As we approach the end of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, I can’t help but reflect on my own experience at the Olympics, and where it’s led me to now in working within the data-driven world of technology as a senior data engineer.
2004 Athens Olympic Games
Twenty years ago, I represented Team Ireland in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, in the men’s lightweight rowing four. The experience was both challenging and rewarding – training for the Olympics required immense dedication, teamwork, and resilience. But the camaraderie with my teammates, plus the thrill of representing my country on the world stage, was unparalleled.
Whilst the experience of the Olympics was incredible, adjusting to life outside the professional world of sport was challenging. I spent many years searching for job satisfaction after retiring from international sport in 2008, until an opportunity for something new within the world of software development presented itself during the Pandemic. I’d always been interested in tech, but balancing work and raising two young kids made it difficult to find the time to upskill and consider a career move.
Everything changed in April 2020, when I was furloughed from my job and discovered a Masters in Software Development offered by Queen’s University, Belfast. The course provided an excellent opportunity to earn whilst I learned, allowing me to develop my skills without financial strain. As I progressed through the program, I found myself particularly drawn to data analysis and by the end of the program (15 months later), I had the fortunate opportunity to meet Datactics’ CEO, Stuart Harvey.
Finding my new team
Stuart felt like the career guidance teacher I never had. During our first initial meeting, he recognised that my unique skill set and experience would lend themselves to developing a career in data and suggested that I join the Data Engineering team at Datactics. Because working in the tech industry doesn’t hinge solely on writing code, it can be just as valuable to have skills in problem-solving, creative thinking, effective communication, and teamwork; all of which I developed as a rower.
Not long into the role, I felt a familiar sense of camaraderie and teamwork underpinning daily life at Datactics. The collaborative environment mirrored the tight-knit dynamic of my rowing team, where each member’s contribution is crucial to success and every team member is valued. I also found myself applying the same principles I learnt in professional sport – precision and accuracy- to my work at Datactics. A typical day for me involves working across financial services and government, ensuring data quality and integrity for businesses worldwide. I still get the reward of working in a team, but my responsibilities now are more data quality rule-building than rowing; less oar technique and more data engineer skills.
A data-driven sport
In hindsight, my interest in data is not all that surprising. Rowing is a data-driven sport, with every stroke, race, and training session meticulously recorded and analysed. Having accurate and reliable data helped me understand my performance, identify areas for improvement, and strategise for future races. Now, instead of improving the performance of myself and my team, I use these same data-driven principles to help our customers enhance their performance and achieve their goals.
Transitioning from the world of sport to software has been uniquely challenging and rewarding, with rowing providing me with more transferable skills than I ever expected. I still get to leverage the lessons I learned on the water and enjoy the daily camaraderie of working with an incredible team. As the Paris Games mark twenty years since I represented my country, I’m reminded of some amazing times representing Team Ireland and look forward to seeing where the athletes of Paris 2024 will go in their careers. I’m also reminded that the Olympic spirit, and the value of teamwork, has never left me.
About Eugene
Eugene is a Senior Data Engineer at Datactics. Datactics provides leading data quality and matching software, augmented by machine learning and designed for non-technical business users. Eugene assists clients with their data quality ambitions, providing hands-on support and data quality expertise. At Datactics, we have developed our professional services offering, Datactics Catalyst, to deliver practical support in your data strategy. From augmenting your data team to work on specific data projects to delivering specialised training, our professional services team support data leaders in reaching their goals. Find out more here.
