i checked our usage logs today and bro i’m actually crying. this one manager begged me for months to make him this super important dashboard. he would ping me nonstop like it was a life or death situation.
so i finally build it, make it clean, make it pretty, all that.

guess how many times he opened it?
two. two times. In four months.  

like why do people treat dashboards like some kinda achievement badge. they don’t use them, they just want to say they have one.

how do you all deal with ppl who act like dashboards are trophies? 

do you just build them anyway or do you start saying no?

After graduating in 2015 with a bachelor's in information systems from a top-tier university in my state, I landed an internship at a Fortune 500 company. Quickly promoted to a business analyst, transitioning to a BI analyst role was seamless. After three years there, I pursued an exciting senior BI analyst position in Georgia, where I stayed for two years until an unexpected team restructuring led to a layoff.

Despite six months of efforts to secure another role within the same company, I had to pivot to a new company. Currently, I'm putting in 50 to 60 hours a week as a BI engineering and data engineering professional.

The reality? No matter how many applications I submit, the competition is fierce. Recruiters have praised my outstanding resume and skill set, but with 90 to 150 applicants for each position, standing out is a challenge. Without a Harvard pedigree or advanced degree, getting an interview, let alone a job, feels like scaling a mountain.

My story:

In 2017 I started moonlight as a Tableau dev freelancer. Four months in I had a client offer me 20 hours a week and I quit my job.

Late this October, me and our three staff, received payment from our 100th client and I got a poster made for the office today.

We never niched and have grown far from Tableau, although not into data sciences. Databases, visualization, strategy and training. I've worked with one person startups in the entertainment space to America's biggest coffee chain. So this list is from a wide berth of experiences.

1. Build to audiences ability. If you're presenting to a bunch of data scientists then get fancy with it. If your client are restaurant operators then bar charts and text tables. It's not sexy but that's what they'll understand. Not every dashboard needs to be viz of the day candidate - hell most shouldn't even come close.

2. Put the analytics where the users are already going. Having them go to PBI or Tableau online is an extra click they aren't likely to make. Embed it into sharepoint, send subscriptions when relevant. Bring the water to the horse. And check user metrics - see if there's uptake on the content you're slaving over. If not - why not, do the outreach, figure it out.

3. Socialize the idea of imperfection throughout the build process. My old FTJ we had to have full branding in place before the first review. Then we'd get a bunch of change requests and have to rebrand and re-font all the new charts. Pain in the ass, time suck, cost funnel. Sometimes I'll brand just to give it a wow factor but my first meetings the designs are rough - is this the data you want to see, is this in the right direction. When it's ready for prime time stick that last coat of paint on it.

4. Estimates without seeing the data are asking for trouble. Funnily my 100th client pushed and pushed for this. They couldn't share ANYTHING until there was a contract and a budget. And I pushed back. I've built bar charts that have taken 25 hours because the data is such a gong show. INSIST on seeing data before getting into a project. It's not feasible otherwise.

5. Soft skills are what will separate you as an analyst. There's a huge group of people who can code. I hate to tell you but SQL ain't that hard. PowerBI is built to be easy. I'm technically good at stuff, but I wouldn't be where I am without the fluffy stuff. Rapport and delivery are everything. Knowing the right questions to ask to understand a business problem on the first go goes a long way. Just being generally jovial. Taking things seriously but not too seriously. All of these things, I know, are what our clients have appreciated in working with the company.

Happy to answer any specific questions... or to just swap shit.

Hyperbole, obviously. But there are 20+ startups doing some version of a SQL chatbot that can connect to data, build interactive visualizations, and run semi-advanced analysis.

OpenAI just announced that exact feature set, plus some extra goodies. Right now it only integrates with your Google Drive, but it's not a big leap from here to data warehouses.

https://openai.com/index/improvements-to-data-analysis-in-chatgpt/