Is it ever too late to become an analyst? Are analytical skills all that you need? Is there only one career path to getting there? The brilliant Sophie Hodges joined the Health Economics Unit as a Lead Client Service Manager in February 2022, then moved to become a Lead Data Engineer in early 2024. In this post she looks at the two roles and the value of not letting yourself be defined by a single role.

Moving from Lead Client Services Manager to Lead Data Engineer may seem like a strange move if you look at it in isolation; there’s a common assumption that you should make a career for yourself and stick to it.

This was the case for previous generations, who often spent their whole lives working their way up one company’s career ladder. However, modern ways of working have been eroding this assumption, and younger generations realise they will be working for a long time, so change can be both energising and a fresh challenge.

The careerist school of thought is often accompanied by assumptions about clearly defined roles in the workplace, but increasingly that’s not what organisations need – more important is people who can adapt, communicate effectively and learn.

And then there’s the commonly repeated idea of the world being split into people who are good at maths and those who are good with words, with the two rarely meeting in the middle.

All these assumptions fall down in their binary view of the world, which is far more nuanced and complicated in real life.

I have spent my working life jumping between what I call data roles and people roles, and because of these old societal assumptions, I used to think this was a bad thing. I thought that one day I would have to make a choice and stick with it.

But every time I moved in one direction, I would find myself pulled back in the other for my next move.

The truth is, there is strength in variety, in being the bridge between worlds, and although it’s not an official job title, a bridge can be a very important asset to any team.

Before working in the HEU I worked in the population health management team in a split role, analytics and project management, before that I did economics, and before that analytics. There are people who specialise solely in each of these areas, who will have skills and experience above and beyond my own, but importantly, I have skills across them all.

My strengths lie in pulling it all together. It took me a long time to figure out that that is something that may be unique and therefore maybe even helpful and desirable!

Basically what I am trying to say is that you don’t need to fit yourself into a ‘career’ or a ‘box’ of who you are at work and there are lots of things that you will be good at, pulling all those bits together whether it’s data skills,  people skills or a mish mash of the many things in between and beyond, there is room in data and analytics communities and health and care in general. Health and care analytics is an eclectic place where you can learn from a variety of people, so if you’re considering joining, perhaps you have more skills than you think!