Photo by Mudassir Ali on Unsplash
I’ve always been into cricket. Growing up in an Indian household, learning Gujarati as my first language, and idolising the Indian National Cricket team was just a part of life. A phrase my uncle often used for going home, was “heading back to the pavilion” - to head back to home base, to regroup. And this post is the almost the walk back from the field of play, back to the pavilion - to collect my thoughts, to think things through - before heading out for the next innings.
I’ve been immensely lucky in my career so far. I studied Economics at Plymouth University, where I got a 2:1 through (in effect) gaming the grading system… but the two things which shaped a lot of my thinking in those years:
- Taking a placement year between my second and third year of university, where I worked for BASF, the chemical company.
- Realising during this year that I could work between 9-5 and have so much free time in the evenings. This changed a lot of my mindset.
During my year at BASF, I met a lot of folks who were helpful to help shape my mindset. One quote from a director, during an ‘exit chat’ I had during my final weeks was simple…
life is about luck, and opportunity - and you make your own luck.
This never really resonated with me until I started to tell and re-tell my journey to my first job out of university, to be a Trainee Consulting Analyst at The Information Lab’s Data School. Through following and then becoming a part of a growing football/soccer analytics community, and the series of accidents which lead me to finding out about the role I’d end up doing. When I’ve mentioned this to mentors, they’ve often reflected that being a part of something that I was passionate about - and taking action on that interest - was how I really ended up there.
When I joined The Information Lab, I did dream about one day being the Jonah Hill character from Moneyball. That I’d one day be able to have some data nous to be able to work within an industry I was truly passionate about. Two years later, a couple of opportunities came to do that - and I said no. I didn’t feel ready, and The Information Lab is such a hotbed for learning and development, that I knew I wasn’t finished yet. There was, and is, still so much to learn about this constantly evolving industry.
Luck is where preparation meets opportunity
My career so far has been, as I mentioned above, blessed. To join such a great company as The Information Lab straight out of university. To have worked with and for some of the biggest companies in the world as part of this journey. And, more recently, helped build plans and strategies for adopting data culture has been beyond anything I could have imagined. The culture of sharing, of giving back to a community and an industry where I have truly stood on the shoulders of giants.
Nothing along my journey would have been possible without understanding myself, without turning up, or (most importantly) without the advice/support of my mentors, friends and (most importantly) family.
Beyond fanalytics, walking to the wicket
Last week I started my new role - working in the Global Football department at City Football Group, building out the Football Intelligence practice to enable practitioners across the globe to use data and insights. I truly enjoyed, valued and could see myself in my previous role working in Customer Success with The Information Lab for a few years more - but this opportunity presented itself as a unique, virtually perfect stepping stone. The intersection between a strategic approach to data and analytics, to educating and enabling visual best practice and working in the beautiful game - a dream for those (like me) who have little to no athletic ability.
What the future holds is building on the great work already done at CFG. Enabling folks across the organisation, using the skills learned as a consultant, a trainer and as part of Customer Success - and evangelising about data and analytics. How can we build a truly data-driven football organisation spanning across the world?
After working on my forward drive, cut and sweep shot in the nets, it felt the right role and the right time to embark on a new challenge and step up to the plate.
The work starts now, walking down from the pavilion - ready to bat.