[Jason Pegg]

Great question, Michael!

I think it depends a bit on what you’re hoping to accomplish.  Will this person be focused solely on analytics, or will this person also be responsible for tooling and environments?  How do you define “analytics”?  For instance, are you looking primarily at descriptive analytics (reports, business intelligence, etc.), predictive analytics (trending, statistics, forecasting, etc.), prescriptive analytics (recommendation engines, neural networks, etc.), or all the above?  What are the business use cases driving the hire?

How you answer these questions will help determine the kind of person you’re looking for, and therefore the questions that should be asked.  If you’re looking to stand up a cloud-based analytics environment where you have none today, then you probably want someone who knows analytics, but also has experience building in various cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, etc.).  If you already have a great reporting system in place but you want to bring it to the “next level” of predictive and prescriptive analytics, then you’re probably looking for someone with a strong background in core data science analytics tooling who also has some formal mathematics education.  If you’re looking for someone who can be the first analyst who then builds up an entire department, then you’re looking for someone with general data science knowledge who also has an entrepreneur background with previous management experience.

Once you’ve narrowed it down (and it’s possible you’ve already done everything above), you might consider reaching out to a sister utility with an established group and see if they could “loan” you someone that could participate in the interview process – both writing questions and interviewing candidates.  It might be the safest way of ensuring the candidate aligns with your positional goals while also ensuring a cultural fit.

Hope that helps.  If you have answers to some of the questions above, I suspect many of us would love to contribute some interview questions.  Good luck on the hunt!

——————————
Jason Pegg
Domain Architect
Avista Corp.
Spokane WA
509.495.4731
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 16:16
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hello Data Science Members,

A great question came up during our Enterprise Analytics Community Conversation earlier that I wanted to pose to this group as well. We’ve also posted in our Ask Your Network Community but wanted to include below as well. Do any of you have suggestions for Michael (Georgia Transmission)? Might you be willing to share anything or connect with Michael? Take a look below:

“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?”

Thanks in advance for your help and I look forward to your replys!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

[Kevin Praet (Adm)]

This is super helpful @Jason thank you so much for the quick reply! I’ll pass along this info to @Michael so he can follow up with any additional questions.

Thanks again!​​

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 16:45
From: Jason Pegg
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Great question, Michael!

I think it depends a bit on what you’re hoping to accomplish.  Will this person be focused solely on analytics, or will this person also be responsible for tooling and environments?  How do you define “analytics”?  For instance, are you looking primarily at descriptive analytics (reports, business intelligence, etc.), predictive analytics (trending, statistics, forecasting, etc.), prescriptive analytics (recommendation engines, neural networks, etc.), or all the above?  What are the business use cases driving the hire?

How you answer these questions will help determine the kind of person you’re looking for, and therefore the questions that should be asked.  If you’re looking to stand up a cloud-based analytics environment where you have none today, then you probably want someone who knows analytics, but also has experience building in various cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, etc.).  If you already have a great reporting system in place but you want to bring it to the “next level” of predictive and prescriptive analytics, then you’re probably looking for someone with a strong background in core data science analytics tooling who also has some formal mathematics education.  If you’re looking for someone who can be the first analyst who then builds up an entire department, then you’re looking for someone with general data science knowledge who also has an entrepreneur background with previous management experience.

Once you’ve narrowed it down (and it’s possible you’ve already done everything above), you might consider reaching out to a sister utility with an established group and see if they could “loan” you someone that could participate in the interview process – both writing questions and interviewing candidates.  It might be the safest way of ensuring the candidate aligns with your positional goals while also ensuring a cultural fit.

Hope that helps.  If you have answers to some of the questions above, I suspect many of us would love to contribute some interview questions.  Good luck on the hunt!

——————————
Jason Pegg
Domain Architect
Avista Corp.
Spokane WA
509.495.4731
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 16:16
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hello Data Science Members,

A great question came up during our Enterprise Analytics Community Conversation earlier that I wanted to pose to this group as well. We’ve also posted in our Ask Your Network Community but wanted to include below as well. Do any of you have suggestions for Michael (Georgia Transmission)? Might you be willing to share anything or connect with Michael? Take a look below:

“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?”

Thanks in advance for your help and I look forward to your replys!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

[Michael Fourman]

This is very helpful, Jason, thank you.

——————————
Michael Fourman
Georgia Transmission
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 16:45
From: Jason Pegg
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Great question, Michael!

I think it depends a bit on what you’re hoping to accomplish.  Will this person be focused solely on analytics, or will this person also be responsible for tooling and environments?  How do you define “analytics”?  For instance, are you looking primarily at descriptive analytics (reports, business intelligence, etc.), predictive analytics (trending, statistics, forecasting, etc.), prescriptive analytics (recommendation engines, neural networks, etc.), or all the above?  What are the business use cases driving the hire?

How you answer these questions will help determine the kind of person you’re looking for, and therefore the questions that should be asked.  If you’re looking to stand up a cloud-based analytics environment where you have none today, then you probably want someone who knows analytics, but also has experience building in various cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, etc.).  If you already have a great reporting system in place but you want to bring it to the “next level” of predictive and prescriptive analytics, then you’re probably looking for someone with a strong background in core data science analytics tooling who also has some formal mathematics education.  If you’re looking for someone who can be the first analyst who then builds up an entire department, then you’re looking for someone with general data science knowledge who also has an entrepreneur background with previous management experience.

Once you’ve narrowed it down (and it’s possible you’ve already done everything above), you might consider reaching out to a sister utility with an established group and see if they could “loan” you someone that could participate in the interview process – both writing questions and interviewing candidates.  It might be the safest way of ensuring the candidate aligns with your positional goals while also ensuring a cultural fit.

Hope that helps.  If you have answers to some of the questions above, I suspect many of us would love to contribute some interview questions.  Good luck on the hunt!

——————————
Jason Pegg
Domain Architect
Avista Corp.
Spokane WA
509.495.4731
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 02-24-2022 16:16
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: Data Analyst Candidates – Interview Questions & Interpreting Good Answers

Hello Data Science Members,

A great question came up during our Enterprise Analytics Community Conversation earlier that I wanted to pose to this group as well. We’ve also posted in our Ask Your Network Community but wanted to include below as well. Do any of you have suggestions for Michael (Georgia Transmission)? Might you be willing to share anything or connect with Michael? Take a look below:

“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?”

Thanks in advance for your help and I look forward to your replys!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————