Christopher Capotosto - Business Administration
Christopher is a senior at University of California, Riverside studying Business Administration. He is also a Tableau Student Ambassador.
How did you get started with Tableau?
I was first introduced to Tableau in the Winter of 2019 through an assignment in one of my Information Systems classes. The assignment was just to explore Tableau and the Superstore data, take screenshots, and write one paragraph describing what I liked. After playing around with bar and line graphs for a while, I discovered the map feature and fell in love with the mix of geography and technology. After that, I started looking online on what else was possible with Tableau!
How has learning Tableau impacted your academic track/career?
I was first able to use my past employer’s sales data to identify markets in other states which later resulted in the company expanding and establishing their East Coast operations. Later on, I was able to use Tableau to geographically visualize crimes at UC Riverside for a Start Up competition hosted by Deloitte and do other visualizations at my time interning for Indra Sistemas over the summer. Through the ambassadorship I have been able to meet a lot of amazing students and professionals at Tableau and other firms that share a passion for data.
Tell me a bit about how you became a student ambassador and the work you’ve been doing with students this year!
Last spring a member from my professional development org (ALPFA) knew that I had some experience with Tableau and nominated me to be an ambassador. A few weeks passed and I got an email from Tableau asking to schedule a call, the rest is history! This year I have been able to guest speak in two Information Systems lectures at my university, hosted two interactive Tableau workshops, and did an interview with my University’s LinkedIn ambassador. I am actually working with UC Riverside’s Academic Board so that I can teach my own class about Tableau and its application in different industries. The class was just approved to be taught in Spring 2020!
Do you have any advice or tips for students starting out with Tableau?
You don’t need to be an engineer or a data scientist to work with data. Tableau makes it very simple to get started and has a creative aspect to it. My advice would to not be discouraged when starting out. Tableau is like any other software; the more you use it, the better you will get!
Connect with Christopher on Linkedin.