Coach Me If You Can - Sandrine Henry - A 🎼 Data Project Manager
💖 The purpose of The Allyance is to help both companies and candidates: companies wanting to reach excellence in hiring and candidates wanting to find the perfect companies.
Let’s meet Sandrine Henry, an inspired Data lover who landed a job at Leclerc thanks to The Allyance!
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🔗 COACH ME IF YOU CAN N°6 - Sandrine Henry
Who are you? Tell us everything!
✔️ ✔️ My name is Sandrine Henry, I am 42 years old and I am working as a Data Activation Manager. I used to work at Auzou Éditions, a French publishing house, as a Data Project Manager. I joined Lcommerce, the e-commerce entity of Leclerc) a few months ago to keep on playing with data!
Integrated into the marketing department, my mission is to decompartmentalize data and make it more transversal, at the service of activations. I work to strengthen the data culture by implementing my marketing, data and web analytics skills. Among other things, I collaborate with the sales, logistics and customer service teams, as well as with the marketing teams of physical stores.
📚 After studying social & cognitive psychology and marketing, I joined a publishing house to do my first internship as a marketing product manager. I spent 6 incredible months in Montreal also in a publishing house. After that I worked at GfK institut in market research for the books sector. Actually, I was in this sector for almost 15 years, but from my positions and missions made me realize how comfortable I was with computers, updates websites, developers and of course data.
I love learning new things. That’s why I took a lot of additional courses (C language, HTML, CSS, InDesign, web motion, foreign languages) while working. I attended various conferences and seminars about big data, data analysis… to develop new skills 💻
In 2019, I finally decided to join Ironhack's data analysis bootcamp. In January 2020, I was looking for a job and hired as a Project Manager, even if I have never been one before. When they hired me, I was really proud!
In my free time, I love music, cinema, sport and reading. Fun fact: the first book I ever worked on was Mathias Malzieu’s (member of a French music band named Dionysos) first fiction. One year later, I met him again in Montreal, he recognized me and gave me a ticket for the band’s next concert!
How did Caroline help you find your current job?
🔊 I discovered WIMLDS several years ago and started following her activity. I started watching her webinars about recruitment, CVs, applications, but also the ones about data and tech. Then, I asked her for advice about my CV and she gave me feedback.
What was your goal when you reached out to The Allyance?
Well, I thought it would be interesting to work on 2️⃣ objectives:
Extend my fixed-term contract or convert it to a permanent one.
Make my work experience attractive in order to be hired as a Data Analyst.
In general, I wanted to show what I was capable of, understand my market worth and finally make myself visible through my skills.
☑️ Caroline got it instantly: I was knowledgeable, wanted. I just needed to see it myself! I needed to be more self-confident.
How did Caroline help you find your current job?
🧡 We did 3️⃣ coaching sessions together. Our goal was to teach me how to better communicate with my colleagues, notably about my technical understanding.
She gave me advice on how to highlight my expertise, my knowledge and my high interest in data-related topics. She also gave me confidence about delegating tasks, as I had never managed a team before.
On a personal perspective, she helped me understand what was not working in my job search. Sometimes, I took things personally, lacked confidence and, as a consequence, doubted my legitimacy.💥 On the bright side, only a few weeks after the coaching started, my fixed-term contract was extended!
What made the coaching sessions with Caroline unique according to you ? How did they help you?
I truly love her vision of diversity, but also her caring and listening attitude. These last few months, she was among the most caring people I could rely on.
🎯 As I do not work in tech, this coaching was a bit different for her, but she did a great job. She’s not here to please: she’s straightforward, which is exactly what I needed. She helps to take a step back and provides real guidance. After each session, I was inspired by our conservations: I always came out with things to read, solutions… As of now, I am really clear about what I am looking for in a working environment.
Why do you like being a Data Analyst?
📊 The data sector is specific. Yes, Data Analyst is a golden job because it’s a complete and diversified one. As a person, I do need variation in what I do.
As a Data Analyst, I collect, process and clean data to make it useful for the next steps. Clean data makes analysis more precise. We get key indicators, recommendations and finally get to the point where data visualisation is possible. All of that helps businesses in their operational modes.
How do you keep yourself up to date with Data Science topics and methodologies?
📚 First and foremost, I read newsletters. Here are some I want to highlight:
About diversity in tech and data: POCIT Weekly peopleofcolorintech, Girls in Tech and Women in Data
About the data sector: Veille Data by Jonathan Del Hoyo, Data Workers by Kevin Rosamont
About the publishing sector: Actualitté
About consumers trends analysis: L’ADN
In addition, I do a lot of research, notably in data visualization. Recently, I stumbled upon this amazing article by Walter Paixão Côrtes. And when I have time, I test new methodologies thanks to online tutorials.
Name a well-known person you admire. Tell us why you admire that person!
📍 I admire a lot of people! Without any hesitation, I would say Madonna, because I’ve been following her since I was young. I really like the fact that she’s a hard-worker, but also a creative business woman, always setting trends… And of course, I love her music!
In general, I look up to women who, despite being told what is (or not) made for them, went for it anyways. Along the path, I did understand that I am highly capable, even if some people thought otherwise.
Oh and, she’s not well-known, but I have to say, I admire my mother. She taught me respect and always made sure I was not scared of anything. And that’s so important today!
We heard that you love music: any recommendation?
🎧 I recently fell in love with Eliz Murad, a French-Lebanese rock music artist who just released her first solo track called Beirut. She’s basically writing a love letter to Beirut, which I find amazing to listen to.
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A few words from Caroline, The Allyance CEO:
“💎 I remember the first time I met Sandrine IRL: she was passionate, shy but motivated to learn more about data analysis. When we started to work together on her coaching sessions, I gave her time to process between each session. I saw her evolving very quickly, like a 🦋. I am glad she joined Leclerc on an ambitious project. She will shine there!
On a final note, I discovered she was a Madonna fan when reading this interview. My 💖 boomed!
✔️ Want more?
➡️ If you are interested in knowing more about The Allyance Coaching Offer and the prices, feel free to read this complete piece on the matter or read the feedback from our coachees! You can also get in touch with The Allyance team and book a free conversation below.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ✒️ Léa C, The Allyance Contributor.