Sophie Kim, Senior Principal Consultant, Slalom
Sophie Kim is a commercially focused data leader with a diverse technical skill set. She is particularly adept in ‘translation’, able to communicate well with technical colleagues to pinpoint problem areas and communicate optimal solutions to stakeholders.
Sophie began her data career in 2013 working as a data scientist specializing in econometrics and marketing analytics. She then held various leadership roles across retail and Telco including management and transformation of a BI function and building data strategy. Sophie gained commercial experience from her role in a commercial function through business casing, scenario analysis, and financial modelling.
Sophie joined Slalom consulting in 2021 following maternity leave and the birth of her son, Archie. She is a Senior Principal consultant heading up data visualisation for Slalom’s Manchester office. Sophie loves to lean into all types of data projects and has led projects on everything from cloud migration, data visualisation, data enrichment, and more besides in a variety of industries.
As part of our ongoing celebration of International Women’s Day, we sat down with senior leaders from our community to ask them how they found themselves in the world of data, and what advice they have for others.
How and Why did you get into the Data industry?
After Uni, Sophie tells us how she struggled to get a graduate job and was temping in reception in a head office. From there, she got a good level of exposure to a whole range of different head office careers. Sophie was really interested in buying and merchandising at first, but then a job came up doing data science asking for people with degrees with statistical elements. She went for it, got the job, and realised that she absolutely loves data!
Sophie tells us how she’s grateful to have fallen into data- she feels she was in the right place at the right time. Data suits her well as she has always loved maths and has a natural curiosity for how things work. Sophie says it always keeps her on her toes with opportunities to learn and there are so many different areas to explore.
What advice would you give to a college or Uni leaver considering a career in Data?
Sophie tells us how data is really varied and requires people with a whole load of different talents and skill sets. If you are technically minded and detail-orientated, you’d most likely be great at coding or architecture. If you love to speak to people and are great at presenting, you could be amazing in a business partner role or stakeholder-facing data role. If you’ve got a knack for big-picture thinking and/or a background or interest in finance, then commercial data roles might be for you. Data is not just one thing, it really varies.
Data is also becoming more and more ingrained in a wide range of roles, so working with data is a great way to build transferable skills.
How has being a female leader impacted your journey within the data industry?
There have been many times in Sophie’s career when she’s been in a big meeting or workshop, and she has been the only female in the room. Many of those times, most of which were early in her career she was also the youngest. She tells us how it can be intimidating. A female mentor recommended the book, “Feel the fear and do it anyway” by Susan Jeffers and it’s been a mantra she’s lived by since. Those early experiences have shaped Sophie and now she has the confidence to always speak up where she feels she can add value.
Almost 10 years on, gender diversity has come a long way in data, and Sophie truly hopes to see further shifts through her career.
What do you think could be done better in the Data industry to attract more females to a career in Data?
It is extremely rare that anyone ever 100% fits a role profile in data, or indeed in tech wider. Studies show that puts females off applying, so Sophie thinks it should be clearer in role profiles that people who meet most requirements should apply. This is particularly important for entry-level roles.
Sophie believes there should be more opportunities for women to get into data from other career areas and utilize their transferable skills. One of the best people Sophie tells us she ever worked with in data was female with little data experience, she joined within a senior role and brought a whole host of transferable skills which she used to augment the technical skills in her team, the impact she had to the team’s overall success was phenomenal. Often, there are opportunities for technical skills to be picked up in the role.
Tahanee Twist
Tahanee is an accomplished principal talent partner with us here at Orbition. With years of experience in the industry, she has developed a reputation as a skilled and trusted advisor to both clients and candidates.
In her role as principal talent partner, Tahanee is responsible for managing key client relationships and ensuring the delivery of high-quality talent solutions. She works closely with clients to understand their business needs and culture, and develops customized strategies that meet their specific requirements Read more.
