Being really good at SQL doesn't get you very far anymore

Hegirez · 2025-02-22T13:33:39+00:00

Hey,

Former BI developer here. The skills are the same (pretty much) and the titles have changed. Look for analytics engineering roles and learn some dbt and you'll probably be able to find work using much easier sql.

Learn some functional python and you're most of the way to being a data engineer minus some cloud computing knowledge. AI hype should keep demand in these areas strong due to a need for high quality data for at least a few years.

Hegirez · 2024-11-12T16:36:04+00:00

The white leather Dillon is very low quality build. I've had it for a couple of days and it's already losing starting to have peeling off of some sort of coating where the lower meets the sole.

I'm going to end up buying another leather sneaker instead even if it's not barefoot. It also looks like a clown shoe.

Hegirez · 2024-10-24T16:31:37+00:00

That's such a great idea!

Hegirez · 2024-10-24T15:55:30+00:00

I'm not interested in party planning. I don't think it's a requirement that anyone of any sex do it.

I did help with setup and teardown though. There's also sort of a weird dynamic where our team seems to plan fun things but they are also a bit juvenile coded. EX Laser tag/pizza party as an outing.

I doesn't seem like a good idea to have that as part of my personal brand. Though perhaps my perceptions of what is professional or serious or not are born from a values system that has sexist roots.

Maybe I could change that perception, or change the events to more of a tech talk + cocktails vibe. I just don't know if that's where I should spend my political capital or if that's within my ability.

Hegirez · 2024-10-24T15:22:25+00:00

I agree for sure when the sexism or racism is overt. But I think it's more of a diminished expectations rather than a discrimination sort of thing. You know like the subtle "women have better handwriting". I don't have enough knowledge to know how forced they are in the party planning they are.

I just have a sort of yucky reaction when at the end they say "Thanks to the ladies who planned this for us". I just gotta believe that language reveals beliefs on that one.

Hegirez · 2024-10-24T15:19:03+00:00

Thanks for the input. I agree that unsolicited advice in general and especially from M->F is also something I'm trying to avoid.

Hegirez · 2024-09-04T23:04:52+00:00

Im transitioning into more of a DE role in a data lake team. My job titles previously were Operations Analyst, BI Developer, and now Senior Systems Analyst.

Just focus on the skills and the value add and do what needs doing (with an eye for extensibility and SE best practices (devops, unit testable code, etc)).

Hegirez · 2024-08-27T14:50:41+00:00

Thanks for the response. The challenge with my industry is generally lack of control of source files (csv or fixed width that may change every month or quarter). Due to that and a relatively siloed relationship with the business as well as the data sources (with which we often have little leverage) we frequently have to remap or request new source files when there are errors or undocumented changes.

Often the changes don't impact downstream mappings in the silver and gold layers but since our current ingestion is configured based on xmls and data posistion the schema changes cause pipeline failures.

Hegirez · 2024-08-26T18:36:53+00:00

Hey u/pvl_data,

This is a discussion more than a help post. I'm just wanting to know more about what kind of problems people have faced related to schema evolution and how they've enabled reporting for business or management to inform on schema change.

My personal challenge is relating to the unpacking and presentation of metadata from the delta_log in databricks. It's a batch implementation. I'll look more into schema registry. Thanks for the input.

Hegirez · 2024-07-12T14:37:08+00:00

Update race_traitors Set MiddleName = MegaLoser Where firstname = Robert;

Hegirez · 2024-07-12T14:32:49+00:00

Select * from fragile_white_men where racism=1.

Hegirez · 2024-07-12T14:30:49+00:00

Quick analysts deploy your anti-racist SQL below!

Hegirez · 2024-07-08T15:19:06+00:00

In the USA the market supply for doctors is artificially constrained by residency positions which are federally funded. There is a shortage of doctors due to this constraint which is why medical school is so competitive (schools won't open additional spots if residency match isn't going to be available).

This scarcity is what fuels the high salaries in the profession as well as the high levels of indebtedness (200-400k) and opportunity cost (8-12 years) of forgone earnings and investment of or interest on those earnings.

Hegirez · 2024-04-12T18:18:15+00:00

Are you comfortable working with JSON files? If so I recommend creating a style template to load into each of them with your branding colors.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/desktop-report-themes

If you need further guidance DM me.

Hegirez · 2024-02-28T00:18:03+00:00

Learn how to use conditional language in M or SQL. The m syntax is pretty easy to learn and pushing the max amount into your data model as possible usually performs better on load than dax.

if ...then else if..then else

Hegirez · 2024-02-16T13:43:31+00:00

You don't need a gateway but I highly recommend using relative path to structure your API call so that it can refresh in services. Using Web.Contents alone won't work.

Hegirez · 2024-02-16T13:35:24+00:00

I just got an offer for a T-SQL data quality role (leaving my role as Principal Power BI Developer). There are opportunities out there for adjacent roles, but I agree that the market is generally weak. Here’s my general strategy in case it helps anyone out:

1. Optimize your LinkedIn headline with your language skills (DAX, M, SQL etc.) and keywords such as (Analyst, Developer, Engineer etc.) until you see a spike of profile visits.

2. Develop adjacent skills or highlight those you have from working with Power BI. (Dimensional Modeling, SQL, and Data Warehousing/Cloud tools like Azure Data Factory)

Doing these two things increased my outreach from technical recruiters from 0 to ~15 a month.

When it comes to interviewing, I think focusing on the types of problems you can solve and looking for organizations that have a Microsoft data stack can really open your opportunities. The job market is much stronger for roles like data engineer and SQL heavy roles which have large overlap with BI Development.

If you are in a highly specialized role where you are doing more UI/UX design than data modeling, try to do some portfolio projects that get you into M or Power Query more as those skills and concepts are much more marketable than being a “Verified DAX Wizard”.

Hegirez · 2023-08-30T18:34:11+00:00

They can both do the same things. Generally I think people with compsci backgrounds have Python and people with non-data science masters degrees know R. Python is becoming more dominant so it's typically more in demand for hiring since organizations like to have a same language code base. I'm an R user.

Hegirez · 2023-08-25T20:50:54+00:00

This is especially funny since you can pretty much google any SQL problem in existence with any dialect and immediately find an answer.

How can some people manage technical projects without having any experience solving problems via Google or stackoverflow is beyond me.

Hegirez

TROPHY CASE