SemAngel

Getting Started in Digital Analytics

One of our long time team members, Ryan Praskievicz, recently pushed a terrific blog reflecting on how he got started in Digital Analytics (with Semphonic). Since all my free time is still tied up trying to get the book draft finished, I'm grateful for the opportunity to point readers his way. If you're curious about how careers in digital analytics get started (pretty randomly mostly - the way careers often get started) it's a great read. It's also worth reading if you're on the hiring side of things. If hunting for a job feels random, so too, does the hiring process from the company side. Understanding both sides of the equation has benefits - and this is the type of problem that's often best understood in a novelistic, anecdotal fashion.

One aspect of our hiring at Semphonic that always both surprised and pleased me was how varied in interest, educational background and outlook the people we ended up hiring were. We mostly hired people like Ryan who had no real experience in the field - which certainly made it seem like a crapshoot. That it worked well on a fairly consistent basis is food for thought when it comes to reflecting on what really matters when you hire someone. Years of experience or the right degree are rarely on the list...

Enjoy Ryan's post here!

 

Bureaucracy 1 Book 1 Me 0

Way back at the beginning of June I knew we were running very late on getting X Change organized but I still figured to target late October or early November. But it’s become clear that we are just too late to get things organized and do the normal Conference marketing in that timeframe. So for now, we’ve made the decision to push it – probably to next spring. It’s a bummer but in some ways it works better...for me at least.

As regular readers may have noticed, I haven’t blogged much in the past six weeks either. That isn’t because I’ve stopped writing. The thing is, I’m finally writing a book (Measuring the Digital World) and the due date for the first draft is in the middle of August.

Looming is the word I think people use for that kind of deadline.

Like every other first-time author, I’m way behind and trying very hard to find whatever free time I can to write. So in truth I’ve been cranking out what amounts to two or three blogs daily and I decided I just couldn’t afford the time away from the book for anything else – including my regular posts. When I finish (on time I hope), I’ll be back to my regular schedule and I have a load of ideas and material accumulated.