5 Tips from a Data Career Mentor

Influential data coach Prasann Prem shares his top tips for career success.
Larissa Amoroso

There are two things Tableau Visionary and Social Ambassador Prasann Prem loves — data and helping others. As a Senior BI Engineer at Emirates NBD, Prasann’s Tableau data visualizations were used by more than 10,000 people at his company. After vizzing for his day job, Prasann threw himself into sharing his data knowledge and expertise with others. Today, he is a full-time data coach, happy to share tips for career success.

A commitment to giving through mentoring

Since 2021 Prasann’s Tableau Buddy program has mentored more than 400 individuals across two dozen countries, ranging from senior managers to others just starting out in their careers. Tableau Buddy isn’t a by-the-numbers training course, it involves one-to-one video calls and building close relationships with each and every learner.

Calls might be queries related to work and tips to improve skills, or requests to build an early career roadmap and develop specific skills in Tableau to help land a job.

Tableau Buddy started out as a free mentoring service – “Your friend, who you can talk to about Tableau and data” – and while Prasann now charges a modest fee, every dollar generated is donated to a cancer charity. “If you help others without thinking that you should be getting something back, it comes back 10-fold.” He laughs: “Don’t tell this to anyone!”

The role of a data coach: practical advice and emotional support

“I try to be a helping hand to motivate and connect mentees with learning resources and other professionals willing to give advice,” says Prasann. “The essence of mentoring is to give people a subtle push so they stretch themselves. At the same time, they should feel that you have their backs because when they are comfortable they’ll be more confident and more willing to push.”

Emotional support is combined with practical guidance. “After every call I share a customized roadmap for the next three months and flag resources from the Tableau Community to help people get started. I know this guidance has helped many people land jobs, enhance their professional brand on LinkedIn, and win promotions.”

“I’ll give you an example. Recently, one of my mentees wanted to become a full-time freelancer. I helped her realize that it was really possible by following a simple roadmap and putting in the time to improve her data skills. She landed a well-paid gig within two months.”

Two roadmaps shared on the left, the objective is to kickstart your tableau journey. On the right, the objective is portfolio dev and career advancement

Prasann Prem’s example roadmap he builds for his mentees for career success.

Prasann has also been an associate of the Data Visualization Society since 2022, leading several cohorts of learners through a 10-week program. His latest initiative is VizDiner, which teaches Tableau techniques and data storytelling skills. The program is already bearing fruit. Two people in the first cohort found jobs in data right after the program and one was named a ‘Top Voice for Data Science & Analytics’ on LinkedIn soon after.

Searching for the data stars of tomorrow

As if all this wasn’t enough, Prasann is pressing ahead with Tableau Buddy Sandbox, which will select and nurture 18 individuals free of charge over four months.

“I’m collaborating with other mentors to put Sandbox together and we want to scale it up to help many more people as we go forward; not just teaching them analytical and visualization skills but also equipping them for success,” he explains. “We’ll focus on individuals who want to make a career transition and land a job in data in the future; people who might be struggling.”

This speaks directly to Prasann’s own life experience. “I graduated in mechanical engineering, so I wouldn’t have thought of finding my niche in data visualization. I really believe that if I can change course and make a career in data, anyone can!”

Top Tips from a Data Career Mentor

Prasann Prem’s Tableau Public profile

#1: Data is a consistent practice, and sharing your learning will put you on a good trajectory

Prasann encourages all his mentees to create visualizations consistently. “You have to push yourself. Keep building visualizations. If you are just talking about it and not doing it, that won’t really advance your learning. Share what you have created and learned, whether it’s online through social media and blogging or one-to-one with a data peer. Whatever material you can share with others will truly make an impact.”

#2: Tableau Public is your secret weapon

"A major milestone for me was when I started using Tableau Public. I saw so many different types of visualizations people were building from the same data sets, and it really inspired me and helped me improve.”

To accelerate his learning with Tableau Public, he adopted a few key methods. First was reverse-engineering dashboards from authors he admired, implementing their features to quickly learn best practices and complex calculations. Additionally, he followed Tableau Featured Authors and Tableau Public Ambassadors, which provided Prasann with great ideas to incorporate into his own visualizations.

#3: Learn from others. There are so many great resources out there

Here is Prasann’s personal list of great resources to turn to as you learn Tableau:

• Tableau website: White Papers

• YouTube: Andy Kriebel and sqlbelle

• Reading: The Big Books of Dashboards

• Podcasts: Storytelling with Data and Data + Love

• Twitter/X: Follow the #DataFam hashtag

#4: Be generous with your time, and connect with data people

The Tableau Community has had a profound effect on Prasann. “The Community has been a transformative experience for me,” he says. “It’s a very friendly, welcoming space, so get out of your comfort zone and connect with as many people as you can! Don’t be transactional. Connecting with others and participating in Community challenges is the best way to showcase what you can do. Be open to giving your time and knowledge without expecting to get anything back. Search for the #DataFam keyword on X and do a 10-minute scroll every day. You will learn, get inspired, and will be updated with what's happening in the data visualization industry. Also, you will find people to follow and grow your network.” Prasann also finds Tableau User Groups to be an excellent way to connect with data people. “TUGs are my favorite! I will highly recommend Newbies, Analytics, and Tableau Public User Groups to grow your network.”

#5: Grab opportunities when they present themselves

Recognizing opportunities and acting on them is vital. “If an opportunity presents itself, you have to grab it. Send a message to members of the DataFam via LinkedIn or X as quickly as you can. I think that, to be successful, you have to be a little shameless when it comes to knocking on doors, but that doesn’t mean you lose integrity. Even as you push hard, try to be calm and patient. Looking at the experience of hundreds of my mentees I would say that if you are eager to improve and love your work, things will work out.”

Prasann suggests a few ways to discover new opportunities.

• “Do a passion project. They give space to show your creative side and show your personality. Passion projects require time and planning and you might use multiple data sources, demonstrating the ability to complete the lifecycle of a business innovation product or dashboard. Projects like these impress interviewers and you will have a great story to tell when discussing the work.”

One of Prasann’s recent passion projects, The Song of Time

• “Find a partner or a viz mentor. Collaborate with senior Tableau professionals in any way that might help them, and ask them to guide you on building a project with a real use-case scenario.” Prasann recommends the free 10-week mentorship program hosted by Data Visualization Society, VizCollab run by Nicole Klassen, or reaching out directly to DataFam members actively participating in challenges like #MakeoverMonday and #Back2VizBasics.

After all this practical career-building advice, Prasann returns to his core themes: connecting and giving. “The thing I love most about Tableau Community and my mentoring work is that I can connect with people from all over the world at a time when the world seems less together,” he says. “Getting involved in data helped me find my purpose, which is to help others through the Community. It’s been a great journey and I want to continue helping people. This is what motivates me and keeps me going.”

Connect with Prasann Prem

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