Meet Zane DeClark! 

Zane works as a Senior Account Manager and was part of our February 2024 cohort for our Excel Immersive. Zane came into the Immersive program with a goal of going deeper into Excel and the enthusiasm he brought to the cohort was energizing. 

Zane took full advantage of the guided project element of the Immersive by not only flexing his technical skills in Excel but also highlighting his own approach to data analysis, visualization and dashboard design. 

The result? A thoughtful, well-designed exploratory dashboard built in Excel showcasing the use of interactive slicers and conditional formatting to draw the user's attention to key insights. And a fantastic addition to his project portfolio!

Zane has some great insights to share about the Immersive experience. You’ll want to read on to hear from Zane:

What type of data tools were you using or familiar with coming into the Immersive?

I had an introductory knowledge of Excel, I took a course in College but after 3 years I held to much of the basics.

How did you first discover Maven Analytics, and what made you excited to learn more?

I discovered Maven through looking around on Reddit at what other Analytics professionals were using to learn and boost their skills. Maven was highly recommended.

What were your personal goals coming into the Immersive program?

My goal was to go deeper into this tool. Properly learn how to interact with pivot tables, charts, and to eventually come away with a professional project portfolio and knowledge on how best to pitch myself to Data Analysis leaders in the future.

What’s your overall impression of the Immersive program? What do you think sets the Maven Analytics Immersive experience apart from others?

Overall I was very impressed with the immersive program's depth. 

I was shocked at how much of a difference meeting just once a week made to keep me on track. I had the chance to collaborate and ask questions with the experts at Maven and all within a reasonable workload, even for someone in Sales, and sales never sleeps.

Do you feel being part of the cohort experience helped you stay on track with your learning goals? How so?

Absolutely! 

I highlighted that above: the weekly meetings were extremely valuable to attend and kept me on a reasonable pace. On top of that, the layout allowing a week of project work towards the end was so helpful to not feel rushed and really think about how I wanted to attack our final project.

Were there any meaningful or memorable aspects of the live sessions that you can share?

The group discussions and project feedback midway through working on it was extremely valuable and reminded me how far I had come in only 10 weeks.

What benefit do you think having the opportunity to do project work added to your Immersive experience?

Having a semi-guided project was great as I could follow some examples but had the ability and liberty to take the project where I felt the data was taking me. After setting a goal and analyzing trends I was able to put my fingers to the keys and build an interactive dashboard I am very proud of.

If you could give just one piece of advice to folks who are considering the Immersive program, what would you tell them?

My biggest piece of advice is if you find yourself taking free programs, or signing up for self-paced learning and not following through, please give this a try and attend the weekly sessions. 

It is only an hour a week to set aside, in 10 weeks that is 10 hours out of the 840 given each day you have about 12 hour days awake. That equates to 1.19% of ten weeks for lifelong knowledge and it holds you to the timeline set up by the course.

What advice would you give others looking to launch a data career or make a transition into data?

I recommend talking with people in the field to understand what the day-to-day is like. Understand that you should dive into one program deeply and tools from that program build off into many more. Beyond that, commit the time to learning the tools and network in the analytics field. 

Would you recommend Maven Analytics to other aspiring data professionals?

Yes, I already talked about it to my coworkers, family, and friends. This is a great company to make learning affordable, work with your schedule, and I implore everyone to give it a go if you are interested in making the leap into data.

If you’re interested in exploring Zane’s work, you can check out his portfolio here, and you can learn more about our Cohort Learning Immersives (and sign up for future cohorts!) here.