[Mike Kozar]

Hi Michael,

Maybe a bit of a non-traditional response to this thread, but I’m happy to jump on a call anytime. I’m a senior data analyst with Evergy (Kansas/Missouri). I’ve been through a number of data analyst/scientist interviews. If you’d like, we can chat about what you’re looking for from the candidate, what the position looks like to you, and I could share my thoughts on what sorts of questions might help you find someone who could be a good fit. 

I can be reached at 703-969-7489 

Mike

——————————
Mike Kozar
Senior Data Analyst
Evergy
7039697489
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 15:42
From: Michael Fourman
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hello Fellow UAI Members,

GTC is trying to hire our first data analyst but without analytics expertise inhouse, we need help preparing interview questions and interpreting good answers from the candidates on their technical knowledge. Do any members have advice or suggestions on preparing the right interview questions and interpreting good answers? Also, do you know of a resource of any one or any organization who may be able to help us?

I appreciate your help.

Thanks,

     Michael

——————————
Michael Fourman
Georgia Transmission
——————————

[Ben Ettlinger]

Yes we did this twice. Once when we started our Analytics group about six years ago. We held workshops, throughout the company, including all the department at our HQ, then we went to the plants to do the same. We were able to assess during the conversations what the situation was what the needs were. In all case we started out with “what are your problems?” Analytics for analytics sake will not succeed. Analytics to solve problems will. You have to be probing and be a good listener to understand the need. You also need someone with analytics knowledge and someone who knows the business at hand in your group. E.g. Some on your team who knows about CRM or Operations, or energy markets, to help with the conversation and get the most value.  After each workshop the team got together and created Requirements on a Page (ROAPs). That detailed what the use case was with a description, who the stake holders are etc. Most importantly you have to ask during the conversation about the data the is available to support the use case and where. The first time we did this we didn’t, and later found in some cases the data was just not there to do the use case. The first time around we had consultants with us who knew analytics and new the business inside out.

 

We did this again less than a year ago.  We did it with much more knowledge about analytics having worked on use cases for a number of years. In this this case as we used a consulting firm to assist in information gathering , documenting etc. so we would have less of an impact on our data scientists and their work underway and to bring in a broader industry wide picture of analytics possibilities. But it was different than the first time. We now knew much more of our business, especially on the Operations side. The consultants helped with advising what other utilities were doing to address a particular issue or help raise issues that others were doing and that we should consider. But again, the best approach is to start with the problem and see how analytics can solve it. Don’t start with the analytics and look for a problem to solve. Unless you have a big budget and lots of time to look for problems or create problems.

 

You don’t necessarily have to bring in consultants. If you know your business and know what’s going on at other utilities (and of course being part of UAI is a great help ��) have a keen sense to interpret the problems being related, and have the staff to prepare the use cases for the data scientists to work on, you can do it yourself. You want your data scientist to do data science and not worry about data engineering etc.

 

Ben Ettlinger

 

IT Data Analytics Architect

123 Main St.

White Plains, NY 10601

914-681-6496 |

Ben.Ettlinger@nypa.gov

http://www.nypa.gov

 

——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 2/25/2022 8:22:00 AM
From: Wesley Granade
Subject: Departmental Assessment of Data Analytics

In an effort to understand where we are and determine the future direction of Data Analytics at Georgia Power we’d like to complete a departmental assessment. We need to capture each departments current data analytics efforts, data sources, systems and the resources required to support those efforts. If anyone has completed a similar exercise and is willing to share or discuss your resources, knowledge and experiences it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Wesley

——————————————————
Wesley Granade
AMI & MDM Operations Manager
Georgia Power
——————————————————

——————————
Wesley Granade
AMI Operations Manager
Southern Company
Atlanta GA
4045066233
——————————

[Michael Fourman]

That makes sense.  Thank you for the input.

——————————
Michael Fourman
Georgia Transmission
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 15:56
From: Astrid Gambill
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

I highly recommend providing the candidates with a trial data set and asking them to come up with a few visualizations, and KPIs.  It will give you a good grasp of their data wrangling and presentation skills.

——————————
Astrid Gambill
Data and Analytics Consultant
Snohomish Public Utility District
Everett WA
425-783-8563
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 15:42
From: Michael Fourman
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hello Fellow UAI Members,

GTC is trying to hire our first data analyst but without analytics expertise inhouse, we need help preparing interview questions and interpreting good answers from the candidates on their technical knowledge. Do any members have advice or suggestions on preparing the right interview questions and interpreting good answers? Also, do you know of a resource of any one or any organization who may be able to help us?

I appreciate your help.

Thanks,

     Michael

——————————
Michael Fourman
Georgia Transmission
——————————

[Michael Fourman]

This is very help.  Thank you.

——————————
Michael Fourman
Georgia Transmission
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 16:33
From: Jordan Pino
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hi Michael,

We’ve hired many analytics related roles at BGE and below are my general thoughts. Depending on if you’re hiring a Data Analyst and not a Data SCIENTIST, these questions differ. For a Data Analyst, you can focus on general questions on which programming languages they’ve used, ask them to go through a project involving data and what the outcome was, and how they go about finding value in data.

If you’re leaning towards a Data SCIENTIST, then the questions need to be more technical and you should expect a high level of programming knowledge (Python) and database experience (SQL!) plus experience building predictive models.

I also recommend having them work on a dummy dataset and sending you some insights and general visualizations. If this is a DS role, ask them to build a simple model.

Hope this helps!

——————————
Jordan Pino
Principal Data Scientist
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E)
Baltimore MD
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 15:42
From: Michael Fourman
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hello Fellow UAI Members,

GTC is trying to hire our first data analyst but without analytics expertise inhouse, we need help preparing interview questions and interpreting good answers from the candidates on their technical knowledge. Do any members have advice or suggestions on preparing the right interview questions and interpreting good answers? Also, do you know of a resource of any one or any organization who may be able to help us?

I appreciate your help.

Thanks,

     Michael

——————————
Michael Fourman
Georgia Transmission
——————————

[Michael Fourman]

Thank you, very much for your willingness to discuss.  DO you have any available time today?

——————————
Michael Fourman
Georgia Transmission
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 02-25-2022 08:29
From: Mike Kozar
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hi Michael,

Maybe a bit of a non-traditional response to this thread, but I’m happy to jump on a call anytime. I’m a senior data analyst with Evergy (Kansas/Missouri). I’ve been through a number of data analyst/scientist interviews. If you’d like, we can chat about what you’re looking for from the candidate, what the position looks like to you, and I could share my thoughts on what sorts of questions might help you find someone who could be a good fit.

I can be reached at 703-969-7489

Mike

——————————
Mike Kozar
Senior Data Analyst
Evergy
7039697489
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 15:42
From: Michael Fourman
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hello Fellow UAI Members,

GTC is trying to hire our first data analyst but without analytics expertise inhouse, we need help preparing interview questions and interpreting good answers from the candidates on their technical knowledge. Do any members have advice or suggestions on preparing the right interview questions and interpreting good answers? Also, do you know of a resource of any one or any organization who may be able to help us?

I appreciate your help.

Thanks,

     Michael

——————————
Michael Fourman
Georgia Transmission
——————————

[Maggie Peacock]

Our analyst roles are a blend of data and business analyst and visualization specialists so here are a few key questions I ask and my reasoning. Take what you like and ignore what you don’t. Additionally, I ask limited technical questions as the candidates usually have a peer interview and in that interview the panel ask very specific and technical questions in the technology we use (SQL, PowerBI).
1. Are you passionate about data or Analytics? Tell us what that looks like to you.
Reasoning: Skills can be taught but finding someone who is passionate about this domain will contribute to overall success in the role

2.  In your opinion what are the qualities/skills that an analyst must possess to be successful.
Reasoning: What do they see as their top reasonings for being qualified for this position, do they align with what you are looking for?

3. In your experience what are the steps in the analytical process? For example imagine you, as an analyst, have been asked to support a request for a data report or dashboard. Walk us through the process.
Reasoning: As I mentioned our analysts are a blend of data and business (and if this is your first you probably need someone that can do a bit of the business analyst requirements) and it is necessary that they can demonstrate an ability to gather business requirements and a willingness to communicate and coordinate with those needing data, this question helps me get at that.

4. What is the most difficult data or analytics problem that you have solved to date? Please explain.
Reasoning: This question is similar to other’s responses to find out about a project the candidate has worked on or a problem they have solved with data analysis.

5. How would you describe your SQL skills? Can you define Join and explain the different types? Can you explain what a view is?
Reasoning: These three questions are a set and help me gauge their skill with a primary requirement needed for our position.

6. How would you describe your analytical capability? Can you explain descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics? Define outliers in data and how you handle them?
Reasoning: Another set of questions but this time to gauge their familiarity with tackling analytical problems.

7. What is your go-to data manipulation tool?
Reasoning: Do the use the tools that we have in our shop or will it be a big transition for them?

8. What visualization tools have you worked with? What worked well, what didn’t?
Reasoning: Similar to 7 but also want to hear a bit about the work they have done in the visualization tool(s)

There are other questions but I have found how a candidate answers these key questions has a lot of weight on my decision to hire. 

Hope this helps!

——————————
Maggie Peacock
Manager, Advanced Analytics
SERC
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 15:42
From: Michael Fourman
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hello Fellow UAI Members,

GTC is trying to hire our first data analyst but without analytics expertise inhouse, we need help preparing interview questions and interpreting good answers from the candidates on their technical knowledge. Do any members have advice or suggestions on preparing the right interview questions and interpreting good answers? Also, do you know of a resource of any one or any organization who may be able to help us?

I appreciate your help.

Thanks,

     Michael

——————————
Michael Fourman
Georgia Transmission
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Thanks so much for introducing yourself, @Joseph! We look forward to collaborating with you and your team.

Cheers!

     Leslie ​

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@utilityanalytics.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 03-01-2022 08:50
From: Joseph Katon
Subject: Introduce Yourself

Good morning all,

I’m Joe Katon at Duke Energy. I manage the Business Intelligence group associated with our Products & Services located in Charlotte, NC area. Our team’s focus includes Power BI reporting, data centralization, and some advanced analytics as it relates to them. My team’s focus examines a full 360 degrees of program performance, including managing data and reporting of the P&L and cost analysis, vendor performance, customer satisfaction, and customer interaction and saturation, to name just a few aspects of our analytics. 

I’ve been with Duke for about 12 years or so serving the same program area, and I have worked closely with Norv and our other analytics areas as we began formalizing data science a few years ago. I feel we have pushed the envelope quite a bit, but still have plenty of runway to do more together. We are a highly collaborative group, without a doubt.

I look forward to working and collaborating with all of you, along with my data scientists, in the future.

——————————
Joseph Katon
Manager – Integrated Grid Strategy & Solutions Business Intelligence
Duke Energy
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 03-18-2020 10:38
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: Introduce Yourself

Hello UAI Members, 

I’m excited to try something new on UAI’s Member-Only Community. I want to not only make this forum a place for work and professional connections to take place on a daily basis, a place to ask each other questions, find answers and exchange knowledge and share information, I want to make it a fun environment to help us all de-stress, get to know each other a little better, and build bonds and friendships of a lifetime.

One of the coolest things about the UAI community is seeing members make connections with one another-it’s incredible to watch personal and professional relationship and friendships begin, grow, evolve, and last. The more relationships that are built between us and the more we get to know each other, the more valuable our work exchanges will become. We open up, we share more, we learn more and we all become so much better together! 

Our community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. I feel like it’s time that we (both new members and established ones) take a little time to introduce ourselves.

• Share your name
• Where you’re from
• How long you’ve worked in utility analytics
• I also encourage you to share non-invasive personal tidbits about yourself, i.e. what you like to do for fun, your hobbies, your pet peeves, or even your favorite memes, of course keeping it in good taste. Share things that will help us all get to know you better

I think it is important to have a little fun while we work and enjoy each other’s company. Please, use the UAI Member-Only Community as a place to work hard and play hard, enjoy, laugh, and have some fun. 

I’ll kick us off, and please know you can include as much or little detail in your introduction. I’m wordy, so I went all out:

I’m Leslie, UAI’s membership & digital engagement manager. I’ve been with UAI for almost five months and I’m passionate about connecting members who share similar interests and challenges, and providing them with benefits, experiences, and tools they need to solve their problems and improve their organizations. I enthusiastically joined UAI to help improve and evolve the UAI membership value, as well as manage UAI’s collection of Communities. I am a strategic program director, dynamic business leader, and expert facilitator with over 20 years of experience. To learn even more about my professional work or to connect with me, visit my profile on UAI’s member-only site or LinkedIn. Please reach out to me directly at any time if you have questions or need anything from UAI. I can be reached at lcook@endeavorb2b.com or 646-693-5965. 

I’m a Texas girl at heart, born and raised in a small town in north Texas, and then I headed out west to graduate from Texas Tech University (Go Red Raiders!). After school I moved to Colorado and I’ve lived all along the front range for the last 22 years, settling in Denver for the last six years, and I still have a Texas accent (You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas accent out of the girl!). I’ve been married to my best friend from high school for 17 years, and we have two amazingly intelligent miniature Australian Shepherds, Indio and Charley, who keep us busy.

When I’m not working, I can be found traveling the world. We have been to 11 countries so far and we hope to continue to expand our adventures. I also like to leverage my high attention to detail and project management skills when dabbling in home remodeling and interior design. I come up with crazy design schemes and my patient husband implements my ideas, doing all the skilled and hard labor work. We are now close to the end of a complete remodel of our 1952 house. I cannot wait to be done with this project that has taken us about three years to complete…I can almost see the light!  

I am truly excited to get to know ALL UAI’s members, so please reply to this discussion post to introduce yourself. Give a little of yourself and you will be surprised at how much you get in return through your valuable, purpose-built relationships via UAI.

Like I said, I have only been with UAI for about five months, but I’m already having so much fun and learning a lot from all of you! We have a lot of positive updates coming soon and we are evolving, with your input, to better meet your needs and goals, and I can’t wait to share these things with you. You must stay tuned into UAI’s Member-Only Community to learn more within the next few months. We will also be announcing some new things and some updates during the unique and exciting event we have coming in June 2020, UA Summit Reimagined!

Introduce yourself, learn more about others, and connect through UAI!

Stay safe and healthy, 

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
646-693-5965, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Joseph Katon]

Good morning all,

I’m Joe Katon at Duke Energy. I manage the Business Intelligence group associated with our Products & Services located in Charlotte, NC area. Our team’s focus includes Power BI reporting, data centralization, and some advanced analytics as it relates to them. My team’s focus examines a full 360 degrees of program performance, including managing data and reporting of the P&L and cost analysis, vendor performance, customer satisfaction, and customer interaction and saturation, to name just a few aspects of our analytics. 

I’ve been with Duke for about 12 years or so serving the same program area, and I have worked closely with Norv and our other analytics areas as we began formalizing data science a few years ago. I feel we have pushed the envelope quite a bit, but still have plenty of runway to do more together. We are a highly collaborative group, without a doubt.

I look forward to working and collaborating with all of you, along with my data scientists, in the future.

——————————
Joseph Katon
Manager – Integrated Grid Strategy & Solutions Business Intelligence
Duke Energy
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 03-18-2020 10:38
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: Introduce Yourself

Hello UAI Members, 

I’m excited to try something new on UAI’s Member-Only Community. I want to not only make this forum a place for work and professional connections to take place on a daily basis, a place to ask each other questions, find answers and exchange knowledge and share information, I want to make it a fun environment to help us all de-stress, get to know each other a little better, and build bonds and friendships of a lifetime.

One of the coolest things about the UAI community is seeing members make connections with one another-it’s incredible to watch personal and professional relationship and friendships begin, grow, evolve, and last. The more relationships that are built between us and the more we get to know each other, the more valuable our work exchanges will become. We open up, we share more, we learn more and we all become so much better together! 

Our community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. I feel like it’s time that we (both new members and established ones) take a little time to introduce ourselves.

• Share your name
• Where you’re from
• How long you’ve worked in utility analytics
• I also encourage you to share non-invasive personal tidbits about yourself, i.e. what you like to do for fun, your hobbies, your pet peeves, or even your favorite memes, of course keeping it in good taste. Share things that will help us all get to know you better

I think it is important to have a little fun while we work and enjoy each other’s company. Please, use the UAI Member-Only Community as a place to work hard and play hard, enjoy, laugh, and have some fun. 

I’ll kick us off, and please know you can include as much or little detail in your introduction. I’m wordy, so I went all out:

I’m Leslie, UAI’s membership & digital engagement manager. I’ve been with UAI for almost five months and I’m passionate about connecting members who share similar interests and challenges, and providing them with benefits, experiences, and tools they need to solve their problems and improve their organizations. I enthusiastically joined UAI to help improve and evolve the UAI membership value, as well as manage UAI’s collection of Communities. I am a strategic program director, dynamic business leader, and expert facilitator with over 20 years of experience. To learn even more about my professional work or to connect with me, visit my profile on UAI’s member-only site or LinkedIn. Please reach out to me directly at any time if you have questions or need anything from UAI. I can be reached at lcook@endeavorb2b.com or 646-693-5965. 

I’m a Texas girl at heart, born and raised in a small town in north Texas, and then I headed out west to graduate from Texas Tech University (Go Red Raiders!). After school I moved to Colorado and I’ve lived all along the front range for the last 22 years, settling in Denver for the last six years, and I still have a Texas accent (You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas accent out of the girl!). I’ve been married to my best friend from high school for 17 years, and we have two amazingly intelligent miniature Australian Shepherds, Indio and Charley, who keep us busy.

When I’m not working, I can be found traveling the world. We have been to 11 countries so far and we hope to continue to expand our adventures. I also like to leverage my high attention to detail and project management skills when dabbling in home remodeling and interior design. I come up with crazy design schemes and my patient husband implements my ideas, doing all the skilled and hard labor work. We are now close to the end of a complete remodel of our 1952 house. I cannot wait to be done with this project that has taken us about three years to complete…I can almost see the light!  

I am truly excited to get to know ALL UAI’s members, so please reply to this discussion post to introduce yourself. Give a little of yourself and you will be surprised at how much you get in return through your valuable, purpose-built relationships via UAI.

Like I said, I have only been with UAI for about five months, but I’m already having so much fun and learning a lot from all of you! We have a lot of positive updates coming soon and we are evolving, with your input, to better meet your needs and goals, and I can’t wait to share these things with you. You must stay tuned into UAI’s Member-Only Community to learn more within the next few months. We will also be announcing some new things and some updates during the unique and exciting event we have coming in June 2020, UA Summit Reimagined!

Introduce yourself, learn more about others, and connect through UAI!

Stay safe and healthy, 

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
646-693-5965, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————