Name: Jessica Vandenbosch
Position: Senior Data Visualization Consultant
Worked at Orange Business since: April 2022
Based: Brussels, Belgium

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you first came in contact with Orange Business?
When I first connected with Orange Business (formerly Business & Decision), I was already working as a Data Analyst and had reached a point where further advancement seemed limited. So, I had started to think about the next step when I received a message on LinkedIn from Orange Business, titled “50 Shades of Data”, which immediately caught my attention due to its creativity. Prior to this, I had heard about the company during my training to become a Junior Data Analyst. It had been mentioned by lecturers, and I also had the opportunity to learn more about it through a person I knew who worked in the Data Visualization team. Hearing about the company’s positive aspects, including internal learning opportunities, from someone within the organization motivated me to continue the recruitment process. Overall, it seemed like a great fit as it offered me the chance to delve deeper into different tools which is what convinced me to join the team in April 2022.

Can you tell us a bit about your position as a Senior Data Visualization Consultant and your responsibilities?
As a Data Visualization Consultant, my main goal is to create and deliver dashboards using Microsoft Power BI. This involves understanding the requirements, identifying the questions stakeholders want to answer, evaluating existing practices with the aim of streamlining the processes and reducing manual work. Once the requirements are clear, the process involves retrieving data from different systems and platforms and often transforming and cleaning it to obtain an organized and structured data model. Thereafter, I calculate key indicators, build visuals and design visually pleasing, interactive, and user-friendly reports. The dashboards are then to be presented to users to allow feedback so I can make the adjustments needed.

Can you tell us a bit about your current mission?
I have been working on the same mission since I started and have since collaborated with different teams at the client on various projects. The projects have ranged in scale and scope and can either replace existing processes and reports or start from scratch. Our collaboration has been extended and I will continue with this client until at least the end of 2024. This being a long-term mission has enabled me to integrate fully with the team and get to know my colleagues better. I enjoy being part of two distinct and great teams, both at the customer side and at Orange Business.

What interests you the most about the work you do?
My work presents two separate aspects I find very fulfilling. Firstly, I enjoy the technical challenges. These often involve complex calculations, research and problem-solving to ensure good dashboard functionality. Secondly, I enjoy that I get to apply a creative side when doing my work. The need for different functionalities allows me to think creatively to design visually engaging, user friendly and well-structured dashboards. I find this balance of technical challenges with the creativity needed to provide clients with what they were looking for very rewarding.

What education and experience did you have prior to joining Orange Business?
My journey to get into the Data Visualization field deviated a bit from the standard path and initially started with a degree in Psychology. During my studies my interests gravitated towards research and statistical analysis, which was also the focus of my master’s courses and one of my internships. Following my graduation, I began a career as a researcher at the same university I studied at, the University Catholique de Louvain, where I developed my skills in data analysis and statistics. I found great satisfaction in working with data and decided to leave academia to follow a training for a couple of months at the same university called Junior Data Analyst. The course gave an overview of the data field with dashboarding tools, programming languages such as R, Excel, statistical modelling, business intelligence tools etc. After this course, I got my first job as a Data Analyst in 2019, where I primarily used R for data handling and cleaning to generate dashboards in Excel. Joining Orange Business later provided me with the opportunity to further develop my skills, particularly in dashboard design, Power BI and other related tools.

What is the latest training you have taken?
My most recent training completed was a short online course called “Databricks Lakehouse Fundamentals”. While it is not directly related to my role as a Data Visualization consultant, I saw a relevance in better understanding the platform due to its usage within the client organization and me retrieving data from the platform for my dashboards in Power BI. I therefore wanted to learn more about how it works, its general architecture and its advantages.

What do you personally enjoy the most about working at Orange Business, the Digital Services business line?
One thing I cherish a lot working for Orange Business is all the opportunities for growth and development. I have regular discussions with my manager to get support in outlining my developmental goals and strategizing on achieving them. I appreciate my manager’s guidance and work to nurture the team’ skills and supporting our individual interests. Recently, I participated in 3 sessions at the Data Academy (a hands-on bootcamp with training tracks in data engineering, data science and data visualization for newcomers) that I thought would be interesting and could benefit me in my work even though it is not directly linked to data visualization.

Additionally, I enjoy taking on challenges beyond my mission at the client. I have, for example, started conducting Power BI training sessions for new joiners as part of the Data Academy. Something I believe enhances my skills and personal growth in other ways.

Last but not least, the team at Orange Business, and for me specifically the Data Visualization team, is great! It is comprised of motivated, friendly, talented colleagues and the environment and culture promotes collaboration and mutual support. Every month, we organize a team day that gives the opportunity for bonding, exchanging valuable insights, and presenting projects to each other. This creates a good dynamic in our team, so even though we are consultants on different projects and clients we still have a sense of belonging with each other which strengthens our support and collaboration.