Women Lead Data

In this episode, I’m joined by Kelly Adams, Data Analyst at Golden Hearts Games to learn more about her career journey in the data industry. Kelly transitioned into the data industry over the past few years, despite the realities of a highly competitive job market for folks trying to break into the industry. We talk about how portfolio building and content creation can be critical support for folks looking to break into the field, not only for external visibility but for the learning and skill development it requires. We also talk about the challenges of waiting to “feel ready” in your career–and how you can overcome this to make big leaps.

• Kelly's Blog
• Kelly’s Data Portfolio
• Kelly’s Data and Analytics Resources
• Golden Hearts Games

In this episode, I’m joined by Jess Ramos, Senior Data Analyst at Crunchbase and Founder of Big Data Energy Analytics to learn more about her leadership journey in the data industry. Jess shares more about how she got started in the data industry, how she advocates for herself in promotions and salary conversations, and how she got started on her content creation journey and launched her brand and side hustle. We dive deeper into the importance of advocating for yourself, how this can change the trajectory of your career earnings, and how salary transparency and research can be critical data points to support women in achieving better compensation outcomes.

Episode Links:

• Blog post: How I Advocated for a 32% Raise in my First Data Analytics Job
• LinkedIn: Big Data Energy Analytics
• Crunchbase
• Instagram @jessramosdata
• TikTok @jessramosdata

In this episode, Julie Beynon–Head of Data at Census, joins Lindsay to share her leadership journey in the data industry. Julie tells us about her career journey, starting in marketing roles and transitioning into data, and how she navigates being a Head of Data, Team of One. We talk a bit about managing feelings of imposter syndrome and people-pleasing tendencies, and how silencing your internal critic is the key to success.

This was a LIVE episode that aired during MDS Fest, so we also answered a few questions from the audience. You can check out the video recording and catch all the talks we hosted at MDSFest.com.

Episode Links:

• Census
• MDS Fest LIVE Recording of Women Lead Data with Julie Beynon
• Watch other MDSFest talks for free!

In this episode, I’m joined by Michelle Yi, startup mentor, advisor, and founder, and a board member of Women in Data, to learn more about her leadership journey in the data industry. Michelle has had such a cool career path in the data and AI industry, she shares more about how she started her career at IBM at the age of 16 (she started university when she was just 13 years old!!), where she worked on AI research and IBM Watson. She also shares her experiences working in consulting and on practical applications of AI, how she founded her own company and raised a seed round, and her more recent focus on startup mentoring, board advising, and her board member position with Women in Data. We also spent discussing the debate of open source/science vs. the monetization of AI and some of the practical benefits that open source communities provide. Michelle and I also chat about some biased feedback that women in technical roles often hear, and how you can navigate that.

• Women in Data
• Watson and the Jeopardy Challenge
• LinkedIn discussion: open source vs. monetization
• https://www.basis.ai/about/
• https://yulle.substack.com/ 

In this episode, I’m joined by Phoenix Jay, Manager, Digital Community at dbt Labs, to learn more about her career journey in the data industry. Phoenix shares about starting her career in finance and how she transitioned into data roles, self-teaching SQL and dbt, and then discovering the world of analytics engineering! 
Most recently, Phoenix has moved into a new role at dbt Labs, where she will be helping manage the digital community–a perfect crossover between her love of data and community advocacy. We also spend some time talking about how you can be a leader, even if you’re still in an IC role, and the importance of both providing and receiving coaching and mentoring to help you grow new skills and navigate career growth.

Episode Links:

• Phoenix Jay
• Dev Color
• Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
• dbt Labs

In this episode, I’m joined by Lauren Moores, data innovator, advisor, and strategist for startups, and Chief Data Queen of Moores Data. Lauren shares more about her leadership journey in the data industry, her transition from economist to various data-centric roles, her startup advisor positions, and her teaching fellow role in Harvard’s Business Analytics program for AI, Innovation and Startups.

We also discuss why backgrounds in social sciences and arts can provide excellent foundations for those interested in pursuing data careers, and how letting go of perfectionism, comparison, and “having it all” is critical to progress on a leadership path.

Episode Links:

• https://www.laurenmoores.com/

In this episode, I’m joined by Santona Tuli, Head of Data at Upsolver, to learn more about her leadership journey in the data industry. Santona shares more about her career journey and how she spent several years working on particle physics and analyzing massive particle collision events from the Large Hadron Collider, during her time at CERN. From there, we dive into the topic of being confident and asserting yourself in your career, and how this can be a really important skill to help you make leadership progress. We also spent a bit of time musing on the options for data leaders and Heads of Data looking to move beyond data roles in the future.

Episode Links:

• Upsolver
• Large Hadron Collider
• CERN

In this episode, I’m joined by Sarah Krasnik Bedell, Director of Growth Marketing at Prefect to learn more about her journey in the data industry. Sarah has an impressive and varied background in data that spans from research, quantitative analysis, data science, and data engineering roles. Most recently, Sarah transitioned her focus to bring her closer to direct business impact in her role as Director of Growth Marketing at Prefect. Sarah shares some guidelines and advice for designing your career with optionality–allowing you to try on a lot of different roles and responsibilities and build areas of expertise across the business.

Episode Links:

• Prefect
• Sarah Krasnik Bedell on Medium

In this episode, I'm joined by Rehgan Avon, CEO and Co-founder of Align AI to learn more about her leadership journey in the data industry. Rehgan is also the founder and former CEO of Women In Analytics, a group she started in 2016 to help increase the representation of women in the data and analytics industry. Rehgan shares more about her career journey, how she started in Engineering, transitioned into the data and ML space, and became the CEO and co-founder of Align AI. We dive deeper into the topics of navigating the politics of data roles and why this can be so difficult, how companies can benefit from investing in senior individual contributors in data, and how the Data Connect Conference (run by Women in Analytics) solves for having a full female and gender fluid speaker line-up–every single year. Conference organizers take notes!

Align AI is the first people-centric platform to connect strategy, governance, policies, and procedures from leadership to the front lines.

Episode Links:

• Align AI
• Women in Analytics
• Data Connect Conference

In this episode, Lindsay is joined by Monica Kay Royal, founder of nerdnourishment, to learn more about her journey in the data industry.
Monica became a solopreneur in 2020 when she started nerdnourishment–an online learning platform that offers blog posts, podcast episodes, and other resources to help those individuals interested in breaking into the data and analytics industry.
Monica shares her journey about how she got started with nerdnourishment, turning her passion for continuous learning into a business. She also shares helpful insights about the importance of “managing up” and how this skill set helped her to grow to more senior levels in her career.

Episode Links:

• nerdnourishment
• Data Podcast for Nerds
• 88% of professionals say “managing up” means career success