Driving my professional development whilst on the Boost Bar

The Boost Bar is where Analysts sometimes spend short periods of time between their client assignments, supporting internal Grayce projects. Grayce Analyst, Alex Smith describes his experience as a member of the Boost Bar and how this has furthered his professional development.  

When I joined Grayce’s Data+ Development Programme, I was just establishing my career in data. After completing the Data+ bootcamp and before my first client assignment began, I joined the Boost Bar. At first, I was a little apprehensive, as I wasn’t sure what I’d be doing. But the Boost Bar quickly became one of my favourite times at Grayce so far! 

Being a member of the Boost Bar was a fantastic opportunity to grow, build lasting relationships with the wider Grayce community, and learn new skills. 

Building my network & supporting each other to succeed 

My time on the Boost Bar helped me understand more about the culture at Grayce and appreciate the company values, as personified by my Boost Bar colleagues. During my time there, the Boost Bar was a mix of Change and Data Analysts who were either Grayce veterans or newbies, like myself.  

Everybody I met while on the Boost Bar was motivated, driven, friendly and approachable. With such a great group of people, we were able to foster a fantastic working environment where we supported each other to succeed! 

Every stand-up meeting, Analysts were encouraged to discuss what they had learnt from their tasks that day to ensure Analysts could articulate how the being on the Boost Bar had furthered their Grayce development journey.

Even when the team were faced with challenging targets, we all stayed positive and pulled together to complete complex tasks on time, which added lots of business value. 

Upskilling in PowerApps & agile ways of working 

As part of Grayce’s hyper-growth journey, the Head Office Team are looking to streamline internal processes. Because of this, many of the Boost Bar tasks involved new and powerful automation tools.  

While on the Boost Bar, several Analysts completed tasks using new software and tools like Power Apps, Power Automate, SharePoint and Google Analytics. Most of us learnt these new skills entirely from scratch! These Analysts have found that the skills they developed on the Boost Bar have helped them to succeed in client interviews and on their client assignments.  

The Boost Bar also offers great opportunities to build soft skills. While I was a member of the Boost Bar, we transitioned to an Agile way of working, the basics of which are similar across many Grayce clients. Exposure to Agile principles has helped Grayce Analysts to understand concepts like daily stand-ups, Moscow prioritisation and timeboxing. It is fantastic that Grayce Analysts can become familiar with these concepts before even starting client assignments where Agile is used.

With such positive memories of my time on the Boost Bar, I’d recommend that other Analysts embrace the opportunity to work with their fellow Analysts. Completing important projects for Grayce whilst on the Boost Bar gave me the skills and confidence to hit the ground running on day one and make an immediate impact at my first client assignment. 

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