My path to becoming a data analytics engineer and part of the TrendMiner team

I would like to introduce myself first:

My name is David Merschhoff and I am 27 years old. I’ m living in Frechen, which is very close to Cologne and our German TrendMiner office.

In my leisure time I like to do sports like running, swimming and road cycling. Additionally, I participate in a marathon or triathlon once a year to have a set goal to work towards so I can constantly improve and push myself.

Professionally, I studied chemical engineering at the Technical University in Dortmund and completed my master’s degree last year at the chair of fluid separations.

After completing my academic career, I had many plans and wanted to see the world. My first self-imposed destination was New Zeeland, where I wanted to enjoy the beautiful nature and meet other cultures. However, at this time the corona crisis began, which thwarted my plans but opened another door.

By coincidence I read an email in my old student mail account, which was about an open position as Data Analytics Engineer at TrendMiner. At first, I wasn’t sure what a data analytics engineer was and what their duties were. Upon further study of the job posting, especially the qualities required and the challenges of the job, I said to myself: “That is the job I’m looking for”.

Particularly, the opportunities the job offers to gain knowledge about the big issues in the industry as Big Data, Industry 4.0, Digitalization and the bridge between chemical engineering and data analytics piqued my interest and my motivation to become a data analytics engineer.

Immediately after reading the mail, I prepared and sent my resume. It wasn’t long before I received a response and an invitation to an initial meeting with my boss. What followed was a “Get-to-know meeting” with my potential future colleagues and after this call I was even more driven to become a data analytics engineer and part of TrendMiner. In the last appointment, I was to test my knowledge by developing a solution based on the existing data and requirements for a specific application problem. I have to admit that I was very nervous before the meeting, but as it turned out, my approach was not so bad and a few days later I received the acceptance for the job. I was very excited and couldn’t wait to finally start working.

Finally, my first day arrived and I was able to meet my colleagues in our office in Cologne. First, I went through our onboarding process to learn about the different tasks I have to perform as a Data Analytics Engineer. I was also familiarized with the company structure and during a visit to our headquarters in Hasselt, Belgium, I got to know the entire TrendMinder team. When I arrived there, I was really impressed by the Corda Campus and our office on the top floor of the building with a super panoramic view over Hasselt and the surrounding area. I met many new colleagues and it confirmed me that I’ll work in a young and agile company, where my opinion and myself count.

After my onboarding period, I was eventually able to prove myself during an internal demonstration and was officially named a data analytics engineer and part of the customer success team. As a data analytics engineer, I try to bring value to our customers and drive customer success by applying TrendMiner to their process data. In this role, I bridge the gap between data analytics and process knowledge for our customers and establish TrendMiner as their prime analytics toolbox to perform self-service analytics. Moreover, I support and train our customers in the use of Trendminer in hands on sessions, remote trainings, 1:1 sessions or in our free online webinars such as the VILT and TrendMiner Fundamentals.

In these sessions with our customers, who are major companies in chemical, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and other industries, we tackle a lot of interesting use cases by working with process technologists and improvement teams to discover potential areas for improvement. This is achieved by means of performing data analysis to find the root-cause of identified problems and proposing and implementing analytical solutions. The challenge of solving these use cases in collaboration with process experts and the combination of process knowledge and the analysis capabilities in TrendMiner are what make the job so appealing, as is the opportunity to learn more and more from different industries and processes and to exchange ideas with subject matter experts.

What I really like about my job is the direct contact with the customer and the opportunity to work together on use cases from the process industry. Not only the work with the customer, but also the internal projects and the cooperation with the other teams, such as Sales, Marketing and Research & Development, offer the opportunity to get an insight into the other areas and to feel the “one team” and “can do mentality” within the company. Furthermore, you are confronted with the big topics of the industry and can train and continuously develop yourself in these areas.

The cooperation with the customer, the possibility to bring in oneself and one’s ideas, to push projects and to be able to work together in a great team is what makes working as a data analytics engineer at TrendMiner stand out and makes me love my job.

I am looking forward to my future journey as a data analytics engineer and the customers and colleagues I will meet along the way, as well as the challenges and tasks I will face to continuously improve myself and gain more and more knowledge through my job.