Learning by doing.
It’s a concept GA alum Andrew GottWorth has put into practice more times than one. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, but now living and working in Berlin, Germany for CODE University of Applied Sciences, we recently had a chance to reconnect with Andrew to get his take on his GA experience and how it’s helped him get to where he is today.
Let’s dive right in.
What brought you to General Assembly?
“I was working in Adult Education (GED and English Language Learning) in the US when COVID hit. We were all at home, with many of us losing jobs. The city of Louisville created an upskilling initiative and I was fortunate enough to qualify and take General Assembly’s Data Analytics Bootcamp.”
How was learning at General Assembly different from your previous educational experiences?
“Upon entering the bootcamp, I didn’t know what to expect as I hadn’t been in a class in years— and I was very pleasantly surprised. I ended up really enjoying class and actually learning! It was such a different experience from my university days of one to three hour lectures. Instead, we would have a short engaging presentation, then have material to follow along with (whether Excel, SQL, or Tableau), and actually open it and work on it during class. Then we had small breakout groups frequently, and would share ideas and work on the task together. It was such a wonderful experience to learn by doing, which I wish many universities made their practice as well. As we rotated breakout groups, I made many connections that I’m still in touch with via LinkedIn, Instagram and otherwise, which also expands my network to opportunities I didn’t know were out there.”
What were the most valuable skills you learned throughout your General Assembly journey?
“Though I’m not a full expert yet, it was so helpful to gain better language skills around data, coding, visualization, and more—and to just learn what’s possible out there in the data world. It was so helpful when I would run into problems at work with manual data entry, or copying from one system to another to know that there are easier ways to do this. I’m able to ‘translate’ the problems from academic staff to the IT team to write scripts to save tons of manual hours.”
How have those skills transferred throughout your career post GA?
“I believe the language and skills I learned in the data analytics course allowed me to get the job I have now in a tech-focused university, as I’m able to serve as an interpreter between faculty, admin staff, and the IT team in order to automate processes and analyze student data in a meaningful way.”
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