102: Exposing How Alex The Analyst Became a Data Analyst (And The Most Popular Data YouTuber)

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[00:00:58] I'm going to be brutally honest because I think people tend to sugarcoat this process. I just

[00:01:04] wasn't smart enough and is that 100% fair? No, I don't think so. Because I did have a moment

[00:01:08] where I was like, man, SQL's kind of boring. Lie your way in. I think that's probably

[00:01:12] the only way. Which at the time I was like, the hairy broke. So I was like $2,000 a year. That's

[00:01:16] like insane. You're doing something amazing here every day. This is genius. So out of context.

[00:01:22] Welcome to the Data Career Podcast. The podcast that helps aspiring data professionals land their next

[00:01:28] data job. Here's your host, Avery Smith. All right. Welcome back to the Data Career Podcast. I'm

[00:01:35] here with the goat Alex the analyst and we're going to have a fun podcast for you guys today.

[00:01:40] Alex thanks for joining the podcast. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

[00:01:43] Yes, we are in your I want to say hometown but not your home town. Your home base for

[00:01:48] for the time being in Charleston. And we're here with POSIT. So thank you POSIT for for having

[00:01:52] us here. If you guys haven't seen Alex before, you guys haven't tried to learn data analytics

[00:01:58] I think is a fairest David. So I want to know like how is the last year been for you just in terms

[00:02:04] of YouTube you've gone from I remember when we were in Utah together you would just hit 500,000

[00:02:10] I think or maybe it was 200,000. I think I think a year and a half goes around like it was like

[00:02:15] three or 350, 400,000. And all right now I'm about 725 and so the last year and a half has been

[00:02:22] a really big increase. I think one just because now YouTube I got hit the YouTube algorithm pretty

[00:02:29] well and so more people are seeing me but also I think more people are coming into the data analytics

[00:02:32] space even with AI and everything that's going on I feel like a lot of people are seeing that

[00:02:39] is still a really good really good career path and a good stepping stone for other careers. So if they

[00:02:43] are like well data engineering is going to really take off with AI people are still like well how

[00:02:48] do I get into data engineering? I need to learn some of the core concepts which data analytics has

[00:02:53] and so a lot of people are venturing into data analytics who may not have before they go straight

[00:02:59] into data engineering. And so they see it as a really great career path and so I have seen a huge

[00:03:04] influx of people over the past year and a half, two years. I bet the thing that's interesting

[00:03:10] with what you just said was like a lot of people do try to go straight from a non-technical

[00:03:17] career or some other career into a data scientist role or a data engineering role and for my experience

[00:03:22] in fact when I first started my company data career job start that was like I wanted to make people

[00:03:26] data scientists. And I found out it's actually really hard to make so on a data scientist from scratch

[00:03:31] it takes a lot of time, a lot of effort and so I think that's like an under an under talked about like

[00:03:40] opportunity where you can become a data analyst and then you can get paid to learn data engineering

[00:03:45] as a data analyst because you're going to be learning some of the skills no matter what.

[00:03:48] Yeah. And then go down the road. Sorry you saying that as well like that's a good entry place?

[00:03:51] Well not only did I see it that was also my experience so I was a data analyst on a data collection

[00:03:56] team and it was under the data science umbrella so I was a fortune ten company and I was a data

[00:04:02] analyst but I worked very very closely with our data engineers, database developers and data

[00:04:07] science teams and after about two years in there I was doing a lot of data engineering style work

[00:04:13] creating pipelines or fixing pipelines, doing the transformations and or fixing those transformations

[00:04:19] and so the data engineering team wanted me to join their team and the data science team at the same

[00:04:24] time wanted me to join their team as a data engineer and a data scientist and then I got the

[00:04:29] offered to be a manager of analytics and so at the time I chose the manager path but I had

[00:04:36] the opportunity to go data engineering and I would not have ever had that opportunity or gone

[00:04:40] down that path or even thought about it if I hadn't been a data analyst first. I do regret a little

[00:04:45] bit not taking the data engineering job because I love the technical pieces of how everything fits

[00:04:50] together and it's very challenging technically which I like really love and so I think it's a great

[00:04:56] place to start for a lot of people and I think that's why data analytics continues to be a really

[00:05:01] popular job title that people are searching for for people who are transitioning into the data world

[00:05:07] because it's a kind of a soft landing for some people or they can take data analytics all the way

[00:05:11] to manage your VP, CTO level if you have the right education and background and experience.

[00:05:18] With with all the people that are like getting into data analytics do you think it's saturated?

[00:05:22] That's like one of the questions I feel like you probably get asked the most. It's been saturated

[00:05:26] since I was in analytics eight years ago. The text space ever since probably the data science boom

[00:05:33] has been very saturated everybody has been wanting to get into it so there's no doubt in my

[00:05:37] mind it's been very saturated. This market right now at the beginning of 2024 is also just

[00:05:42] and back in 2023 with all the layoffs and all the economic pressures that are going on right now

[00:05:49] in the US it's just not a great market for anybody and so that is a piece that I think is a little

[00:05:55] bit different than when I was getting in it wasn't as bad and so the data analyst market though

[00:06:01] is still very much alive people are getting hired all the time I still get messages just like

[00:06:05] anecdotally I still get a lot of messages people saying hey I just landed my first job and so

[00:06:10] it's not like it's dead it's just harder than it used to be. I don't think it's like it was

[00:06:16] years ago I think the end of 2023 was actually pretty tough. I think with the new budget of 2024

[00:06:24] it's not as high as a budget hiring budget as has been in the past but it's at least way

[00:06:27] better than it was at the end of 2023 which is good. Well it's also cyclical so like if you there

[00:06:33] was this big surge in hiring they hired millions and they've laid off several maybe like

[00:06:38] a hundred to two hundred thousand so I mean it's still we're still a surplus so it's not like

[00:06:42] hiring has gone down net negative we're still a huge positive it's just companies over hired in 2021

[00:06:48] 2022 and so then now they're decreasing their workforce to save money and economic you know

[00:06:55] economic pressures from shareholders and all these big companies but to be honest I definitely see

[00:07:00] there's going to be starting to go up again. I think towards the end of 2024 and then into 2025

[00:07:06] we're going to see a lot more hiring than we have in 2023 2024 just because of those factors.

[00:07:12] I agree I'm excited to see what will happen. I want to go back to how you got into analytics

[00:07:17] because you have a recreational therapy degree. Yeah that's right. That's like the most STEM degree

[00:07:23] of the STEM degrees and it's not mistaken. It's a very odd degree. You don't see that you don't

[00:07:30] see it in the wild that much. Yeah it's pretty rare. Okay so you studied recreational therapy your

[00:07:35] goal was to go get a master's in occupational therapy. You life kind of hit you you met a girl

[00:07:41] yeah you're like ah crap I gotta get married and I gotta make some money and you kind of stumble you

[00:07:46] were working at this company small company right. There's a nonprofit. Non-profit yeah you're

[00:07:50] working there and a data role opens up not a data analyst role correct I believe the title is

[00:07:56] like data collection data collection so I just want to say Alex the analyst okay spoiler alert he

[00:08:02] ends up your wife asks or not asks you but challenges you to apply for this job yeah you apply

[00:08:09] and you get it kind of by default because you're like the only applicant correct yeah and all that

[00:08:15] was like very serendipitous you know I was basically the lowest position at the nonprofit I'm just

[00:08:21] taking care of people's day to day needs cooking cleaning helping them get jobs paperwork

[00:08:26] I mean like you said the job opened up my wife was like you're smart like go for it do it

[00:08:30] and I was like oh it's just excel I mean I could probably do that but that that was the gateway

[00:08:35] to opening up like a world that had never known about and learning about SQL databases and you

[00:08:40] know actual data collection practices and all these different things and that yeah that was like

[00:08:45] the gateway of how I got into analytics which is which is so crazy because I just want to like

[00:08:50] emphasize here Alex the analyst did not have a computer science degree nothing even remotely

[00:08:55] close recreational therapy which sounds sounds fun I don't know it has the word recreation yet

[00:09:00] but maybe not very math involved and then the other cool thing I really liked about that is when

[00:09:06] you were trying to break into data with one of the first things I talk about in my bootcamp is

[00:09:10] the easiest way to break into data is not externally internally because if you're at your company

[00:09:16] they already know oh hey this Alex guy he works hard he's nice you know he's shown some promise

[00:09:22] and so you might get an opportunity that you like if you would have applied to like a data analyst

[00:09:26] role outside your company at that time you probably wouldn't have gotten it definitely not

[00:09:30] which is crazy yeah well I agree with you because at the time I had I didn't even really even

[00:09:35] know what a data analyst was it just was like something I thought might be interesting and it was

[00:09:40] like excel so I didn't seem crazy difficult but like you said during that the I was six months

[00:09:45] in that was called a resident advocate position six months in that position I got to know all the

[00:09:50] managers and all the people and they all really liked me and there were two other teams that

[00:09:55] wanted me to join their team one is a project manager and then this data collection one and so

[00:10:02] I actually interviewed for both and the data one just seemed more interesting to me seem more like

[00:10:06] what I would enjoy doing and I think it paid just like a little more like two thousand dollars

[00:10:11] extra a year which at the time I was like very broke so I was like two two thousand dollars a year

[00:10:15] that's like insane and so it really was one of those things where all the pieces is just aligned

[00:10:21] and I kind of happened to be in the right place the right time but also I saw like I saw a few

[00:10:26] when I got it I was like I could see myself liking working in like excel and you know collecting

[00:10:32] data it sounded interesting and then of course like I just like fell head over heels for it and

[00:10:36] just like never I still haven't stopped running I even today I still like build projects that are

[00:10:41] really new to me and complicated and challenging so I'm like still even to this day really learning a

[00:10:47] lot that's awesome I think that's one of the good signs of a good analyst yeah so okay so the other

[00:10:53] thing I want to point out is this was not even like a data analyst job and then but it was data

[00:10:58] analyst work at the end of the day kind of it really was data collection for like grants like we

[00:11:03] had to the nonprofit had to collect data for grants and stuff like that and so I didn't know anything

[00:11:08] about it but what really triggered my like I see it says like a full-time career because I just

[00:11:13] was doing it first to get some money and I thought it would be interesting was that that we had

[00:11:17] that we were trying to change databases from mostly Excel work into having Salesforce and so we got

[00:11:23] this grant money to invest in a new database and so my company chose Salesforce we brought in

[00:11:28] a consultant and the consultant was like oh you're the data guy so you guys use SQL and I was like

[00:11:34] what is SQL and I remember the look at his eyes he was like he was like what is SQL he's like how

[00:11:41] do you not know what SQL is like you know I could see it in his eyes but he was just like oh well

[00:11:45] SQL is like you know their SQL databases where you can use SQL query language to query the data

[00:11:51] I went home that night because I was like well I was like that sounds interesting I have no idea what

[00:11:55] it is I just googled it and that night like I just started like a course downloaded Microsoft SQL server

[00:12:01] and I loot every night for the next like four months I just studied it and I became what I would

[00:12:08] consider as like entry level maybe I didn't really even fully understand joints after all that time

[00:12:14] because I was learning semi on my own and the courses back then weren't as good

[00:12:19] as what are out what are available now and so I really I really loved it I just didn't

[00:12:28] understand it that well at the time but that helped me land my next job which needed SQL

[00:12:32] and so then I had a SQL excel and then they taught me tabloon my next role and so again I just

[00:12:38] kind of stumbled into this all by accident it's gone well for me so far. Oh I think that's so great

[00:12:44] and I just love that you're self-studying I think that's so impressive and there was no Alex

[00:12:48] the analyst that you could watch YouTube videos on at the time. Very very few YouTube videos on like

[00:12:54] data analytics where they would teach you anything. When I was first learning data analytics this is

[00:12:59] so funny this is going to make me sound like I'm a million years old but like I went to the library

[00:13:04] and I checked out books yeah and that was like how I learned like which sounds so archaic now

[00:13:10] but regardless okay so you're at this data collection job it's like a little data analytics

[00:13:15] see but first off it had the word data in there and it gave you a chance to learn a new skill

[00:13:19] SQL. You learned SQL you're going to find this new job is this at the point where you were like

[00:13:25] crap I have these skills but how do I prove I have these skills I need some sort of a portfolio

[00:13:30] yeah and so did you put SQL scripts on your resume? Yeah that was that was like my before I knew

[00:13:35] what a portfolio was because I had never heard of it again you I put myself back in that space I

[00:13:40] remember being like I want people to know that I know the skill I just don't have to show it I

[00:13:45] didn't know what a portfolio was so I never I didn't build one build one until I was like three years

[00:13:49] into my career and so I just put I was like I want them to know that I know SQL and so I put I had

[00:13:56] done like some little project at home around my personal computer and I was like oh this

[00:14:00] he looks kind of impressive it has some you know some joins and has some aggregations and I just

[00:14:05] put those queries on like a separate sheet behind my resume and so I sent that in and I was like

[00:14:10] hey make sure to you know not just send them the resume send them the resume in my like SQL sheet

[00:14:16] essentially and so it was like a crazy crazy simple version of what I recommend people doing

[00:14:22] today which is creating a portfolio so I kind of there were portfolios out there I just wasn't smart

[00:14:28] enough or wasn't aware of what they were I think that's so awesome yeah it's like a second

[00:14:33] page resume here's my SQL scripts yeah that's sort of what they're so entertaining you got to read

[00:14:38] these these SQL scripts but but once again I really relate to that because when I was breaking in

[00:14:43] I was doing a lot of in-person interviews I wasn't like applying a ton online at the time

[00:14:47] won't go under a lot of job fairs and stuff and so I would bring I had this brown binder

[00:14:52] yeah with like my graphs in it and I'd show you my my graphs in my manual portfolio so we've come

[00:14:57] a long way yes there's a lot easier better ways to show people stuff now a lot yeah a lot easier

[00:15:03] which which is which is crazy I'm just I'm just thinking about Alexander's going around have you

[00:15:07] seen my SQL scripts had you seen my SQL script a lot the time I you know I was I was nobody new

[00:15:14] Alex analyst I wasn't a thing yet and I was fresh out of college really I was at that time maybe

[00:15:20] only one year on a college with a degree in recreational therapy so like I like you said I had

[00:15:25] I just got married and I felt an immense I wanted to provide for my family but I just

[00:15:32] wasn't able to because of my background and so I was like I'm not gonna let that limit me

[00:15:36] I'm going to like really follow this which I kind of I started to have like this really intense

[00:15:41] feeling like this could be a career and so you know a lot of people out there that I've talked

[00:15:47] to are mentored in the past had that very similar experience where they're like well I'm in a

[00:15:51] warehouse I'm doing the warehouse work but in my warehouse job I'm working on this computer I'm

[00:15:55] working in Excel we're using databases like for cataloging day the warehouse data and all the

[00:16:00] stuff he's like I really like it and so I've worked with people specifically like that who are

[00:16:04] just like but then I like really fell in love with the data piece of it and like all those things

[00:16:08] that we started doing I just needed the technical piece and I needed to get a chance I need to

[00:16:12] chance to showcase like I can do this and so you know I think people who I've noticed who really

[00:16:18] succeed in this is the people who are like I need to prove myself I need to really push myself

[00:16:24] beyond what I think what I currently am at I need to push myself beyond that to show people that

[00:16:29] I can do it and so those are the people I've seen like really tend to do well yeah because if we

[00:16:34] look at what you did I mean you applied for a job where you weren't really qualified for that data

[00:16:39] collection job no you were in fact behind behind every great man as a great woman and like like

[00:16:45] your wife really was the one who pushed you to do that yes so it took confidence it took like

[00:16:48] you going out of your comfort zone you know learning SQL going out of your comfort zone putting

[00:16:52] those scripts on your resume out of your comfort zone you got to kind of take these risks to

[00:16:56] big go anywhere big time it was all calculated risks I was at the time I was making

[00:17:03] 47,000 in the data collection specials and analyst job my wife was making like double that

[00:17:08] and so I'm like like I don't think my current trajectory is doing many favors here but

[00:17:14] you know I was like I really need to push myself past what I'm limiting myself in my head too because

[00:17:22] that is that is the piece that I was like if I don't change something I'm going to be stuck at a

[00:17:28] lower paying job for a long time and when I was single I didn't care about that but when I was

[00:17:34] married I was like it wasn't a hierarchy thing like I need to make more than my wife it was just

[00:17:38] I want to be a provider I don't want to have my wife to feel the pressure of her making all the money

[00:17:43] and so I met a lot of people who are in very similar situations who were able to get that first

[00:17:48] job and have now you know texted me after like three years because I'm doing this for a while

[00:17:52] and they're like hey I just got a promotion I'm like dude that that is amazing it's incredible

[00:17:56] and you know they pushed themselves beyond what they were comfortable in and really made it work

[00:18:01] and like changed their whole career future which is just incredible it is and I should have started

[00:18:06] the podcast this way but we as a whole need to thank you for all your contributions you've made

[00:18:11] that's too much no we do because you've done you've done a lot for the data community you've

[00:18:16] done a lot of videos I mean your contributions are crazy so thank you I should have started

[00:18:21] the video that was and to be fair like I do it because I love it and I like giving back there is

[00:18:29] they're genuinely like now I make a little bit of money from doing YouTube but still to this day

[00:18:34] I feel I feel like giving back to that kind of open source community is literally the least I

[00:18:41] could do because I had so many people help me when I was really on my career like mentors and people

[00:18:46] online who I reached out to and asked questions to like they did so much for me and so these the

[00:18:53] videos that I make and the advice that I give and all these things I feel like is just my part

[00:18:58] in giving back to the community to help me so much when I first started out and so I wouldn't be

[00:19:02] here without all of those people and so now I get to be that person for other people and that

[00:19:06] is like really heartwarming it feels really good I bet I bet it does feel good but but we're

[00:19:12] grateful anyways very regardless if you feel like it's just kind of fun and you giving back well I

[00:19:16] appreciate it I want to talk about so like we talked about you know you getting hired but then

[00:19:23] eventually you become a manager yeah so when you were hiring people like what was important in a

[00:19:28] candidate for you like what was the first few things you were looking at yeah I'm going to be

[00:19:32] like brutally honest because I think people tend to sugar cut this process and the hiring process is

[00:19:39] a lot of people on LinkedIn or YouTube will tell you like the sugar-cutter version I'm going to

[00:19:43] tell you what I truly looked for I was on a hiring team when I was a data analyst I was the one

[00:19:48] who gave the technical interviews and so that was my part of the hiring team and then you're

[00:19:51] right I became a hiring manager and so then as the hiring manager I did the whole process and usually

[00:19:57] brought in like my boss as well for some like the final interviews during the hiring that when I

[00:20:02] was on the hiring team during that process we were mostly hiring data analysts I eventually started

[00:20:07] when I was a hiring manager was doing developers database engineers or data engineers and then

[00:20:12] data analysis well so it that was a little bit different but on the hiring team just for data

[00:20:16] analysis we always looked for someone who had a good personality and most people will tell you

[00:20:24] I have seen it online they're like well you know as long as you have the right skills and you get

[00:20:29] in there and you smile you know that's a good that's what you need to do I think when you're on a team

[00:20:35] you really do look for someone who's going to fit well with your team and so I always kind of

[00:20:41] gravitated towards people who are more outgoing and is that 100% fair no I don't think so about hiring

[00:20:46] the hiring process isn't super fair and so the people who are more outgoing I tend to gravitate

[00:20:51] to and so did my whole team our whole team was very outgoing very social and so we didn't want

[00:20:55] to someone come in and have a very different flow to them or personality to them and so that's

[00:21:02] just like a brutal truth you know people always say diversity is like crazy good but for personality I

[00:21:07] think the that piece of it is actually the the flow of the team and how that people gel together

[00:21:14] is really important the second thing we looked for is being able to articulate well their skills

[00:21:21] abilities and their experience and so oftentimes we have people come in and SQL is really important

[00:21:26] when I was a on the hiring team SQL was the most important skill because we used it like really

[00:21:31] in depth for a lot of our processes and so people would come in and I was like well tell me how

[00:21:37] you've done you know data cleaning or tell me how you use SQL and if people could articulate

[00:21:43] really well like here's how I use it they were just like oh well you know I've taken a few

[00:21:49] courses in my job I use SQL but I don't really use it that much and they would kind of beat around

[00:21:54] the bush and we're like asking really pointed questions if they couldn't articulate those questions

[00:21:59] that I would think is if you've really used SQL well you should know how to answer those questions

[00:22:04] because I can tell you even at that time I could be like well here's the process that I would take

[00:22:08] to clean data here's how I do that in SQL here are you know here are the exact steps that's what

[00:22:14] you need to be saying and people would beat around the bush and wouldn't want to say things

[00:22:18] and that was always a big red flag and then the last thing that I think we would look for is someone

[00:22:24] who is technically proficient so I was the one conducting the interviews we would always do some type

[00:22:29] of whiteboarding and then some type of general technical interview question so the whiteboarding you

[00:22:33] know like I'm sure you know it's just someone gives you like a database or a table and like you're

[00:22:38] ready to query to do this nothing crazy like I would not try to trick people like this is straight

[00:22:42] forward stuff and we were hiring at like the mid level so mid level analysts who know who has

[00:22:47] SQL in the resume for three years this should be a no-brainer like cruel like this like super simple

[00:22:52] like like just aggregating something with a group by nothing crazy or just a simple join just

[00:22:57] combine these two tables and people would have trouble with it and that was an immediate red flag

[00:23:01] like we couldn't hire them so those three things I would say are the biggest things that we

[00:23:06] look for and like really ranked on during those interviews but if I'm being like completely honest

[00:23:11] the personality thing was like 50% of it if you have a good personality then that like really

[00:23:17] puts you higher up and it's not just like I don't know how personal is very objective and so

[00:23:23] it's hard to describe but just somebody who's more outgoing very friendly that is like kind of what

[00:23:28] we were looking for the being able to articulate and the technical reviews is the other 50% so those

[00:23:34] two things were still very important but if they looked like they were very teachable if they

[00:23:41] looked like they were like really driven and we were like you know they may not be where we want

[00:23:46] them today but I was like that person will be good in like a month we would still hire them and

[00:23:50] we did that for one of our business analysts who we hired who were he kind of new SQL but his job

[00:23:56] wasn't as intensive as for his that position so we were like hey let's let's hire him because he

[00:24:01] would fit really well with our team and we trained him like he was my mentor my mentee on my team

[00:24:06] so I trained him in SQL and he within like a month he was up and running and I didn't really have to

[00:24:10] help him that much anymore so again it was like that trainability piece the attitude how driven they

[00:24:18] were did play a big role in who we hired so I know I was long winded on that but they know that's

[00:24:23] a really tough process to talk about you know it is I think you did and think you did really well

[00:24:28] and I don't I mean although it was you know you did talk about maybe the extra version of the

[00:24:33] introvert I don't think it was too brutal I think I think it's like an opportunity you have a good

[00:24:37] personality and you maybe aren't the best technical person on planet earth you still have a chance

[00:24:40] yeah well I talked to a lot of people who give me that feedback they're like well I'm a really big

[00:24:44] introvert I get really nervous and energy and they're like how can I get past that and so there are

[00:24:49] things that you can do I really believe in practicing before interviews mirror looking at a mirror

[00:24:55] in practicing smiling because believe it or not I was that person back in interviews yeah I used

[00:25:01] to be very very nervous and very scared for interviews I used to be much more introverted yeah I am

[00:25:07] now I've worked through a lot of that as I got into the workplace yeah just by having to in order to

[00:25:13] like succeed on teams but I used to be very very very nervous and and so what I would do is I'd

[00:25:18] practice in a mirror and then my I'd practice in my wife and so she'd be like oh you're doing that

[00:25:23] weird you're doing this weird thing and she'd be really honest with me and so I needed somebody who

[00:25:28] could give me that feedback and that helped immensely in interviews so I'm kind of I feel like I can

[00:25:32] point even to myself as like a testament of someone who got over that and was able to push through

[00:25:37] and then I was really able to understand like I have to do that in order to really be successful in

[00:25:45] an interview this episode is brought to you by Bumble so you want to find someone you're compatible with

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[00:26:15] that's that's awesome I think that's so impactful and the practicing is a big thing as well

[00:26:20] which is which is one one of the reasons why you built analyst builder yeah which which goes back

[00:26:25] to that whiteboarding scenario with that data analyst who was unable to you know actually do the

[00:26:31] the sequel problem under pressure yes now you build analyst builder that really helps for

[00:26:35] helps prepare you for technical interviews sequel and Python correct you guys are rolling out

[00:26:40] Python oh Python's there oh Python's there okay already already built in and so it's like you said

[00:26:46] it's for the people who are about to like interview and they're like I don't know if I'm

[00:26:50] going to pass a sequel to actual interview that's you don't want to fail it yeah that's a big piece

[00:26:54] you fail it like I said if someone failed my technical interview which wasn't crazy hard

[00:26:58] like it was almost immediate disqualification for the most part unless there were other aspects that

[00:27:02] really made it worth it for us to invest in that person but yeah like like you said it's

[00:27:08] that's what it's there for as you can get in you can practice the questions you can get really

[00:27:11] confident and I have videos to walk through everything and so the videos are like people really

[00:27:16] like because they're like you know it's no there's no pressure it's just like Alex gets in there

[00:27:20] and I'm like all right let's work through this question and I make mistake here there and I explain

[00:27:23] my thought process and how everything works on the backend and the front end and it's really neat

[00:27:28] yeah I've used it it's it's great and one of the things I like that you do is I feel like

[00:27:33] I'm sorry to say this but I think sequel's boring like sequel is like and out of all the

[00:27:38] dank data like maybe other than excel for me even an excel you can do some interesting stuff

[00:27:43] sequel's like boring it's just like numbers you know and one thing I think you do a great job of

[00:27:48] with the problems in analyst builder is they're fun yeah they're kind of fun I intentionally made

[00:27:53] it fun yeah the questions themselves are like I laugh when I make them because they're so goofy

[00:27:59] and like the scenarios that I make are like real world scenarios yes but I make them fun

[00:28:04] and I would even when I like recording the videos for like this but once you get to that level

[00:28:09] it starts to get a lot more complicated so if you really like the technical piece of it

[00:28:13] you can go almost like as far as like being like a data engineer programmer whatever you want to

[00:28:19] say call it uh for sequel because sequel gets crazy advanced and most people don't realize that

[00:28:24] and so they're like you know at the beginning it can be very boring and so if you use it really

[00:28:30] in depth then it gets to me very excited because I started getting into a lot of the data engineering

[00:28:34] stuff that's when I like almost had like a refalling in love with sequel because I did have a moment

[00:28:39] where I was like man sequel is kind of boring but then I got like to the crazy stuff and I like

[00:28:44] really love the challenge like I'm a I learned about myself like I love solving problems and like

[00:28:50] challenges that's why like analyst builder is like I loved even making it because it was so

[00:28:54] difficult to make and the questions are so challenging like I love the problem solving the challenges

[00:29:00] and so the sequel and excel both have like a high skill cap so but you know it's like

[00:29:06] everybody use it mostly here and then very few people ever get to like the crazy hard stuff

[00:29:11] that's that's very true I have this question for you let's say someone came up to you

[00:29:16] mm-hmm it was like hey I want to be a data analyst in seven days yeah what would you how would you

[00:29:20] tell them to spend their time in seven days I would if you only have seven days I wouldn't even

[00:29:24] learn the skills I would just make I would you'd have to lie in your resume and just be really like

[00:29:30] almost like a con man in your interview into it's like really sell yourself and like maybe watch

[00:29:36] a few videos on like sequel interviewing because that's probably what you'll get asked about so if

[00:29:41] you can like lie your way in I think that's probably only way seven days is like not enough to even like

[00:29:48] learn a tenth of the basics it's definitely not but one of the things I mean and I don't think

[00:29:54] we're ever advocating for straight up lying but here's the thing like your resume can say whatever

[00:29:58] the heck you want like sure like you literally can and then in the interview it's the interview

[00:30:03] is job to figure out is this resume actually what what we think it is type of a thing you're not

[00:30:08] wrong yeah it's just not right but but most people who I think are are applying aren't trying to

[00:30:17] con anyone and I think something they lack the confidence to put certain things on their resume

[00:30:20] or they lack the the confidence to apply to jobs but what I think you're saying is like look like

[00:30:25] you could make up a resume and potentially end an interview and so you guys who you know are

[00:30:30] have been spending months trying to break in like if your resume is decent you should be able to

[00:30:35] land some interviews and then in the interviews from there you can kind of decide oh I failed

[00:30:39] the sequel portion I need to study sequel more but I think so many people are so nervous to apply

[00:30:44] and to interview but they never do it yeah well actually to that extent I completely agree

[00:30:48] I think most people wait too long in many of my videos I tell people to start start applying

[00:30:55] before you're ready because there's only only good things can come out of it one you get rejected

[00:31:02] and you're like okay I need to get better or two you get an interview and I guess there's three

[00:31:07] outcomes but two you get an interview and you fail or two you get an interview and you get a job

[00:31:13] and so really it's just a learning experience because if you don't land anything you know your

[00:31:19] resume is not very good or you're not doing it the right way and then you'd research on how to

[00:31:23] do it the right way if you fail the interview well hopefully you can get some feedback on what

[00:31:27] you need to improve is it your communication skills was it your lack of experience you know did

[00:31:32] they not think that you do a good job in the technical piece or what is it so you can get feedback

[00:31:36] and then you can improve on those things so I think you know if you're if you know like the

[00:31:40] the basics of SQL Excel tab low you should start building up portfolio and once you have that

[00:31:46] I think you should start applying you don't have to know at the mid-level or senior level you don't

[00:31:51] have to go crazy advanced because most entry-level jobs you know they're not expecting you to

[00:31:56] know everything and they are expecting to train you a little bit because you know look at it from

[00:32:01] the business side they're gonna pay you a little bit less than the worth they're paying a mid-level

[00:32:05] senior level so they're paying you let's say $50,000 they're not expecting you to do the work

[00:32:10] that's they're paying 85,000 or 110,000 which is where you will eventually get once you build up

[00:32:16] those skills so they're getting a discount on an employee knowing that they're going to train you

[00:32:22] and you're gonna do a good job probably at a lower salary for a while that's why then a lot of

[00:32:26] people tend to job hop because then you get those big surges in salary increases which is which

[00:32:32] is nice but yeah it's a great point that like you're entry-level and so I mean I know a lot of

[00:32:37] people are listening right now and they're like well then make the job requirements entry-level

[00:32:41] but but there are entry-level opportunities out there for sure they're just sometimes hard to find

[00:32:46] okay great one last question for you Alex what noise does a goat make?

[00:32:51] What noise does a goat make no idea?

[00:32:55] Is that a sheep? Alex the goat thank you man yeah absolutely

[00:32:58] appreciate it you guys can find Alex on YouTube and you guys can check out analystbuilder.com

[00:33:04] cool