As we continue to focus on our development throughout the year we’re bringing you another example of how one of our colleagues has stepped out of their comfort zone to progress in theirs . Here’s Lawrence’s story…
Introducing Lawrence Dawson – Maritime Data Analyst
It was September, last year that I joined Carnival UK but I already feel like my career development has progressed thanks to the Maritime Continuous Improvement team and the opportunities that have been made available to me since joining.
My Journey from Kitchen Porter to Data Analyst
I started out as a Junior Data Analyst on a 12 month fixed term contract (FTC) to support the Maritime Data and Insight (MDI) team and have recently been promoted to a permanent Analyst. But working in this industry and in big data itself is something relatively new to me. My background for the past 10+ years has been in hospitality where I built my career up from working as a kitchen porter in a small country pub to running a popular cocktail bar and live music venue until September 2021. During this period I learnt a wealth of transferable skills and am very grateful for the opportunities I had throughout that journey. However, in 2020, when the pandemic hit, I was furloughed and left wondering what the future of hospitality would look like and how secure my job really was. I decided to undertake a series of courses in video game development, a passion of mine, and became very interested in programming, development, and design. This led me into enrolling on and recently completing a Masters degree in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at Solent University where I was able to grow my knowledge of programming and learn about the world of big data.
During my studies I began looking for employment and this was when I saw the FTC position for a Junior data analyst at CUK advertised and felt like this would be the perfect opportunity to see what working as an analyst is like whilst finishing my thesis and taking advantage of hybrid working to balance my work and study.
Now I’m a permanent member of the team and I’m excited to continue my journey and grow within the MDI function.
Learning new skills
I’m constantly looking for new projects, areas to improve and meeting with new people to grow my domain knowledge and expand my analytical skills. I have recently began attending power hour sessions and can highly recommend them, not only as a break from the routine work we all do, but also as a way to learn new skills, develop current ones and network with people around the business. I’ve also met with a variety of stakeholders across the business and have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the cruise industry. Some highlights have been aiding the Public Health Officers (PHO ) team with a new reporting template and dashboard for their audits and developing an updated manning report for the Rotations and Fleet teams.
Outside of work
I’m currently working on a machine learning project that will hopefully become a published piece of work and during this I ‘m learning more techniques and processes that will help to further my development within my role at Carnival UK. As my work continues, I hope to introduce my skills in data science and machine learning, where applicable, to the work I do and hopefully expand within the greater analytical network within the company.
My top tips for learning and development
- Take time to move around – take some time to enjoy getting out and about for day trips, exercise and making the most of your weekends. I have found this to be very important since transitioning from working in hospitality, where I was always on my feet and moving around, to a more sedentary job where we often don’t take enough time to move around.
- Take a break from routine business activities and use The Cove and the Good Practice portal to develop the skills you use day to day and learn new ones to further your career.
- If there’s an area of the business you’re interested in, see if you can shadow someone for a day or even half a day.
- Keep connected with relevant communities/networks related to your work area
- Look for ‘extracurricular’ courses you could take outside of work to develop your skills and boost your career journey.