Chris Westlake - Mathematics
Chris is a senior at University of Edinburgh studying Math and Statistics. He is also a Tableau Student Ambassador.
How did you get started with Tableau?
In 2018/19 I took a year out of university to do an internship. It was a couple of months into this that Neil Richards led a team meeting where he showcased some of his work in Tableau, which you can see here, here, and here. Having always had an interest in data and appreciated the representation of it, these appealed to me. I was able to use Tableau through the rest of my internship, learning how the software worked as I went along. The ease with which one can learn to use the tool themselves is one of my favourite things about it! Using datasets provided through Makeover Monday was what I used almost exclusively. Dashboards published by the Makeover Monday community provide a great amount of inspiration.
How has learning Tableau impacted your academic track/career?
I have known that I wanted a career in a data for a while but it was only when I started using Tableau that I really knew what form I wanted that to take. Tableau showed me that there was a platform where data can be analysed and presented to an audience in a fun, interesting and informative way – all within one bit of software. Amazing! Though Tableau is not used in courses at my university I have been able to leverage it in a couple of assignments as a way to make more understandable graphs than are available through Excel or R with similar ease.
Tell me a bit about how you became a student ambassador and the work you’ve been doing with students this year!
When I saw that Tableau was looking for Student Ambassadors I couldn't believe it. Here was a way to take what I had been learning back to university, be able to share it with other students and keep on learning more myself! I was a bit hesitant. Seeing what other people were doing with Tableau compared to my own work I felt sure I would never be accepted. Figuring there was nothing to lose I went for it and a few weeks later got the shock of my life! In the new year I will be leading workshops introducing students to the simple drag and drop interface, dashboard creation and Tableau Public. I hope to use these basic skills to run sessions where students can learn to create an interactive resume and learn from industry professionals how Tableau has impacted their career and why it is a fantastic skill to have.
Do you have any advice or tips for students starting out with Tableau?
Get involved with the Tableau community in whatever way you can. Go along to a user group if there is one nearby. Start connecting with people on Twitter. They are all amazing people who love to share what they do and help others. I found this at TC last month, arriving feeling like a very small fish in a very large pond but there were so many people willing to teach me so much through various conversations and offering to help me improve my skills further as I continue to learn the best ways to use Tableau. Create that Tableau Public profile. Tweet about what you are creating and uploading. I promise you will not regret it!
Follow Chris on Twitter and Tableau Public