What have you been up to in your first 6 months?

It’s been a whole mix of things. I’ve mainly been focussed on the ongoing managed service work, picking up a lot of the support work within the data team, not only for managed service clients e.g. as a DBA, but also with project support throughout the company as it comes in.

I’ve also worked on some internal projects for the company and for my team. This means it’s been very varied and I’ve managed to work with a broad range of people throughout the company and mostly everyone in my team.

What has been your most notable moment?

Because I’m new to Azure it’s been pretty cool to pick up a lot of new knowledge on how to fix things and get hands-on experience, so that alone has been notable.

However, the biggest thing would probably be getting accepted to speak at the New Stars of Data conference in May with my colleague, Taylor, about what life is like as a junior Data Professional. It’s not something I would have seen myself doing so quickly and so it’s cool that we got accepted.

I’m also surprised with how many certifications I’ve been able to do, the learning side of things is great in Quorum.

What is your experience of our flexible working approach?

Gaining contextual knowledge is more difficult when you’re working remotely, it’s been a learning curve, but I’m more comfortable now in my own skills and knowledge.

I like to try and come to the office a couple of days where I can, because on the weeks I’ve exclusively worked from home I do feel a little more burned out.

Having said that, my last couple of years at Uni were remote because of Covid and so it’s not completely alien to me and I’ve managed to become productive while working from home. I think I’ve found a good balance.

How easy or difficult was it to fit into your team?

I’ve fit into the team very well, it’s been really good. I’ve never felt like the newbie, maybe that’s down to my work experience in Quorum (even though it was only for one week, nearly seven years ago!). I’ve stayed in touch with or already knew some of the people on my team and I was happy to see that the culture I liked had remained the same over the years.

But getting to know everyone has been brilliant and so I’ve been able to just get stuck in. The company events have also been amazing to meet and get to know people from all over the company, so I feel like I’ve got decent rapport with people across the company, not just in my team.

What do you hope to achieve in your next 6 months in Quorum?

I’m really looking forward to the conference stuff and getting more involved in the data community. I’d hope to work on a major client engagement on a longer-term basis too.

There are a few internal projects that people have come to me with that I’m excited to work on, just to see what I can do with certain Azure services like PowerBI that I want to try out, given the resources and access I’ve got through Quorum.

I definitely want to achieve some more certifications and try to put them into practice across client work and personal projects that I’m really excited to work on going forward!