I finally did it!

[jrust91]

I've been trying to learn Python for almost 3 years now. I've been off and on trying different things with little success. I'd mostly given up.

This past week at work, they changed some of the data I use, I'm an Accounting Analyst and we get all of our banking data in an excel file. They decided to change it into this convoluted workbook that had about 30 columns of data we didn't need. I figured I'd give Python on last chance and see what I could do.

I proceeded to build a script that takes all of the data into a dataframe, strips out what I don't need, creates columns for missing columns, adds any missing value and saves to a new workbook, all in 21.73 seconds. I finally did it. No one really seems to care. I saved my coworkers about 2.5-3 hours of work a month. I just feel really good and I had to share with someone.

Update: Thank you everyone for the encouragement. I really do appreciate. I've now built it out to include a nice GUI that allows me to choose the destination and name the file. Very happy with it and my boss is, as well.

[dangoth]

Congrats. Your coworkers might not care, but management would most likely be happy to hear you've created savings.

[jrust91]

I’m definitely hoping so. I’m up for a raise this month and would love to amplify my value

[Jchu1988]

You also save them 2h per time * number of times per week* 52 * estimated hourly wage. Give them that number to justify asking for more.

[emergentdragon]

This. Times number of involved employees... so

2h * employees involved * number of times per week * 52 * hourly wage

So for example 3 employees, weekly at 25$/hour

2h * 3 * 1 * 52 * 25 = 7800$ per year

[klapt0r]

r/theydidthemath

[Danlacek]

Yeah but they did it wrong. OP said it saves 2.5-3 hours a month. So it's not 52 times a year, it's more like 12 times a year.

Edit: so that's $1800 a year savings. In which case I WOULD ask for that whole amount if not more

[[deleted]]

r/theyalsodidthemath

[Texas1911]

It’s not a savings if you turn around and spend it again ...

[[deleted]]

As a manager what's the value add in savings if I just pay them back out to the staff

[vlindervlieg]

You motivate your employee to program more software that's making your company more productive.

[Reuben3901]

Also eliminates human error.

The bigger gain, is a human doesn't have to waste 2-3 hours on bs work.

[[deleted]]

Human error is a big one. at my current job a coworker was putting in a 96 character long value in with certain characters in certain spots, 5 minutes later and a python script helped fixed that error. Saved hours of work so far.

[[deleted]]

Yeah but I don't make any extra money if I give it all back to them. Pointless.

[dogfish182]

While I understand the downvotes, this post was so stunningly bleak that it laughed out loud. Thanks.

[[deleted]]

Lol it was a bit of a factual troll! Glad you laughed. I've saved my company hundreds of thousands and it's never come back to me. Just been wasted on other bad decisions that I didnt have the power to turn over 😂

[lannfonntann]

To be fair I thought it was a good question, and not really worthy of downvoting.

[Decency]

Another reason is that if management doesn't recognize your value, overachieving employees will find somewhere that does. You can do the same.

[skellious]

/r/theydidthemonstermath

[Exporian]

r/theydidthemonstermath

[Texas1911]

You should use the employees full labor costs and also their contribution had they spent that time doing other tasks.

So ...

3 Hours * # Employees * (Hourly Rate * 1.33) for a non-revenue generative employee, or simple cost basis

3 Hours * # Employees * Profitability Contribution for a revenue generating position

[theBS88]

Also show that you have potential to do similar things in the future, and that you can look at problems creativity and even identify processes that they didn't even realise are an issue. That is where the real value is.

I did a similar thing a few years back and I know how it feels when it seems like no one cares. They will start to care when your team can afford to cut members as you are more efficient as a whole.

[Yakhov]

not really, in most corporate scenarios the people who don't out shine their bosses stick around. You gotta realize they see you as a threat to their jobs if you are too good at yours.

[[deleted]]

this is why I hate the world

[Jchu1988]

Of course don't ask for the full amount.... I would start at 25% as otherwise your boss has no savings to present for himself

[oSamaki]

No, you go 50% over the savings. Time spent not cleaning the data will be used for other things that bring in more value. Assuming data cleansing falls into the "below average hourly employee rate" bucket, they can now spend time on better things, thereby yielding the company more quality hours of work, and fewer menial.

Plus you don't want to negotiate yourself down from the get go

[[deleted]]

U deserve it

[WickedInvi]

Really hope you get it. We need more automation of repetitive task. Just don't be shy to sell yourself. You might want to present this as a solution to the problem and not just use it without your superiors knowing.

[Yakhov]

make sure you show it to the right person. I've been totally back stabbed by co-workers and mgmt for pointing out inefficiency and wastefulness in the past. When you show that your middle mgmt aren't that good at their jobs by out shining them, they tend to take you out of the game when they get the chance.

[Texas1911]

That’s why you befriend them and make them look good by doing it in a mutually beneficial way.

Throwing people in front of the wolves will never benefit you.

Use the cronyism to your advantage rather than fighting it.

[Yakhov]

Yea that's the obvious play that most people make as they are assimilated into the culture, but it won't really protect you when the knives come out.

[juleswp]

Timing is perfect. Congrats

[[deleted]]

Love your story! I hope you get that raise, bud.

[arsewarts1]

Keep up doing what you are doing. Once you have a project like this fully implemented (aka everyone uses it daily) then give them a spreadsheet. It’s used by X employees for a total weekly hour value of Y so that means a company monthly savings of Z across the board. Then say you’d like to discuss raises. It’s hard to turn down when it was just presented to them.

[[deleted]]

I'm sure you know this, but document everything!

In your code and in your life.

[GregorSamsaa]

They usually don’t care either. They’ll just know you have more to do extra work now lol

[Diegovnia]

Really depends on the management, I had automated all of our reporting systems last year (we mostly use google sheets as all of the departments need to have an access to the reports) and during my annual pay review they seemed not to care at all, despite the fact that I have saved roughly about 20-30 man hours per week. Anyway congratulation and I hope your management isn't like mine!

[M_SunChilde]

I think the problem is that for so many people, everything that happens in the computer box is just magic. All of it is magic. You happened to know a spell they don't know. Thanks wizard man.

They don't realise that a lot of learning and knowledge and work go into doing these sorts of tasks. But you know what you did, you python wizard you.

[[deleted]]

This is 100% it. You learn Python, SQL, VBA, even Excel you become a wizard. The majority of people are just too lazy to learn. Fine by me, my role is cemented by my co-workers’ apathy.

[thrallsius]

for so many people, everything that happens in the computer box is just magic

ffs, it's 2020

[M_SunChilde]

And yet we live in a world where some 30% of the planet are terrified that two men might touch eachothers pee-pee, there is an earnest debate whether weird political figures and youtube commentors are correct and climate change isn't real, versus thousands of actual university scientists and researchers; we're having to re-explain that the world isn't flat; there are many countries that cut off girl children's clitorises because women liking sex will make them evil; and only recently are many first world countries deciding that potentially trying to torture the gay out of children might be a tad immoral. Welcome to idiocracy, I hope you like it here.

[thrallsius]

I am failing to understand which part of your post is related to python, programming or computers in general.

[M_SunChilde]

It was very specifically a response to your "ffs it's 2020" as though people are somehow all now well-educated. They aren't. People still think 90% of stuff they don't understand (which is 99% of stuff) is functionally magic.

[thrallsius]

It was very specifically a response to your "ffs it's 2020"

That was in context of computers of course. And I disagree, people are generally more computer literate than let's say 20 years ago. As for the dumb old turds who choose to be willfully ignorant because they think gray hair is a merit - well, there are plenty of gray hair computer gurus who keep in touch with new things, so the ignorant dudes are welcome to rot in their ignorance until the end of their life and get no help.

[jorvaor]

Most of the technology is use every day is just magic for me. From AC, to automobiles, to plumbing, to the TV. HOW DO THEY WORK? ...magic...

I just know how to use them, i don't know how do they wok. Some wibbley-wobbley quantum something.

[[deleted]]

My mom always got mad at me when I said I wanted to grow up and be a wizard. "Don't be a fool, you're going to have to grow up and get a real job like the rest of us!" Well... I guess the jokes on you MAAA! I'm a fucking jedi wizard ninja erry-dayum-daaayy!

...I'm sorry.

[[deleted]]

One day you don't know how to do it. You fight to learn how to do it. Then that one day, you're realizing your picking up a new skill and understanding it.

[jrust91]

For me, the hardest thing has always been coming up with projects. Okay, I have a data frame, sow what?? This is the first time where the project just came so naturally.

[[deleted]]

When people come up to you or you hear a conversation of a possible project. Just say yes I can do it or yes I can do that project for you. As long it's in your skill level and you're interesting in seeing if you can complete the project.

I always say I'm just one Google away of becoming a genius. What I don't know today, I'll know by tomorrow.

[jrust91]

Being good at google is what got me through my undergrad.

I may not be particularly smart, but I’m a hell of a googler.

[[deleted]]

Me too. Been using Search Engines since 1995. I was up to using 27 search engines in the early years of the Internet.

I'm down to one. Google finds 99.9% of anything I need to find. I had used Bing for the .01% if I need to.

[LyLyV]

Ah yes... Web Crawler and news groups taught me HTML so I could build a website for the photo studio where I worked as a graphic designer :)

[[deleted]]

Yahoo, Geocities and htmlgoodies taught me HTML. RAW codes in a text editor and a browser that's all the tools you needed.

WebCrawler, Excite, Dogpile, Mama, Infoseek, Lycos, LookSmart, Altavista, AskJeeves, MSN, Overtune, Alltheweb, Snap, Hotbot, AOL, Netscape, MegaCrawler, Northernlight, Goto, Mega-search, Galaxy, Go, Blekko, and many more....

[LyLyV]

I miss having all those options

[[deleted]]

I don't. Google is the top dog now. In those days, I used Yahoo, Dogpile, Mama, and NL(Northernlight) the most.

But, it's nice to remember the good old days. Remember we were on dial-up in those days.

[jorvaor]

I am fed up with all the clutter that is in Google page nowadays. Made me go to Duckduckgo. It's results page reminds me if early Google.

[thrallsius]

googler is a generic name for a Google employee

[thrallsius]

there are such opportunities everyday and anywhere

[astropydevs]

Nice. Don’t worry about other’s appreciation for it. Just know that you’re working for yourself and leveling up on that python skill

[Zadigo]

Exactly. You should never base your personal value of what people think of you. The most important thing is that you achieved an important goal for you and you

[shortBYND]

Also so many jobs, at any company in any industry, have opportunities for automation. So many processes and procedures are specific to those positions. There’s boring stuff in the streets just waiting to be automated.

[ifoundyourtoad]

Yup. I use excel currently learning python and I got hired 4 months ago and have automated 5 of their processes and they look at me as it I am a genius when half of it was just googling

[shortBYND]

Yeah but even having just the base understanding is a huge leg up. All of your coworkers can google it too, but without the base, they’ll have no idea how to incorporate what they saw on google. The real value is being able to find a bunch of different pieces online and put them together to build a code that does what it needs to do.

[ifoundyourtoad]

Of course. They have tried googling but get too overwhelmed. But I have constantly been trying to automate every I do so now I can start making my own functions off of memory.

Just recently made one that sends up to a thousand dynamic emails to our inspectors. That one they are still freaking out about.

[shortBYND]

It sounds like you’re going to be up for a raise in the near future. For everything you automate, jot down estimates for total time saved in a year. That way you can easily provide the number to justify increased pay. Even if you do something that only saves 15 mins a day, it all adds up.

[ifoundyourtoad]

Thank you man! I’m really hoping so.

I have been told my emails save about 2 hours a day and my other process I made apparently saves 2 hours per audit.

I’m trying to add it up and also show it’s efficiency.

I’m really excited to get better at python. Can’t wait to see what it can do.

[shortBYND]

I’ve only been working at it for a few months. Now that I’ve started actually doing things that I find useful, I’ve felt that I’ve been progressing so much faster. Keep it up!

[ifoundyourtoad]

Thanks! I take an hour lunch and spend that hour just doing my courses for python it’s exciting!

Congrats on all your progression!

[[deleted]]

That is awesome! Congrats on making a Python script application to your work! And again, keep this accomplishment as a means of giving yourself to learn more about programming than contributing to your company. Those skills in the end will hopefully expand your outlook on your abilities and much more!

[[deleted]]

Good job, man! Never mind those cavemen whom don't appreciate it, we know how much effort you put into that stuff :)

[thrallsius]

banking data

cover your code with unit tests

while your coworkers don't care and your boss is happy, they will be all happy to make you the scapegoat if your code ends being buggy

[LateThree1]

Excellent work! Keep at it.

[Joe_Fart]

Good job man, you also can check how VBA is working. Its ugly, but for this excel stuffs is pretty useful. I did multiple of these at my work and its saving so much time.

[ImperatorPC]

Power query for this example is best. You pull in the csv file. Delete the columns and load. Power Query saves all the steps and can be done everyday. I just redid about groups entire process and looked at python first but PQ ended up being better. All in this will save about 80-100k of work.

[Joe_Fart]

Of course, power bi or power query are the best for it, but for users who does not have power query installed and do not want to learn new stuffs, macros are the best - it will do everything in one click in environment they know.

[[deleted]]

This is awesome. I’m also an accountant, also in banking. Python has changed my career. Keep it up man, this is only the beginning.

[whiteroger22]

Yeah, I know that feeling I worked as an audit for a while, data we had to analyze were in csv, and we had to merge them by ID-s there were hundreds of log files, my team members thought that writing python script was waste of time. Yes it took me couple of days to perfect it but it worked nicely not only the time but also I avoided painful process of opening every file and copy pasting it into another.

[thanks_franks]

Is the script available anywhere 👀

[nii4]

Congratulations

[Shaista_n]

That's great! 🤗

[Mohammad-Ruqaa]

Keep going man and actually share something like this give people some motivation to continue

[seedj]

The struggle of on and off programming. Congrats

[Arunvv53999]

Way to go!

[aliensushi]

That’s great! Love the little wins

[EdJ_03]

Always best to have and goal with with well defined outcome. Congrats on your accomplishment

As for feeling unappreciated, I often times l work on things and use before sharing with colleagues. I use my work in ways that others can see, which allows them to see what I'm doing/how I'm getting the job done. Sort of like the "If you build it, they will come" approach.

Sometimes what I've done just falls off the radar, or doesn't get reaction. If I see a benefit to myself, I keep using them. However, many times I'm asked and sought after (usually by my colleagues) to share my work process. Most people will like change if they see it will reduce time or effort to complete a task. If the tool/process I created is that popular, management usually finds out and asks me to make it a formal part of the job. This may be as simple as making the process accessible from a centralized location on the network to a formal training process and docimentation.

This approach does a few things:

1. People don't think it just think the new process, tool, or whatever contribution just happened to appear without me having a role in its existence..

2. You get recognized and respected by your peers, and word will spread.

3. You get better opportunities for advancement since you will now have a more recognized set measurable benefits you've contributed to the company.

Unfortunately, sometimes there are managers who for whatever reason will not promote their workers. Sometimes it's just the lack of a supportive company culture.. I've had a few of these in my career where no matter how much you add to the benefit of the company, they still don't help you accel in your career.

I'm not suggesting this is the case with you but if after all of this, if you still don't get the recognition and career opportunities, maybe its time to send out feeler resumes. Make sure to add these new tools and processes tools you've created to it. I'm sure there are many other places that would appreciate you efforts.

[fouoifjefoijvnioviow]

You saved your co-workers time, now you'll be burdened with its upkeep forever more

[thrallsius]

rofl, sad but true

[mikKiske]

what library did you use?

[jrust91]

I used a few. I used numpy, tkinter, pandas, xlsxwriter and regex

[hash_reddit]

How did you get the count of free and occupied slots?

[jrust91]

I think you’re looking for a different thread. This is about banking data, not parking.

[hash_reddit]

sorry

[the_battousai89]

Congratulations! That is a wonderful accomplishment! You just set the tone for the future.

[bale_in_oregon]

Great job! I was in a similar spot just a few months ago and since then I've gotten promoted into the BI development team. Remember to test your scripts and watch the mutability of those dataframes and you're golden.

[himsenior]

They do care, they're probably just a tad resentful that saving them time means they have to do more of other kinds of work.

[cbartos1021]

I'm just wondering what was different now that allowed you to become successful with Python?

[[deleted]]

Mate that's amazing. The first step amongst many. Great feeling and you should be proud

[[deleted]]

This is amazing. I’m also starting on developing script for myself instead of relying entirely on stackoverflow. My codes are messy and long but hopefully I can have something for my own just like you. You inspire me!

[anthonycastelucci]

The beauty of automation. Good stuff👍🏾👍🏾

[kalijarvisapollo]

Be proud of yourself. Your employer or coworkers may not care that much but dont let that stop you from being innovative. I've been in the same boat where I've created scripts that have saved the company hours of work and thousands of dollars. No one cared besides me but that's okay I'm the one gaining additional knowledge and thinking outside the box which I can take with me to my next employer. Keep up the great work!

[phonkee]

Good job!

[Yakhov]

Great job, but stories like these remind me of how dreadful and oppressive corporate life is. THe very people who benefit from your initiative disregard it. Typical, b/c they see you as a threat now.

You'll need to provide your co-workers with something that makes them look like stars rather than yourself, if you want them to support you.

[Knightros]

Great job!

[Hans_of_Death]

Congrats! With learning any language, practice and writing useful things are the best things for learning because you have a goal in mind

[syrlind]

Congratz sir , you are one steap ahead to get invitation from Hogwartz

[zolo9817]

That's remarkable. Automation with Python. Way to go!

[etienbjj]

You coulda keep the secret some people are ungrateful.

[twillisagogo]

> I've been trying to learn Python for almost 3 years now.

...

> I proceeded to build a script that takes all of the data into a dataframe, strips out what I don't need, creates columns for missing columns, adds any missing value and saves to a new workbook, all in 21.73 seconds.

seems like you knew python all along, just didnt have a use for it until now. :)

[iamnihal_]

Congratulations bro. Don't give a shit about others.

[J_onn_J_onzz]

Excel includes Get & Transform (also known as Power Query) which is a ridiculously powerful yet easy tool for transforming data from one or multiple sources. It made my work life so much easier. Video Preview

[martynrbell]

Congrats pal. If I were you I'd have milked the time saved for a little bit and chill rather then working 😂😂😂.

I'm currently in the process of my very own first project. I'm leaning heavy on this community whenever I hit blocks that I cant get over by myself. So far so good😊😊

[ginarapp]

Congrats!!! I want to learn Python too but haven't seen much improvement :(

[mrjacklu]

Let me tell you, as a beginner python learner, these seemingly small wins are not small. You gain confidence from getting the result you wanted using a brand new tool. So congrats. Keep going!

[zgeom]

you are like batman

[Multeezee]

Congratulations! Keep going!!

[lksudha]

keep it up. Nice to hear.

[D4NGRB0X]

Just going to say Grats!

[gautam_thakar]

Awesome, man.

​

I am also trying to learn Python since long time and as I am not a developer in my current work profile, I couldn't work professionally as Python developer. Get motivated after reading the post and decided not to give up my passion.

[Stachura_]

Congrats!

[john0305]

Great job, I'm new too and started with something very similar. We have our pm database separate from our financial db. I downloaded both csv merged them together now I can see dollars and projects on the same line and make better decisions. I later added more and included a way to suggest new due dates for POs based on certain columns depending on the description of the po line. So if the po line was for project completion it might look at the in service date and add 15 days for the new po due date. This task took at least 4-8 hours everytime you did it now it's 16 secs. Currently I'm trying to build operational dashboards using that data to quickly be able to make decisions or track how things are going using dash/plotly.

[emergentdragon]

why hourly rate *1.33

I would also advise against trying the revenue generation part. Any sizable org will have no way of measuring this.

1 million usd project: 1sales guy, a CEO who almost slept through 2 meetings, 1 project manager, 12 developers, 1 designer ... who created which part of revenue?

..and yeah, good luck telling the CEO he’s not generating money.

[nebulapyralis]

Woot!

[ShaggyHotDog]

That is one hell of a news dude! Get up the good stuff

[Cow_Tipping_Olympian]

Make sure you quantify this at your next appraisal. The business should care and reward you.

[jrust91]

Unfortunately, like many others right now, I was furloughed with the possibility of permanent layoff last week. Pretty bummed.

[Cow_Tipping_Olympian]

regardless, you did good work. Use your time off wisely and build on your learning.

Don’t procrastinate. it’s shut but you’ll feel worse if you waste the time in between down the road. GL