We sat down with Tristan Mobbs, Data & Analytics Manager for Kite Packaging to hear what his experience has been whilst within the Orbition Group community. Tristan is an active Orbition community member, he’s a mentee in our mentorship programme, a weekly listener of our industry podcast, and has also participated in some of the services we offer, like our Leadership Branding, to find out his path to CDO Data Leadership in 2023.
Why did you initially get involved in the Mentorship program as a mentee?
When I first got a message about the Mentorship program from Kyle, I thought it was an incredible opportunity and a way for me to learn and further develop my career in data. My background up to that point was in operational data roles outside of the data team. I was becoming more focused on my career and felt that I could improve the way we utilise data across organisations. The Mentorship program was therefore a fantastic opportunity to learn and consult from someone who had already been there and done it.
You’ve been a mentee for a while, what have been the outcomes so far?
The biggest outcome so far was realising much more quickly that a role wasn’t for me.
This would have taken far longer to come to that conclusion without having Graeme [Graeme McDermott, Chief Data Officer, Tempcover] as a sounding board. I have also been challenged and had ideas expanded on thanks to his expertise and ability to hold me to account. Now as a data leader for Kite Packaging having someone external to run things by and who has already been on a similar journey is incredibly valuable, and I have a much clearer path to CDO Data Leadership in 2023.
What would you say to others who are considering joining the programme?
I would ask two questions:
- Are you ready for a mentor? Or do you just want a mentor because it sounds good to have? Earlier in my career I wasn’t ready for a mentor and expected them to do things or open doors for me and help me set a direction. If you have specific areas, you wish to develop and want support with and have a clear direction then this is an incredible opportunity.
- What do you want to learn from your mentor? Data is an extremely broad subject and can offer a range of opportunities and experiences based on organisation size, sector, and data maturity. Knowing what you want support with and who can offer that support having followed a similar path will make your experience as a mentee even better.
You recently took part in our LinkedIn Leadership branding diagnosis, a 30-minute session with Catherine our Head of Brand to walk through your profile, and understand your strengths and weaknesses, why did you sign up?
I first became aware of the power of personal branding when covid hit and I had just quit my job with impeccable timing. The messages of support I then received from people I had previously worked with opened my eyes to the importance of your network. This started my journey of personal branding. I signed up for a session with Catherine to help push my personal brand to the next level. It had been a couple of years since I reviewed my LinkedIn profile, and the timing was right. I have ambitions to appear on podcasts and do more speaking, developing a strong personal brand will help with those ambitions and will help me to be recognised by CDO data leadership in 2023.
Catherine was incredibly helpful in pointing out blind spots on my LinkedIn profile and for showing me additional features I could make use of. Having an idea of how my profile came across to someone with Catherine’s experience helped open my mind to what I could improve on. I am now in the process of updating my profile to put into action all of Catherine’s suggestions.
You can view Tristans LinkedIn profile here
Have you seen an impact from posting regularly on LinkedIn?
I have been able to make several great connections and learn from a range of incredibly knowledgeable people. By putting ideas out there the data community can offer opinions I hadn’t thought of as well as sharing in insightful conversation and debate on all things data. I have a few connections that I have regular calls with and have become good friends with both in the UK but also around the world.
I have also gained opportunities through posting on LinkedIn working with FourthRev on their Data Career Accelerator course and with other opportunities in the pipeline. Without building my personal brand these opportunities would not have existed.
How has being part of the Orbition Group Community helped your career?
The resources Orbition offer from The Podcast to The Mentorship and now Personal Branding have all helped open my mind and push me to really develop my career in data. From first seeing Kyle’s posts on LinkedIn to the insights I have now gained have helped me go from niche areas of analytics to leading a data and analytics team. The Orbition community has also been valuable in expanding my data network further and introducing me to even more great people.
As part of the data community, I believe that part of our role is to help further define the industry, lift each other up, and bring more great people into the field.
Kyle often posts about the confusing job titles, job specs, and the poor job we do about promoting data as a career. We can do more for the benefit of all and Orbition are doing a fantastic job at leading the way.
