Joseph Howarth

That's me before covid. Notice the smile, the carefree attitude, the camera....

I look a little different now, what with a covid beard, haven't had a haircut in 7 months, probably gained a few pounds...

On top of that you might notice something else different about me. I've become a student. Again. It's not a dramatic change, but there is something about picking up something entirely new and diving in head first. A lot of us have been doing it during the pandemic, and there is something entirely refreshing about a new journey into the unknown. What journey did I decide to take. Well, I decided to dive into big data.

Before the Pandemic - Joseph Michael Photography

I was and will always be a photographer. My business, Joseph Michael Photography, thrived for 15 great years and I'm really proud of all the clients and experiences I had through those years. Some of the highlights include shooting the PanAm games here in Toronto in 2015, shooting for NGOs in Rwanda and Uganda in 2006 and 2007, taking press and preproduction photos for Factory Theatre, working with the YMCA of greater Toronto to build their photographic library at centres throughout the GTA for the past number of years. I also have been fortunate enough to shoot over 200 weddings and countless family photos and family events. I will continue to work as a photographer even after this pandemic is over, but as most of photography involved gatherings of a large number of people, I decided maybe it was time to learn something else. Maybe get a job. For the first time in my life.

During the Pandemic - Dad

The year, 2020, was shaping up to be a good year and I had picked up a couple of brand new clients. New clients are always hard to find and this was exciting. One of the new clients was a big conference here in Toronto and I was going to take portraits of individual vendors at the event. Exciting. The conference was the first to cancel. Then everything else did. This isn't a sad story, many people lost a lot more than me, but the reality that things had changed was very clear.

Truth is, the pandemic was great for me in other ways. I got to hang out with my then two-year-old, Wesley. It was like a paternity leave I never actually took and I was all in and it was pretty glorious. We just hung out in High Park, visited the airport to watch the planes take off, built forts, and play with sports bag, a bag full of all the sports. Sports bag went with us where ever we went. We never went far, but it was always with us.

With hardly any work though, I felt I needed something else, and so, decided to go back to school and start something new. That's where the big data comes in. Could a 40-something with no background in math, statistics or computer programming learn enough in the field to make a contribution to the field, get hired working as a data analyst? Well, that's what we are here to find out!

Post Pandemic - Who Knows?

Big data is poorly worded. It should be gargantuan data. Not a smooth off the tongue, but I'm just trying to say, it's way bigger than I thought. My very first step into learning big data was an introduction course on python (a programming language) through Corsera. It was a requirement before starting my classes at York University School of Continuing Studies Certificate in Big Data Analytics. My son was a big inspiration though, I was watching him learning to speak, and thought, I can learn a new language too.

What I didn't know was that there are dozens and dozens of languages and I had to learn a lot of them... SQL, scala, hive, R, HTML... and the list goes on and on.

I just recently completed my certificate in Advance Data Science and Predictive Analytics and looking to maybe get into a new career. It's a bit daunting, I haven't applied for a job in over 15-years and a little rusty on the networking and resume building. Please reach out if you know of anyone looking, or if you are looking yourself, to hire some raw, enthusiastic talent!

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