Inventing a Profession
How often do you get the chance to invent a profession? To define The Job? To map out a new career? To identify what somebody in a new occupation does for a living. Here's your chance. We have two ways for you to help shape the future. Serve on our Self-Assessment Task Force or take part in the Job Description Task Force.
The DAA just spent the past year identifying the knowledge and skills needed to perform specific tasks at three different levels of employment as a "Digital Analyst".
Digital Analyst - You know: the webmaster who discovered log files, became a web analyst, and was then handed the search data, the email data, the display advertising data, the social media data, the sales data, asked to make something out of it and is now juggling just about all the customer data? Yeah - that person.
And now that the DAA has the Competency Framework, it's time to 'productize' it and turn it into something useful and practical. For that, we're recruiting!
Job One: Self-Assessment
Where do you fit in this Brave New World of digital analytics? What knowledge and skills do you have? What will it take for you to get to the next level? To answer that, we'll be creating a self-assessment tool. Answer a few questions and learn where you stand and what experience and/or training you still need to reach your goals. The DAA's Self-Assessment Task Force is charged with guiding the development of the online Digital Analytics Self-Assessment Tool to help ourselves and others explore career roles and paths.
Based on the Digital Analytics Digital Analytics Competency Framework, the self-assessment will let analysts rate their abilities on the job tasks that digital analysts perform. Once the ratings are completed, users are provided a report that indicates which competencies they need to focus on when choosing q professional development path and which resources are available to help get them there.
Users will be able to self-assess for a specific job title or career level and compare where they are to where they want to be. Using the data collected by the self-assessment, users will also be provided a report indicating how their knowledge and skills compare with others in the profession.
More here: Volunteer Now for the Self-Assessment Task Force
Next Step: Job Descriptions
Ever try to hire a digital analyst? The job descriptions we've seen so far are more unicorn-fishing than applicant hunting:
Must have 45 years of experience with Webtrends.
Must have a PHD's in Data Processing, Statistics, Business and Clairvoyance
Must be able to use Tableau blindfolded
Must have Hadoop streaming through veins
Must be able to give a TED talk at the drop of a PowerPoint
There are no standard job descriptions for the work we do. There are no classifications for the people we need to hire. There are some good organizational maturity models, but we do not have a well-organized description of our professional responsibilities.
Now's the time.
The DAA Job Description Task Force is charged with developing job titles and descriptions based on the our Digital Analytics Competency Framework. The job descriptions will span three levels of the profession from entry- to intermediate to advanced positions. Ideally, volunteers will also span industries, organizations, and geographic locations and be comprise of those with experience hiring and interviewing digital analysts across various levels of the profession.
More here: Volunteer for the Job Description Task Force
It's really an opportunity to be a part of our industry's history. And the professional networking is second to none. Have questions or want to learn more about the Competency Framework initiative? On April 10, we are holding an Ask Me Anything on the Member Open Forum of DAA Community. Post any questions you might have on this day and we will be sure to answer them.