The Path to an Insights Career Is Not Always Straight and That’s OK: Brian Fowler with David Mills

David Mills, trained in environmental studies, has been working to transition into a new career in data analytics at what some may consider an advanced age. 

David Mills began his professional career with a strong academic foundation, earning a Bachelor of Science in Biology in the 1980s and later earning a Master of Science in Environmental Studies in the 1990s. Initially, he aimed to become a teacher and obtain his teaching certification, but soon realized that his behavior management skills were lacking, prompting him to reconsider his career path.

His quest led him to take various short-term lab technician roles at Dartmouth Medical School, but he found the work didn't suit him. In 1991, he secured a temporary full-time position with the Vermont Groundwater Management Section of the State of Vermont, where he gained valuable experience working alongside scientists and learning to navigate complex regulations. 

Inspired by his work, he looked towards further educational possibilities within the environmental science field. His search led him to Antioch University Graduate School (now Antioch University of New England) where he enrolled in the Environmental Studies Department. His thinking at the time was, "What could be cooler than doing field work and spending time outside while on the clock?!" This immersive program was rich with practical experience, including internships focused on wetlands delineation and mapping, water quality analysis, and wetlands mitigation.

Mr. Mills completed his Master’s program with an extensive project analyzing the water quality of Blodgett Brook in New Hampshire. His work involved a thorough collection and analysis of samples, culminating in an 87-page report with numerous charts, graphs, and a detailed bibliography with source materials from Dartmouth and UNH.

After graduating from Antioch, Mills struggled to gain professional work, bagging groceries and becoming a sales associate in the electronics department at Staples for almost a year. Eventually, persistence paid off when David started his role as an Account Processor for YBP Library Services, where he reviewed Machine Readable Catalogue (MARC) records for accuracy, ensuring labels were correct and clean, and delivering them to the warehouse. The repetitive, non-intellectual nature of the work at this job increasingly became a turnoff.

After eight years at YBP, Mills resigned roughly a year after the new owners mandated 10 percent overtime. The prospect of additional physical and mental strain of extra hours in the data verification process led him to pursue his goal of hiking the 2,200-mile, 14-state Appalachian Trail. His six-month journey marked the beginning of an extended break from traditional work.

For a decade, David Mills took an extended break from the traditional workforce. His mother had passed away, leaving him an inheritance, and he saw the opportunity to answer questions he had about the world and himself. Descriptions of this kind of stage or phase later in someone’s life are often described as “personal growth and exploration” or “exploring his curiosity” with good purpose and reason. Careers can and should be long, but they only happen if you work on yourself first. Hiatuses and sabbaticals can bring holistic healing, rejuvenation, and realignment. They can help you find focus, avoid burnout, and get back to your “true self” when it seems you need to find direction and purpose. 

As David retreated from professional life in early semi-retirement, he enrolled in Toastmasters, a group he has been actively engaged in for almost 20 years, having served in various officer positions, including Area 12 Director (Concord, NH) and earning the Distinguished Toastmaster award in July 2020. Additionally, he participated remotely in a French-speaking club in Ottawa for two years.

His curiosity led him to journalism, and David joined the Society of Environmental Journalists and attended their conferences in Florida and Texas. He had eight professional travel writing clips that were published in local websites and magazines before becoming disillusioned by the practical realities of starting a career in writing and journalism in modern times.  

A new interest sparked in early 2021 when David discovered the power of data visualization with Tableau. Already familiar and appreciative of statistics, data, and graphs from his school days, David was captivated by the program's ability to create compelling graphs and connect to almost any type of file or database. Eager to learn, he took several courses dealing with Tableau, including one specifically designed in preparation for the Tableau Desktop Specialist exam. His efforts bore fruit when he sat for the proctored exam in May 2021, successfully passing and receiving the certification.

He learned quickly that simply knowing Tableau and getting certified is not enough to get your first data analysis job. So, he committed to further upskilling, taking more online coursework in Tableau, SQL, and Power BI. He consumed countless YouTube videos on data analytics and completed an 8-course Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate program, designed to give a broad introduction to the analytics field and intended to help individuals land their first data job. 

He turned to the Insights Career Network and other professional insights industry organizations to find out what he was missing in his preparation and approach, and continued advancing his skills by studying SQL, Tableau, and Power BI, and by earning a Tableau Business Intelligence certificate. Over three years, the ICN provided a place for David to go twice a month on Zoom to practice his soft skills while spending time with people whose profession is working with data.

David has completed hundreds of hours of tutorials and coursework on tools important to Data Analysis, including several courses on Udemy and Coursera covering SQL, Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, in a rather disjointed approach until he enrolled in a boot camp in data analysis where things finally came together.

The Data Analyst Accelerator Boot Camp by Data Career Jumpstart, an online school founded by Avery Smith, enabled David to create a comprehensive data portfolio with nine projects showcasing his abilities in Excel, Tableau, Power BI, MySQL, Python, and R and was one of the more practical, informative, and affordable programs around.

He has also been openly microblogging about his experience learning new capabilities on LinkedIn and leveraging the platform to build a new network of connections with insights agencies and corporate insights functions, which has helped him surpass 2,000 connections. 

His diligence, patience, and active engagement with the insights community have begun to pay off in exposure and in confidence buoyed by community support. 

At 62 years young, all he needs is someone to see that, while his background may not be typical, he has taken the deliberate steps to learn the starting blocks and tools of data analysis. He has shown his propensity to learn, a driving curiosity, and a willingness to engage. He’s prepped and ready to research, and he’s actively screening and applying for data analysis jobs in the Boston area.