In the #WhatWeDoAtVMware series, we will meet you with our colleagues from different roles and explain what they actually do. Today we are talking to Katya Chomakova, Senior Data Analyst.
What does a Data Analyst do at VMware?
The work of the data analyst at VMware is diverse. Our primary mission is to help the business grow by utilizing the data in the best possible manner. To do so, we first need a solid understanding of how our products work and what problems they solve for our customers. We achieve this through close collaboration with our product managers, who are the connection between what our customers are asking for and what we are delivering to the market. Hence, frequent and efficient communication with our product management team is essential for our day-to-day work.
When we have the data and we are confident that we understand it well, we bring value to the business mostly by building predictive models and reports. For example, my team is responsible for doing analytics for VMware Cloud on AWS, which is an integrated cloud offering jointly developed by VMware and Amazon Web Services. The most important business problem we are trying to solve is how to support the illusion of cloud at minimum cost. The illusion of cloud is in essence the illusion that cloud computing provides infinite computing resources to the users. Achieving this through purchasing and maintaining an abundance of computing power from AWS is cost prohibitive, so we have to predict the amount of resources our customers will need at any given point in the future and pay for only that much. To predict customer demand, we use different machine learning algorithms, including time series analyses, anomaly detection and clustering, to mention a few. Analyzing history is as important as predicting the future, hence building descriptive reports is an important aspect of our daily work as well.
Other important aspects of our work include ensuring high data quality, complying with data modeling and data presentation best practices, and data lifecycle management.
How is your time spread across your responsibilities?
Collaboration and mentoring are among the core values of my team. Collaboration with my team members and with other teams is an essential part of my daily responsibilities. I have also had the opportunity to mentor new team members throughout the years, which is, not to exaggerate, my favorite part of working at VMware. Of course, a good proportion of my time is dedicated to digging into the data, deriving business value out of it and transmitting that business value to the stakeholders (product managers, end customers, etc.).
How do you become a Data Analyst at VMware?
Despite being passionate about Economics and International Accounting Standards, I became attracted by the data science field a few years ago after I realized the potential of data and analytics. My curiosity motivated me to complete several online courses about Machine Learning and Statistics and with the help of a few great mentors at my previous job, I was able to land my first job as a Data Analyst at VMware.
Tell us about your career journey to date
I have a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in International Financial Reporting Standards from Sofia University. After graduating, I started my first job as an accountant here in Sofia and around that time I heard about data science and machine learning for the first time. While I had been working as an accountant for 3 years my interest in machine learning was also growing and, after completing several online courses, I finally decided to switch jobs and become a data analyst.
I joined a startup company in Sofia and my responsibilities included building statistical models that evaluate the credit risk of a particular non-banking financial institution. Or, to put it simply, I had to evaluate the probability of each loan borrower failing to repay their loan. At this first job as a data analyst, I had the chance to obtain practical experience in the field, and I was incredibly lucky to meet amazing mentors. They taught me how to translate business requirements into machine learning models, how to communicate the output of the models with the stakeholders in a clear and interpretable manner, and most importantly, how to be a good mentor.
As a natural progression of my career as a data analyst, I joined VMware when an opportunity arose. Already knowing how important mentorship is, I joined the Talent Boost program at VMware as a mentor for two subsequent years. This is a great opportunity for experienced professionals to share their knowledge with people at the beginning of their careers.
What are some critical skills to be successful as a Data Analyst?
Most importantly, curiosity to learn new skills, new algorithms and new technologies, because the data science domain is evolving rapidly. Fortunately, education is not limited to academia nowadays with the numerous online course providers, like Coursera, Pluralsight and Udemy, as well as journals, blog posts, etc. I personally also learn a lot from my teammates and colleagues and that is why collaboration is so crucial for my career development.
A piece of advice to aspiring Data Analysts?
Never stop learning and never stop sharing your knowledge with others.
