Finding a community and career through data skills

When Bhumika Arora boarded her flight to begin a strategic marketing master’s degree at Imperial College London, she was ambitious about improving her data capabilities with the latest technology, all while finding her feet in a new city. “Coming to London to study was a new experience for me,” she says. Before starting her course at Imperial College, Arora took the initiative to connect with alumni on LinkedIn. Through these connections, she discovered that some of them were part of the Tableau community’s Ambassador programme. This discovery piqued her interest in learning more about Tableau’s free academic resources and the impact the community could have on her education and career.

After downloading her free Tableau for Students licence, Arora gained access to Tableau Prep, Tableau Desktop and eLearning. While her skills grew through these resources, she wanted to be part of the community to deepen her connections, enhance her learning opportunities and stand out in the job market.

“I had been looking at incorporating Tableau into my own work and wanted to learn more,” she says. “My alumni connection explained how I could get involved in presenting workshops and campaigns while studying.” After being accepted onto the Ambassador programme, Arora was nervous about running workshops and admits she felt imposter syndrome, so approached Tableau users and employees on LinkedIn. This led to a valuable meeting with Tableau’s chief technology officer for EMEA at the time, Francois Zimmerman, which helped her to feel more confident running Tableau events at Imperial. 

Now well into her stride, each workshop that Arora runs helps to inform the next one and she is keen to pitch the employability benefits of data visualisation to those who take part. “I roped in previous ambassadors who had secured great roles to talk about their experiences and how the data skills they acquired through Tableau helped them to secure job interviews,” she says. As an international student in London, she found the community of Tableau users friendly and welcoming, and meeting them in person at Tableau user groups also helped boost her confidence. “Tableau is not just a skill, it’s a community I have joined,” she says.

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Since completing her master’s, she now works as a growth marketing executive at StoryTerrace. Amit Gami, head of marketing at StoryTerrace, says that Arora's role as a Tableau Ambassador and familiarity with the software was a huge factor in his decision to hire her. “The brand recognition and her work with Tableau made her stand out from more than 90 other CVs and could immediately be placed at the top of the yes pile,” he says. 

Arora noticed when she began applying for roles that her Tableau skills helped her to stand out when it came to interview stages requiring case studies or presentations. “I could see the difference because I was getting selected for more interviews compared with those in my university cohort who did not have Tableau skills in their profile,” she says. “It meant I was more comfortable putting charts and visualisations together compared to what someone might compose in Excel. I could take a sample dataset and build custom calculations and animations for example.” 

Arora intends to continue her association with Tableau as she’s already recognised by LinkedIn as a voice of data visualisation and is building up a community of users. Her work at StoryTerrace enables her to gather insights from the company’s customer relationship management software and social media interactions, allowing her to support different departments with campaigns. “This is just the sort of job I’ve always wanted,” she says. “I get called into meetings about new product developments and exploring potential customer markets. I love being that expert that everyone comes to.”

Start your own Tableau journey by requesting your Tableau For Students licence today. 

Love Tableau and want to spread the word? Learn more about the Tableau Ambassador programme here.