When Hung originally messaged me about joining this competition, I truly did not know what to expect. I had never participated in anything of the kind, but I was excited about the opportunity to work in a team on a project that would help me in job interviews. The whole competition started with the kickoff day on a Thursday. We were given our access to Domo and the business problem at 6 p.m. that night, and we had until noon on Saturday to prepare our dashboard and presentation.

Hung and I had class until 8 p.m. that night, so we got started with Spencer after we got out of there. Prior to this competition, none of us had any experience working with Domo. Therefore, we just spent that first night finding the important rates and familiarizing ourselves with the software and the data. We needed to understand the tables and columns so that we could construct the variables and charts that we needed. We all cleared our Friday schedules so we could work on the project all day, and wow, was it a long day. We worked pretty much non-stop on the project, with the majority of the work being in Domo’s Magic ETL program. We performed a variety of tasks, including joining tables, creating variables, and making visualizations. All of our work was combined to make an interactive dashboard and a ten-minute presentation that showcased our findings. Some of the most fun parts of the competition were in this late stage as we tried to decide how we were going to illustrate our findings to the audience. It allowed us to think critically about what aspects would be most important to Layton Construction.

In this competition and short 48-hour journey, I learned many different things that will help me in my career. Firstly, I gained valuable experience with Domo, a data visualization program that is being increasingly used by companies around the United States. Prior to the competition, I had never used Domo, but now I feel much more confident in how to use it and even have an opportunity to pursue a certification. In addition, this competition gave me a very valuable addition to my resume. It gave me a successful project that used real-world data where my team members and I had to take a data assignment from beginning to end with an extremely limited time frame. When asked about the project, I can speak on data cleaning, data analysis, key decisions we made, data visualization, and how we presented it. Not only did the hackathon help me with technical skills, but winning the competition also gave me a lot of confidence in my abilities as I move forward. Honestly, I have not had much luck in my interviews and job applications since I graduated in May, so our performance in this competition really helped give me the confidence that I can make it in the industry.

I am so glad that I ultimately decided to partake in the Domo/Layton Construction Hackathon. I have no doubts that my experiences will help me going forward, so I urge the people reading this to partake in the competition. I hope that my experience illustrates that you do not need to know the software or have years of data analysis expertise in order to do well and have a meaningful experience.

– Finlay Dunn