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The stone started rolling!

This post was originally published on The Data School blog between 2018 and July 2025, before our program was renamed to MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. References throughout this article to “The Data School” or “DS” all refer to what is now MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. The program, its people, and its commitment to launching outstanding analytics careers remain the same – just under a new name.

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The stone started rolling!

As promised in my previous citing, here I am with my experience with the admission process.

Data School expects candidates to have a basic knowledge of Tableau to at least enable to demonstrate your aptitude and passion for data visualization & analysis.

I chose one data set from data.gov.au and made a visualization for my submission. The more I was working on it the more I was liking the tool.

While I was preparing my creation, I got a chance for a meet and greet event in The Data School in Sydney. It turned out to be a valuable event for me. I got a lot of insights and was honored to meet coaches and alumni there. They all were so motivating that I started to feel that I took the right decision.

To submit an application for admission, one has to upload the visualization on Tableau Public and send its link to The Data School.

After around a week, I got an email from The Data School. Marc Schonwandt was assigned to evaluate my application. As I mentioned earlier, The Data School wants to see the passion, agility, and receptivity of the candidate. Marc suggested a few modifications and enhancements in my work. He thoroughly evaluated each and everything and gave his unambiguous feedback. It was more like working in collaboration with Marc. Once I was done with the changes, I submitted my work again.

A few days later, I had to present my work online. The interaction lasted for around 45 mins. Initially, I was a bit nervous, but Craig was very supportive.

Then came the final round. I was given a set of data and was asked to make a visualization out of it and analyze. I was given sufficient time of around 10 days to work on this. I was free to interact and take guidance from coaches in The Data School. That was the best thing. I submitted the initial draft and quickly got feedback from able coaches which I did and resubmitted the final version.

On the day of the final presentation, I was asked to make a live presentation of my work. There were judges in front of me, there was cross-questioning, there was expert advice and there was fun!

Then a short period of wait. Wait for results, wait for my new career.

The good news came through a phone call from Craig himself.

I was in The Data School Down Under. I am in the process of becoming a refined Data Analyst soon.

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