Data Analyst Review

Item: Data Analyst at Direct Line
Rating: 3.3
Author: Anonymous

at Direct Line

Higher Level Apprenticeship

Insurance and Risk Management

Bromley, UK

Review Submitted: April 2022

Overall Rating

3.3 /5

The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!

3/5 - Overview of Role

4/5 - Skills Development

2.8/5 - Structure and Support

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:

3/5

My role consists of daily stand-up meetings, squad ceremony meetings for Agile sprints (sprint planning, sprint reviews, 6-week look ahead meeting), meetings with stakeholders, analysis in Tableau, analysis in SQL workbench, documentation.
For projects, I am working on building proof-of-concepts and delivering minimum viable products to stakeholders. I have also worked on providing ad-hoc reports.

To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

3/5

I enjoy the company culture within the company as well as the teams that I have worked with. I find that my colleagues are supportive and understanding. I also find that my manager is very supportive of my learning and career development. I think my experience could be improved with doing more work that is more aligned to my apprenticeship objectives.

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?

4/5

I have developed technical skills such as using Tableau to build views and dashboards, showcasing a variety of different graphs/charts. I have also developed SQL skills to query large databases and learnt a lot about data warehousing. As well as technical skills, I have developed my soft skills, such as stakeholder management, communication, and team working skills.

Structure and Support

How well organised/structured is your programme?

3/5

I feel that the induction and onboarding was quite disorganised. I think that there is a lack of training provided by the company itself and that the experience could be improved with more relevant training as I am relying on the training from the training provider - which is often not as relevant to my role in the company. I think that the support from my manager and training provider has been really helpful. Moreover, I think that task delegation could improve if there was more of a hierarchy in the team - however, I think the "round-table" approach in my team also has its benefits. Overall, I think the programme could be improved if more relevant training is implemented earlier.

How much support do you receive from your employer?

3/5

I receive a lot of support from my manager as we take part in 1-to-1 meetings every 2 weeks and have reviews quarterly. The HR team has been helpful with prompting performance reviews and career development reviews. I feel that there is sufficient guidance when I ask for it from my manager.

How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?

4/5

I feel that my training provider is able to provide sufficient guidance and support to me working towards my qualifications. My learning consultant holds periodic meetings to check-in with me as well as my employer to make sure I am on track. I also feel that the tutors are very supportive in classes.

How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?

3/5

I find that the online live session classes are helpful for learning skills that I can apply to my day-to-day tasks. For example, learning about data warehousing, cloud computing, data legislations, data architecture, customer focus and UX design. These have helped me in my projects and I feel that I understand more about my role's tasks after learning about them.

Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)

1/5

I think that there is a lack of extra-curricular and social activities at my work. Many are working remotely from home since COVID restrictions; so there is a lack of in-person activities. However, recently we have started to have more in-person meetings (e.g. 1-to-1 meeting with my manager every quarter).

Recommendations & Advice

Would you recommend Direct Line to a friend?

Yes

Why?

The company culture is enjoyable and everyone is friendly. I think the support that the company offers is very good. I think that the company's goals and objectives are moving into an exciting direction - which will improve how the company functions in the future as well as its performance.

What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Direct Line?

I would recommend practicing interviews and making sure you can demonstrate the relevant skills with your experiences. I would recommend doing psychometric tests beforehand too, so you are familiar with how they can be. With the application process, it took a long time for my application to be accepted; so I recommend trying to be a bit more patient.

View All Company Reviews