As you would imagine, a number of our proteges are quite ambitious, seeking to fast-track their professional careers in a variety of ways. Often these proteges are aiming to get ahead, work their way up into the C-suite and/or manage a business one day. And, fortunately, a number of our professional mentors have themselves worked in senior and C-suite roles, so are able to guide these proteges!

So, it’s not a surprise that we regularly have conversations about whether MBA (Masters in Business Administration) or Executive MBA (EMBA) programmes would help these proteges in their executive ambitions. Some of our professional mentors and coaches have themselves done MBAs at different schools globally, or altMBAs, or MBA Essentials courses... There is naturally a wide range of considerations at an individual level, including location, part-time vs full-time, specialisations or alternatives like Masters in Business Leadership or Masters in Business Analytics, entrance requirements, application processes and personal statements, and more… Given how specific and personalised these are, this article concentrates on career goals and whether an MBA could help. It’s not just those aiming at the C-suite who consider an MBA...

At a very high level, MBAs are particularly helpful to add broad ‘business skills’, especially if you’re coming from a highly technical professional background like an engineer or doctor. It’s unlikely that these professionals, unless they’ve also run an entrepreneurial venture, would have developed business skills at undergraduate level or in their working careers to date. These include aspects like strategic analysis, negotiation, marketing & branding, communication, networking etc, all of which are required for executive leaders. 

MBAs are a very significant investment of money as well as time (which can also have a financial consequence if forgoing a salary for a full-time programme). Some programmes are hundreds of thousands of dollars (!) although you may be able to get a scholarship and/or convince your employer to pay part of the cost. So, are they worth it?! As you’d expect, it depends… Read more as we unpack career goals that our proteges have where an MBA might help, including C-suite ambitions, making a career switch into management consulting or a transition into a new field or industry, entrepreneurship, personal growth and more...

As we have a growing number of proteges who work in data and analytics roles, including quants, actuaries, engineers and others, this post explores some of the types of roles which exist in data science and analytics. Given the speed at which the analytics landscape and the technology used are evolving, it changes significantly over time, so please don’t treat these example roles as static or exhaustive. In fact, this ongoing evolution is one of the exciting aspects of such work: the opportunity to spot gaps and propose innovative ways to do things in future, including crafting your own role and career path.

More senior data and analytics professionals may also appreciate our long Routes to the Top article on C-suite roles like Chief Data Officer, Chief Analytics Officer and Chief Data & Analytics Officer.

Data and analytics roles have to some extent exploded because of the rapid evolution of technology, although they also incorporate strong statistics skills, and some feel that domain knowledge of an industry or industries is also helpful. With this in mind, here are some examples of roles:

Data Scouts

• These individuals focus on sourcing data, managing the full data acquisition lifecycle
• They bring new and interesting data sets from the wider world into a business for review (and ideally application to project(s))
• Also known as data sourcing and strategy roles

Data Scientists or Data Analysts

• They turn raw, unstructured data into ‘insights’, often using programming skills to do so
• They work closely with the business units and teams who rely on their insights as well as work with the technologists to introduce different analytics tools (from rules-based approaches to complex machine learning models)
  
• Computer Science PhDs or advanced degrees in similar subjects can be helpful e.g. statistics, science or financial mathematics in order to apply rigorous analytical skills to evaluate and experiment
  
• Their ability to process unstructured and/or large volumes of data, telling good stories based on their analysis, is important e.g. through the creation of dashboards of metrics and reports on trends

Data Engineering​

• These engineers are technologists often trained in computer science
  
• Their main role is to build and maintain the data platform infrastructure so that data gets to the analysts as efficiently as possible – this includes how data comes in, gets processed, and becomes available for use (in a data warehouse, for example)

Data Management

• These people are responsible for the production aspects of data, including data tagging and metadata 
• Managing the security of the central master data is crucial too, as is quality assurance and related data management tools

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Some of these roles might be done by the same person. There are also other related roles beyond these, such as experts in visualisation i.e. telling graphical stories with the data so that it supports the decisions being recommended. 

We end with memorable day-at-the-beach descriptions of three data roles, courtesy of Stonefield Advisory, a UK-based data analysis & financial modelling company:

• Database Administrator aka DBA (within the Data Management group earlier), who "loves sand"
• Data Engineer, who "loves fetching sand"
• Data Analyst, who "loves building things with sand"

One of our professional mentors, Hafsa Daware, is an expert in tax as well as a Chartered Accountant. Earlier this year, she wrote an article on careers in the Tax Profession for the IntegriTAX section of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (SAICA) Accountancy SA magazine. She describes her profession as “lucrative, inspiring, challenging and versatile”, writing that she has “always had a passion for tax, and value[s] the breadth and depth of what I have been able to learn over the years from all the disciplines that I have been privileged to work with”. Such cross-functional collaboration is fundamental as “understanding a business from all angles is critical to effectively advise and guide it from a tax point of view”.

​Read more for Hafsa’s thoughts on the skills required of tax professionals, the wider understanding of commercial aspects you can build through working on tax matters, the areas and roles tax professionals can work in, and some lessons from the business and tax authority perspectives.