7 Deadly Fears I Have Faced — Part 1 — A Data Analyst Journal
There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
— Proverbs 6:16–19
A Foreword
As you may have seen on my curriculum vitae, I started my journey as a data analyst trainee at Nielsen Vietnam in 2018. Since then, I have had the opportunity to work in different roles such as Marketing Specialist, Data Analyst, Business Intelligence, and Business Analyst. Each of these roles has provided me with unique learning opportunities, allowing me to acquire a diverse range of technical skills and domain knowledge.
However, it has not always been smooth sailing. I have faced several challenges that have tested my resilience and determination. But I believe that every obstacle presents an opportunity for growth, and I am grateful for the lessons I have learned along the way. I would be happy to share some of the exciting moments from my journey and how I overcame the Seven Deadly Fears I faced.
Thanks for reading Brian’s Substack! Hope you find my article informative. Your subscription serves as the driving force for my pursuit of knowledge acquisition & dissemination.
I Want To Learn EVERYTHING — The Gluttony
The Fear Of Missing Out
Fresh out of university with an economics degree, I was eager to dive into the world of data — there was just one problem: I did not know the first thing about it! Sure, I could talk supply and demand curves all day long, but Excel? SQL? Coding? It may as well have been a foreign language. Thus, I had to learn EVERYTHING from scratch.
Fortunately, I was not deterred. My first opportunity came at Nielsen, where was introduced to the art of “reading” numbers and reports to extract interesting facts and figures. I learned how to organize information in an eye-catching way that followed a structural framework. After completing the program, I landed my first official job where I continued to expand my skill set by learning how to write simple SQL queries to extract data and build reports as per requested templates. As I progressed, I encountered new challenges that urged me to learn SOMETHING new with each project.
One day, while going through some old documents, I came across a step-by-step guideline on pulling large datasets from `Bigquery` to `R`. Intrigued by this new concept, I searched for company documents, textbooks, and beginner guides on the net to learn how to manipulate data in `R`. However, I soon realized that `Python` had become the go-to language for conversations within the field. This realization was quite shocking to me, and I immediately tried to understand and migrate from `R` to `Python` for data processing and manipulation tasks.
As I moved from one company to another, the tech stack changed constantly. I was required to understand `PostgreSQL` instead of `Bigquery`, `PySpark` instead of `pandas`, `seaborn` instead of `ggplot2`, and the list went on. To keep up with the ever-changing landscape of technology, I subscribed to a bunch of blogs and websites. However, it turned out that I was continuously bombarded by newsletters and feature updates regarding evolving technologies and new stacks from these sites.
It was at this point that I started to fear being left behind by the rapidly advancing world if I failed to catch up with the new technology.
Handling the Feeling of Left Out
As you can see, I wanted to learn all the shiny new languages and libraries out there RIGHT NOW. But in my enthusiasm, I was spreading myself too thin. Learning a little `Python` here, some `SQL` there, dabbling in `R` - I was a Jack of all trades but master of none.
It took some tough love from a mentor to set me straight. She told me to picture my skills like attributes in a role-playing game (RPG). I only had limited points to invest whenever I levelled up. By dividing those points across too many skills, none of them ever got strong enough to be truly useful.
Her advice was simple — focus all your energy on mastering just ONE THING first.
“Keep dumping points into pandas, for example, before you touch any other data tools. It will be boring at first, but the payoff is huge. By mastering one skill deeply, you will gain more momentum and confidence as a beginner than those who skip around” - she said.
This was a hard pill to swallow for me then. I really did not want to limit myself or miss out on the hot new libraries! But I trusted my mentor, so I picked `pandas` and stuck with it for 60 solid days. And she was right - by the end, I could wrangle data faster and deal with more complex problems using `pandas` than my past self.
However, there is one big problem yet to be solved: “What is the tech stack I should begin with?”. When I started my journey, no one told me what I should and should not learn as a novice in this profession. Fortunately, the data community has developed many versions of data analyst roadmaps that are quite dynamic, comprehensive, and detailed. You can choose one of them and then stick with it for at least three months. Eventually, you will be strong enough to fight against the Fear of Missing Out and beat it up.
If you are interested, some of the mentioned roadmaps can be found here and here.
Because My Friends Are Promoted, I Should Be Too — The Envy
The Fear Of Peer Pressure
As I have navigated my career, it has been difficult not to compare myself to others who seem to be climbing the ladder more quickly. My friends have landed fancy titles or delivered successful projects while I was hopping around — it is easy to feel stuck. Don’t you feel the same?
You have been working hard at your job, but you are not getting the promotions you deserve. You look at your friends, and they seem to be doing so much better than you. Friend A. just completed her Master's degree with a full scholarship. Friend B. is celebrating his newly bought apartment. And Friend C. has been promoted to Senior level this year.
You start to wonder what you are doing wrong. Are you not working hard enough? Are you not smart enough? Are you not lucky enough?
You are not alone in feeling this way. Many people feel like they are not getting ahead in life, even though they are working hard.
There Is No Such Thing As Getting Ahead In Life
Allow me to share with you a truth that may be unpleasant to accept: There is always somebody who is more intelligent, diligent, persevering, or fortunate than you. I know it is hard. You have worked tirelessly — sharpening your skills, taking on new challenges, and striving to improve a little each day. No matter what you accomplish, it seems like it is never enough. The voice in your head grows louder: “Why am I still in this role? Why did they get promoted instead of me?”
I have been there too. I understand how crushing peer pressure and self-doubt can be when all your hard work feels fruitless. But I am here to tell you — there is another way. A way to tune out societal timelines, mute that critical inner voice, and rediscover meaning in your unique journey.
This is your life — not a race to be won or lost. There is no one right pace, no universal benchmark for getting ahead. Comparing yourself to others is poison — the only metric that matters is your own growth.
Close your eyes, step back, breathe in, and here are a few tips for you:
Focus on your strengths. What are you good at as a data analyst? What do you enjoy doing? Playing with the numbers, visualizing the insights or building the reports? Keep upgrading your strengths to be too good to be ignored.
Be persistent. Do not give up on your dreams. Remember the reasons why you decided to be a data analyst. Buy a paper calendar and mark it whenever you make any progress.
Proactively networking. Get to know people in your field. Attend industry events and build relationships. You can either learn from them or be supported by them.
Take risks. Do not be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone. Try new things and take on new challenges.
Be patient. Good things take time. Do not expect to achieve your goals overnight.
Throw out society’s rigid expectations. Define success on your own terms each day. Find fulfilment in your unique path, wherever it may lead.
With a growth mindset focused on constant improvement, I trust that promotions and other goals will come in due time.
This Is My Effort, You Must Recognize My Hard Work — The Greed
The Fear Of Not Being Valued
There is nothing amiss in seeking recognition for your hard work. Indeed, a company that fails to adequately acknowledge the efforts of its employees fosters a toxic work environment. While this topic may be controversial, allow me to share a story that sheds light on the matter.
Recently, I caught up with an old friend Hannah who was recently promoted to the position of Senior Manager. During our conversation, she expressed her frustrations regarding some of her subordinates. With the company expanding into new markets, she had to hire some eager Gen Zers to help with her team’s growing workload. One intern in particular stood out as bright and adaptable — at first. But soon, he began demanding public recognition from Hannah whenever he completed a task, no matter how minor.
“It’s like he wants a trophy just for doing the basics of his job,” she vented. “And if I don’t praise him in front of the team, he accuses me of not appreciating his work. I don’t know how to handle him.”
This posed a challenge for my friend, as some maintenance tasks lacked clear metrics for evaluation, making it difficult to assess the intern’s contributions, Hannah explains. Consequently, my friend and the intern engaged in several discussions regarding productivity, particularly due to some overdue tasks. The intern expressed frustration over the significant time investment required for certain maintenance tasks that my friend did not prioritize at the time.
As an outsider looking in, I empathize with the intern since my friend failed to communicate the expectations from the outset. I knew how he felt — I had been there myself as an intern once, craving validation that my work mattered. Thus, I played devil’s advocate:
“Have you clearly outlined your expectations and priorities to him? As a newcomer, he may genuinely not realize which tasks truly warrant recognition.”
Hannah pondered this. “No, you’re right. I’ve just assigned him the needed work without much structure. I figured as a best-performing intern, he’d take initiative smoothly.”
“He still needs guidance,” I suggested. “Try setting clear goals and check-ins each week. Explain what constitutes good work and why certain tasks are more crucial than others.”
After our catch-up session, my friend and the intern reached an agreement: the intern would provide a detailed list of daily tasks, and my friend would confirm the essential deliverables at the beginning of each week.
I believe that such situations are not uncommon and affect a considerable number of employees. Moreover, it is worth noting that Generation Z individuals are particularly concerned about job security and career development1. They yearn for clear performance metrics and full recognition for their work. In fact, I, too, have experienced moments where my hard work seemed to go unnoticed.
In the early stages of my career, there were nights when I pondered a single question: “Should I communicate to my supervisor the challenges inherent in the assigned tasks and expect acknowledgment for my well-rounded outputs?”
A Fair Settlement
Even experienced supervisors find it challenging to handle this kind of issue. I only aim to provide a piece of modest advice for the freshers who just started their career as data analysts (meaning less than two years of experience). In addition, my advice may not sound persuasive to certain sociocultural backgrounds as it is somewhat similar to “doing nothing” — the Wu Wei way.
Starting out as a data analyst, I quickly realized much of the job was less fancy work — endlessly cleaning, prepping, and maintaining datasets behind the scenes. It was easy for my efforts to go unseen and feel futile. “Am I really accomplishing anything?” I’d wonder, as my supervisor dismissed my work as unimportant drudgery.
But over time, I began to see the value in those long, tedious hours. Each small task strengthened my data skills. With every messy dataset tackled, and every obscure bug fixed, I was levelling up — even if nobody noticed. Not only the technical knowledge compounded but also my patience and persistence grew. Before I knew it, I could beat up the messy data almost instinctively. Colleagues marvelled at how easily I handled projects they dreaded.
The key was not listening to critics who called my work a waste of time. I knew deep down that everything I did was adding experience points, even if the quests seemed boring. With consistent effort, one day the skills I had sharpened would be revealed.
So I encourage you not to lose heart during the grind. Stay focused on growth and small improvements, not external validation. Your efforts are never wasted if you learn from experience.