By Corentin De Ro, Tom Vandorpe
The Roots Academy is a four-week program that prepares new junior employees at Dataroots for their first project. Through a blend of theory and hands-on exercises led by experts, new joiners gain essential technical and soft skills while connecting with colleagues through group projects and team-building activities/ In this blog post, two of our attendees share their firsthand experiences at the Roots Academy. Read more to learn about the skills they gained and insights into this program.
What to expect, week by week
Week 1: On the first day of the Roots Academy, we were welcomed with breakfast in the office, which was the perfect ice-breaker.
Throughout the first week, we trained alongside data engineers, ML engineers, and data strategists, gaining an introduction to each field through foundational classes. The sessions were led by Dataroots colleagues, allowing us to meet many team members in the first week, which helped us to feel integrated into the company right away. A fun team building event was also organized in the first week, giving us the chance to connect outside of the work environment.
Week 2: We were divided into groups based on our areas of expertise: Data & Cloud, AI or Data Strategy. These sessions allowed each group to dive deeper into their preferred disciplines. Each team member was also paired with a coach and a buddy. Our coaches helped us define our career path and goals, while the buddies helped with questions and provided everyday support.
Week 3: Training continued with more hands-on sessions. We truly appreciated the practical segments in each class, as we had the chance to immediately apply what we’d learned just hours before.
Week 4: We put theory into practice through group projects. In teams of 3-4, we worked on one of these real-world projects:
- Document anonymization
- News Slack bot
- Machine learning for a public transportation organization
We then presented our projects to the other participants and instructors.
The Final Project
Concluding the Academy with a final project made total sense for all of us. Each project was concrete, with real-world applications, providing us with a valuable opportunity to develop both soft and technical skills. These projects were designed to foster complementary teamwork. Therefore, the teams were thoughtfully composed based on each member's expertise and experience. A Data & Cloud Engineer would work alongside a Machine Learning Engineer, which were both accompanied by a Data Strategist. Mixing profiles and skills allowed us to learn even more from one another throughout the project. Of course, we were not left to navigate the process alone as stakeholders and tech support were readily available to give advice, opinions, or answer our questions.
Collaboration and communication were central to our projects. We quickly understood the importance of clear and structured documentation and version control tools like Git. Technical skills represented the biggest challenge which therefore demanded a willingness to explore and learn. We had to push our limits and get our hands dirty. However, this experience was highly valuable, as the true impact of such projects lies in their production phase and usability. This aligns perfectly with where Dataroots places its emphasis and delivers the greatest value to its clients.
Our learning outcomes
By the end of the academy, we had a solid overview of the various building blocks of an end-to-end data pipeline. This knowledge is essential for a team of data engineers, data scientists, data strategists, and others to work together efficiently.
One of the most significant outcomes was building a strong theoretical foundation. Being able to follow and contribute to data discussions is essential for growth in this fast-evolving field. Through this experience, we discovered how complex a whole data architecture can be and how important it is to understand what happened/happens/will happen with your data.
Another key takeaway was learning to master client interactions. Building a strong rapport with clients is essential for consultants, yet it’s not always easy. Fortunately, we gained practical tips for managing difficult client situations.
It was an intensive 4 weeks of learning and hands-on experience but it offered us an exciting glimpse into the realm of data. Now our data careers are now officially launched!
- Corentin & Tom
Get in touch
Want to work with our talented graduates, join an upcoming Roots Academy, or just learn more? Get in touch! Contact us at info@dataroots.io