than solving a problem that might have been hanging on the desk for a long time waiting for a solution,” Heta says happily.