Experience report Maike: Consultant Data Insights

Q: You’ve been a part of us for a year now. Tell us, how have you been since then?

A: On February 1, 2023, I started as an Associate Consultant at Lizardis GmbH in Hanover out of curiosity about working in the field of BI. Almost a year and two full notebooks later, I can say that there are still many new things to learn.

Q: What expectations did you have at the beginning of your job?

A: To be honest, I was initially quite put off by the job title “consultant”, because in my mind they were overworked people who thought they were omniscient and had little empathy. During the initial introductory meetings, this image didn’t seem to apply to the Lizardis employees, but I still had my reservations about working in a consultancy – after all, my free time is also important to me and I knew from consultant friends that they often have to put this on the back burner. Fortunately, this fear did not come true.

Q: What challenges did you face when you started your job?

A: I think the biggest challenge for me is still finding a common language, as my background is in market research and I was therefore largely unfamiliar with BI terms and systems. I also had little previous contact with the pharmaceutical world. That’s why my colleagues and my notebook are definitely a great help to me in getting a better understanding of the industry and internalizing the specific terms, because if I jot them down, I can refer back to them more easily. Fun fact: our Managing Director Andreas gave me a notebook on my very first day at work, which I immediately took as a good omen.

Q: What does your day-to-day work look like?

A: I work on projects, which means I take on the tasks that are currently on the agenda, such as visualizing dashboards in Qlik Sense or adapting views in SAP HANA Studio. I also conduct coordination calls with customers.

Q: Which tasks do you particularly enjoy?

A: I prefer to work on the current project, where the environment is already familiar to me and I already have all the access and systems at my disposal. I also find it wonderful to be able to really familiarize myself with topics and try things out while being given the necessary time to do so.

Q: Do you work a lot in a team or alone?

A: I would say both. I like to structure and work on the tasks for myself first, but I also know that I can always ask my colleagues for advice or support. Of course, I’m also happy when I can answer a question from someone in the team.

Q: Our work focuses on life sciences. What special features do life sciences bring to your work?

A: As pharma-specific key figures are calculated for the creation of dashboards, it is good to have an understanding of them in order to be able to review certain values.

Q: Are there any points that bother you?

A: Yes, even though I already know it from previous employers, recording working hours will probably never be one of my favorite tasks.

Q: And last but not least: what do you particularly like about Lizardis? What do you appreciate most here?

A: I think that one of the greatest strengths of Lizardis is the team spirit. Whether I’m working from home or in the office, I can always ask someone if I’m stuck with a task and tell them honestly if I need support. This authenticity also makes working here particularly special for me. Of course, I am also happy about the trust placed in me, allowing me to work independently and flexibly, and about the appreciation of my work, which motivates me. Besides, the coffee here is delicious. 😉

Would you like to find out more about our day-to-day work? In this article, our colleague Marcos talks about his work as a Senior Consultant for Customer Engagement.