162: This Loan Officer Became a Data Analyst WITHOUT a Degree (Ryan Ponder)

[00:00:00] Avery Smith: Here's the most ungraded way to break into data, especially if you don't have a college degree. Look within. You don't need to quit your job. Drop thousands on a master's or grind through 1000 online applications. Sometimes the fastest and the easiest path into data is right at your current company.

[00:00:16] Avery Smith: That's exactly what my guest Ryan Ponder did. He spent over 10 years as a loan officer, but after going through my program, the data analytics accelerator, he landed a data analyst job in just a few months. Despite having no formal college degree in this episode, Ryan and I walk you through exactly how he did it and how you can too.

[00:00:34] Avery Smith: Let's go ahead and get into it. My guest today is Ryan Ponder, who went from loan officer to data analyst in just a few months. Ryan, welcome to the podcast.

[00:00:43] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, thanks. It's great to be with you here and uh, I'm excited to share my story a little bit.

[00:00:47] Avery Smith: Yes, you have such an amazing story. So you have one of my favorite transitions because one, you don't have a college degree and people are always asking about, you know, can you become a data analyst without a college degree?

[00:00:57] Avery Smith: And the short answer is yes, you're, you're living proof. [00:01:00] But you also did what's called an internal pivot, which basically means you became a data analyst by transferring positions within your company, meaning you didn't have to leave your company to become a data analyst. So, uh, let's talk about that.

[00:01:12] Avery Smith: You work for veterans. United Home Loans and you are a loan officer there. So can you just briefly tell me for those who don't know what a loan officer is and what you do?

[00:01:21] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, so as a loan officer with the Veterans United Home Loans, my job was to talk to customers who are looking for, to, to buy a home, help assess their needs for, uh, what.

[00:01:31] Ryan Ponder: You know how much money they're needing, uh, work with them through the underwriting process eventually, you know, get 'em under contract on a home and, and help 'em close on that home is really what the, the job of a loan officer was for, for me.

[00:01:43] Avery Smith: Okay. So you're like the main contact point for a home buyer and their, like mortgage, basically the, the loan they're getting on, on the house.

[00:01:50] Avery Smith: So obviously that has numbers, right? Like that has like how much money you're gonna put down and like how much your mortgage rate is and, and stuff like that. But like, were you ever like doing. [00:02:00] Data analytics in that role.

[00:02:01] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, that's it. A great question. So yeah, it's a lot of numbers. Yeah, you're working with loan amounts, you're working with rates, all that stuff.

[00:02:07] Ryan Ponder: But I'm fortunate to work for a company that, uh, is also very good at putting data in front of its employees. Um, very focused on, uh, making sure that we're efficient our work and our processes. So a lot of my role as a loan officer was consuming data. Uh, there was a time or two where I would. I kind of tried to take it upon myself to go find data that wasn't put in front of me.

[00:02:29] Ryan Ponder: Um, for instance, there was a a time where I was assessing, uh, you know, which states, 'cause I was licensed in multiple states, you know, which states were performing higher than others. Decide if I wanted to keep those licenses, things like that. I didn't even know I was doing analysis at the time. It's just something that I was like, oh, this might be helpful to know.

[00:02:46] Ryan Ponder: So I went out and did it. But yeah, other than that, it was more as the consumer of data really.

[00:02:50] Avery Smith: Very interesting. I think one of the trends of the, the podcast recently in these interviews that I've been doing with, with other students that went through my accelerator program, I guess spoiler alert, [00:03:00] Ryan ended up going through my accelerator program, and that's one of the ways that he was able to land this job.

[00:03:03] Avery Smith: But one of the, the patterns I've been seeing is like, okay, these roles, like loan officer or we just had, uh, melody Santos on not too long ago, physical therapist. They're not like, you're not like a data analyst at that job, but there's maybe a few bullet points that you can, you can take from what you're doing and turn them into some sort of an analyst.

[00:03:18] Avery Smith: Position. I think that's, that's awesome that you were able to, you know, maybe looking back on now, being like, okay, I was analyzing data, or at least I was looking at data and it didn't feel like, uh, maybe a hundred percent, like a 180 twist into, uh, your new role. Now let's, what's, let's talk about that.

[00:03:33] Avery Smith: What is your new role? Like, what's your title and what do you spend your time doing?

[00:03:36] Ryan Ponder: Uh, currently my title is Data Analyst. Um, I work ex exclusively on our product strategy team, so product strategy analyst, I guess if we wanna call it that. But the product strategy team here at Veterans United basically works with all the products that we own as a company.

[00:03:50] Ryan Ponder: Uh, whether it's a user interface, you know, user experience, customer experience, different UIs, different features that we roll out, we own all that stuff, or a lot of that. Stuff. So [00:04:00] my job as a product analyst or data analysts on that team is to help those stakeholders that have an invested interest in those products, uh, really analyze and see how are they performing, whether it's load times of a certain process, you know, how those things are performing, how can we get more efficient in those processes?

[00:04:16] Avery Smith: Very cool. That makes a lot of sense. So you guys are focused on like, not necessarily like the user experience, but that's one of the things you guys are analyzing is like, is this, is this product working the way that we think it is and, um, is it leading to, to good customer results?

[00:04:29] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:04:31] Ryan Ponder: That's, that's a lot of it. Whether it's customers externally or internally, you know, the, the teams that we, we stand up products for, we we're looking at all that stuff.

[00:04:39] Avery Smith: Perfect. So now I got a, I got a good feel of, uh, where you were earlier as a loan officer. You know, you were talking on the phone to people talking like, okay, how much are you gonna put down?

[00:04:47] Avery Smith: This is how much your, your monthly mortgage is gonna be. You know, if you wanna, if you wanna afford, if you wanna like a better interest rate, you can pay this much to get down the interest rate, or something like that. And now you're looking at the data for these different products [00:05:00] that your company owns and trying to make a good customer, uh, experience.

[00:05:03] Avery Smith: Um, what type of tools are you using on the job?

[00:05:06] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, primarily right now, um, I'm using SQL Server and, and Tableau in most of my work. I'll, I'll start in sql, uh, get queries, run, get my data structure the way I want, and then I'll take it over to Tableau and then and visualize there. But very soon we are actually migrating everything to Snowflake.

[00:05:23] Ryan Ponder: So I've gotten to do a lot of work, uh, in Snowflake. The team that I'm on is directly responsible for the entire Veterans United Company moving to Snowflake. So, uh, kind of gotten to test some of that stuff, which has been really exciting as well.

[00:05:36] Avery Smith: Super fun. I love that. Sql, Tableau, they're always popping up.

[00:05:39] Avery Smith: Those are, those are two of the most used, uh, data skills out there. I I, I wanna come back to you like more about like what your job looks like on a day to day and a little bit more about the analysis you're doing, but, uh, I do think the most exciting thing, or the most interesting thing about, about this interview with you is.

[00:05:54] Avery Smith: Transferring internally. So the majority of the people I interview on this podcast that, you know, go from, [00:06:00] uh, being a teacher or a warehouse worker or delivery driver, most of them have to leave their current company to break into the data world, but you didn't, which is, which is pretty exciting. Did you ever think that you could like become a data analyst within your company?

[00:06:15] Ryan Ponder: That's a really good question. My Veterans United is great about recognizing intent and intention within its employees that have ex, you know, excelled in other areas of the business that have expressed a desire to move somewhere else. So I kind of went into it knowing that I was already in a culture that fosters that kind of growth and career, you know, movement, which is awesome.

[00:06:37] Ryan Ponder: So for me it were, it, it was kind of a no-brainer. Hey, look here first, you know, love the company. Love what they do, love their mission. Love the perks, you know, all that stuff. So really kind of did have my heart set on that. That didn't keep me from exploring outside of, of Veterans United though I did, uh, interview at a couple other spots.

[00:06:56] Ryan Ponder: Um, I actually earned down the first data analyst role that I was offered, [00:07:00] which shocked even myself. Um, you know, I worked all this time, you know, a few rejections here and there, and I finally get an offer and I just wasn't passionate about making the, the move to that particular company. Two weeks later, I got this job, so it all worked out, you know, phenomenally, uh, with that internal pivot.

[00:07:18] Ryan Ponder: Um, but yeah, I guess it's, sorry to answer your question though. Um. You know, I, I kind of knew it was possible, but I didn't have the tools is, is really what it came down to. So I didn't quite have like a good, good roadmap on it. But,

[00:07:30] Avery Smith: and by tools do you mean like what, what do you by you didn't have the tools expound on that a little bit more.

[00:07:35] Ryan Ponder: So, I knew our company was great at looking for opportunities to hire or promote within. I didn't quite know how to make it happen. I had talked to a few people here and there, but didn't have like a, a straightforward roadmap on, Hey, here's how I need to go ahead and tackle this thing. But

[00:07:51] Avery Smith: that's really interesting because, um, so the internal pivot in my opinion, is like the first place that everyone should look if you're looking to transfer into the data world.

[00:07:59] Avery Smith: [00:08:00] Now, for, for some people it's, it's not gonna be a fit because their company is gonna have a lot like more. Stringent requirements and just not as flexible culture as Veterans United did, for example. Or, or, when I was first breaking into the data world, I was a chemical lab technician and, uh, I got really into data analytics and I was able to, to do an internal pivot at this, this company called Vapor Sense that had 15 people there.

[00:08:22] Avery Smith: And because it was such a small company, we, it was very, like, I could do that type of a change within the company, but not every company's gonna be like that. For instance, when I worked at Exxon. The transition from like a chemical lab technician to a data analyst at Exxon would've been maybe possible, but he would've taken, there would've been a lot more red tape.

[00:08:40] Avery Smith: So for, for some people it's not gonna be a good option. So you have to kind of know your, your company's culture a little bit. But, uh, for a lot of you, it's a great place to, to look. And that's actually why in the first module of the accelerator we talk about, Hey, do you wanna try to do an internal pivot?

[00:08:54] Avery Smith: If so. Like, here are some steps to, to actually doing so like, you know, have a conversation with your [00:09:00] boss, you know, meet the other data analysts at the company and learn, you know, how they, how they pivoted in and, and stuff like that. But your, your company does kinda have to have that, that culture that allows this, this type of a thing.

[00:09:12] Avery Smith: Had there ever been other people in the company that had transferred into the data analytics team from a different part of the company? Different division?

[00:09:19] Ryan Ponder: Uh, yeah, absolutely. So, uh. I had the opportunity to sit down and, and shadow a data team. And a few of those individuals were actually from other departments.

[00:09:27] Ryan Ponder: Uh, they either created a data component within that department or just came straight from that department. And then I sat down with a couple of other individuals, one of which that actually came from a production background, which I was on the production side of things. Um, uh, met him through playing pickleball, actually found out he was a data analyst, made that transition.

[00:09:45] Ryan Ponder: And I sat down and said, Hey, how'd you do this? And, and he kind of laid out what he did and. Uh, I was able to take some of those, those, uh, pieces and apply them to my, my, uh, journey there.

[00:09:54] Avery Smith: Hey, that's what I was gonna ask next was like, okay, you had the chance to shadow this team. You [00:10:00] met some other data analysts at your company, but like, how did you even know the right people to reach out to?

[00:10:04] Avery Smith: So it sounds like one was just like you were networking by going to like company events or I don't even know if this was a company pickleball event, but somehow playing pickleball led you to this person that happened to be data analysts. I think that's a great example. Um, but the other people like, did you.

[00:10:17] Avery Smith: Did you like talk to your manager and, and they introduced you or did you like go on LinkedIn and try to see like who's a data analyst at your company and reach out to them? Like how did you get introduced to all these people at your company?

[00:10:27] Ryan Ponder: Thankfully, I've been at Veterans United for a long time, so I do know a lot of people in a lot of different departments.

[00:10:34] Ryan Ponder: Uh, when I started we were very small, you know, less than a thousand employees and, uh, have grown to, you know, 4,500 plus. So I still know a lot of those. Same, you know, those core key players. So I was able to reach out to a lot of them directly and say, Hey, here's what I'm interested in. Can you point me in the right direction?

[00:10:51] Ryan Ponder: And, and they were able to do that kind of, and, and from there I was able to set up some of those connections, some of those meetings, some of those sit downs that were extremely valuable for me.

[00:10:59] Avery Smith: Did you have [00:11:00] any negative inter interactions at all? Like, did you ever reach out to someone and they were negative?

[00:11:04] Avery Smith: Or was your boss like all at all concerned about this?

[00:11:07] Ryan Ponder: It's funny you say that. So I, I just got done saying, Hey, I know a lot of these key players. The first person that I reached out to, I thought their title was a data analyst. It was not a data analyst. They just happened to work with some data analysts.

[00:11:22] Ryan Ponder: So the first person I reached out to did not go well. He was gracious though. He said, Hey, I'm not the guy you want to talk to, but hey, here's, you know, so-and-so that can help you out. So. No real negative experiences and, and when it came to talking to my manager, no, you know, he was super motivated to help me.

[00:11:39] Ryan Ponder: He knew that, you know, I'd given my all to the position that I was in for a really long time. He was happy with the work that I had done and fully supported, supportive, and, and seeing me off to, Hey, here's what I really want to do.

[00:11:52] Avery Smith: That's awesome and I'm really glad to hear that. I think a lot of people get scared that like something terrible's gonna happen if they go and reach out to people, but I think the majority of the [00:12:00] time you either get ignored.

[00:12:02] Avery Smith: I think that's one of the worst things that can happen is just they don't respond or they say, Hey, I'm not the right person. This is the right person. A lot of the time. As, as long as your, your boss is on board. I think that, uh, that makes a lot of sense. I'm curious, like the data analysts that that work, veterans United, and you and I kind of talked a little bit beforehand, you guys have like maybe 50 data analysts or so.

[00:12:20] Avery Smith: How many of them do you think have worked as a data analyst? Previously or maybe went to school for, for data analytics or, or like for example, you don't necessarily have a college degree. Like how many, like if, if they were to post a data analyst and take in requirements, like take applications, do you think like on those applications, like it would say like degree, preferred type of a thing.

[00:12:40] Ryan Ponder: I think a lot of the, uh, job postings would stay decree preferred. Uh, but again, that's preferred, not required. You know, I certainly didn't have, uh, a degree. I know the job that I applied for said decree preferred, but, uh, it worked out. Worked out great. Uh, and I think I learned in the accelerator that a lot of those job postings are the absolute ideal candidate.

[00:12:59] Ryan Ponder: It doesn't mean you have [00:13:00] to meet every single, uh, requirement on that posting. But yeah, to the question about, uh, you know, the background of other analysts here at Veterans United, uh, I think it's a widely diverse background. Uh, you know, there's a team member of mine who prior to coming over and becoming a data analyst, he was a biology major and worked in a lab similar to, to you, Avery, for, for quite a while there.

[00:13:20] Ryan Ponder: So yeah, whole lot of different backgrounds a great experience that we can all build on collaboratively here as a team.

[00:13:26] Avery Smith: That's really cool. Um, and there's some companies are, are more like friendly that way than others. While you were actually talking, I couldn't find that Veterans United had a data analyst position open.

[00:13:37] Avery Smith: Um, but I did find this marketing analyst position. Uh, the wording around this is really interesting. So it says whether your background is in marketing analytics or a related field. You can be successful in this role. So already that's like very, um, encouraging. I feel like specifically we're looking for the following qualifications, two plus years experience in marketing analytics and or web analytics and or data analytics.

[00:13:57] Avery Smith: Two plus years of experience working with Tableau or [00:14:00] similar data visualization tool. Experience with SQL and or other data storage or ETL tools. So it looks like, okay, we don't really care about your degree. And I searched the page. There was nothing about, uh, a degree anywhere. Um, but it's like, do you, do you have experience with these tools?

[00:14:12] Avery Smith: And even for you when you applied for this data analyst role, I don't know what the requirements said, but let's just assume they were something similar. So it's like two plus years of data, uh, analytics experience or two plus years working in Tableau. You didn't have two plus years. Either of those.

[00:14:26] Avery Smith: Right. So that's like, in my opinion, that's where it's like they can look past that because they're like, we know Ryan, we love Ryan. We've worked with Ryan for, for a decade and we know that like he's smart, he's capable, he's very good at communicating. I. And he'll be able to pick up this stuff. So, but that, but you might not have been afforded that chance had you been an external candidate.

[00:14:46] Avery Smith: Do you agree?

[00:14:47] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, absolutely. And, and I think that's probably why, you know, I didn't hear back on a lot of the external applications other than, Hey, you know, we've gone in a different direction. Um, I, like I mentioned, I did previously turned down [00:15:00] a, uh, a. A role with another company here in town, but that was also a mortgage, you know, type role where they, I, they, it was, they knew of Veterans United because they're here locally, so they see what Veterans United does.

[00:15:12] Ryan Ponder: So I had that, that connection.

[00:15:14] Avery Smith: That's actually a good point as well, because. If you can't do an internal pivot within your company, if you could do an internal pivot within your industry, I think that's another good option where it's like, okay, well Ryan might not have the most data analytics experience, but he has a ton of mortgage experience.

[00:15:29] Avery Smith: And that's what can really set you apart your, your domain, uh, experience. Even with all of this like experience you've had in mortgages and finance and stuff like this, you're obviously moving to, uh, a new team and you're, you're working with new tools and. You're not as, as much like external customer facing.

[00:15:45] Avery Smith: You're not on the phone as much. If I had to guess. Were you kinda worried when you made this transition? Did you like ever feel imposter syndrome at all?

[00:15:51] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, absolutely. I think, uh, coming to the role from being at the same company for so long, there's a lot of hesitancy and, uh, in my mind of being like, well, they're just gonna [00:16:00] see me as this loan officer guy, you know, what's he know about data.

[00:16:02] Ryan Ponder: But actually turned to a teammate I think in, in the first few days of, of being on the job and, and I started to say, Hey, how long until you, and he cut me off and he said. Feel like you know what you're doing. And I was like, yeah, that's exactly what I'm feeling. Yes. You get it. And I think I actually heard from our director of analytics, uh, of all people, we were talking about imposter syndrome and he goes, yeah, that never goes away.

[00:16:23] Ryan Ponder: Uh, so I think just knowing that hey, it comes with the territory when it's a job that's continually evolving, uh, you're continually learning and that's exciting. You know, it's something that I really wanted when I got into data, was something that's always gonna keep me on my toes. And there's certain days where I feel like I've got it and I'm crushing it.

[00:16:40] Ryan Ponder: And then the next day I feel like I know nothing. But you know, in those days where I feel like I know nothing, I can look back on, Hey, look at all these successes that I have had in this job. And it's really cool.

[00:16:50] Avery Smith: That's that's amazing. Yeah. It is always changing. One thing you hinted at, uh, earlier in the episode was, um, you're now, you're now you've been using sql and now you guys are gonna kind of move into some [00:17:00] snowflake stuff.

[00:17:00] Avery Smith: Like that, even by itself, it's like, Hey, I finally got a grasp on Sequel. And then your company's like, Hey, just kidding. We're gonna move to Snowflake. And there's a lot of similarities, uh, between the two, but like that's gonna happen all the time. And so it's like even if you become an expert or you feel comfortable in one thing, you know life companies and tech has a way of.

[00:17:18] Avery Smith: Taking away any comfort that you might feel and they'll, it'll humble you quickly. Uh, that's for sure. One of the things that we, we talked about, uh, kind of before we started recording was you haven't actually even finished the accelerator a hundred percent, right? So you went through the accelerator, um, you went through some of the modules early in module one.

[00:17:35] Avery Smith: We talked about this in internal pivot. And like, if you wanna explore this, this is kind of what you can do. Um, and then we go into create some Excel projects and some Tableau projects and some SQL projects. But you were able to, to get this job without finishing, uh, the, the accelerator. And I think that's great.

[00:17:50] Avery Smith: I, I never really want people can finish my program. Of course. I like that's a good thing to do. Right. But that's never my goal of my program is to get the certificate at the end. It's to get a job. [00:18:00] And in fact, if you get a job, I actually give you a certificate that's like, it's like, congrats, you, you finished.

[00:18:04] Avery Smith: Like that's all I care about, about you doing, because when you took the accelerator, you, you paid money, you invested into, into the program, um, and you were paying to learn, which is fine. Now, like the cool thing is like, if I had to guess like you're learning a lot with like data warehousing and snowflake and now you're doing that on the company time and you're getting paid to learn.

[00:18:22] Avery Smith: Can you just talk about a little bit about what you've maybe learned on the job

[00:18:24] Ryan Ponder: and, and I mean, I kind of hinted at it in talking about imposter syndrome, like it's the, the snowflake stuff. Yes. To formalize trainings, uh, are awesome. You know, it, it's, it's. Yeah, you said it. Exactly. Getting paid to learn is the gift really, because especially in a, uh, a role that's gonna continue to evolve and continue to change, knowing that, hey, now it's just part of, part of the job.

[00:18:47] Ryan Ponder: You know, now you get to do all these things that you paid money to do. Every day is an entirely new learning experience. Uh, yes, I will, uh, got to do the Snowflake training, uh, as part of this big company wide launch of, of getting [00:19:00] into Snowflake. So yeah, we did all the, the badge trainings there to make sure that we were all ready to go for, for that migration.

[00:19:06] Ryan Ponder: Uh, but other than that, every single day I come in, I'm learning something new. Uh, I look back it, you know, thinking of like dashboard design specifically. You know, I, I, today I sit here and I look at something I made in my first month and I'm like, wow. I know so much more now than I knew in that first month, and it's only been four months or so that I've been on the job.

[00:19:25] Ryan Ponder: And just, it's exciting, you know? Uh, there's so many different tools and I have only scratched, haven't even scratched the surface really, uh, when it comes down to it. But now being able to do that and get paid for it, uh, when before it was something I was willing to pay to learn, you know, and, and now here I am, uh, on a job where it's a environment of, Hey, we want you to learn, we want you to continue to learn, uh, and, and continue moving forward is awesome.

[00:19:49] Avery Smith: Amazing. Uh, that's, that's so cool because, uh, you're like, like you said, you were doing, you were doing this, you know, learning on, on your own. You started with the, the Google cert in about May of [00:20:00] last year, uh, went through the Google cert. Right. And what, what were your thoughts on the Google cert?

[00:20:04] Ryan Ponder: It was good.

[00:20:05] Ryan Ponder: It was my, it was. My first real technical learning, I guess. Um, it focuses a whole lot on technical skills. Um, there's a little bit of tableau in there. Um, a lot of BigQuery, which is their SQL that, that they, that they teach. Um, so it was cool. Um, it helped me get familiar with the tools, but once I've finished that.

[00:20:24] Ryan Ponder: I was kind of left with the, okay, well what's next? You know, so that's, that's kinda where, where the learning went, uh, with the Google search that I did previously.

[00:20:32] Avery Smith: Okay. So you finished that about May or so, so last year or that's, that's when you were kind of taking it and then, uh, I think we decided that you joined the accelerator in, in August.

[00:20:41] Avery Smith: Do you remember how, like you found out about me? Was it LinkedIn? Was it about, was he podcast?

[00:20:45] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, I was actually thinking about that before coming on and I. And I actually, I jotted down a note that I think it was both, but, so I think it was, I may have seen a post on LinkedIn. Um, but then I do remember I listened to a few podcast episodes [00:21:00] before and I think I listened to Trevor's episode because I think somewhere in the title it says something about not having to agree.

[00:21:08] Ryan Ponder: Yeah. If I remember correctly. They're like, oh, okay. So I need to focus on this one. Me, you know, since I, I didn't have that background, so I do think I, I found out about it through the podcast and then started to explore from there.

[00:21:20] Avery Smith: Okay. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah, we did interview Trevor Maxwell, who was another student that went through our program that landed a, a remote job, uh, without a, a college degree.

[00:21:29] Avery Smith: And it's funny, a lot of people, um, have really resonated with, with his episode now. I can't remember when Trevor started. No, he's been here a year. So now Trevor Maxwell's one of our coaches, uh, inside the accelerator program. And so a lot of people who end up joining, they're like, oh, I've seen, I've seen your interview before.

[00:21:43] Avery Smith: I didn't expect to see you here. Um, anyways, so that's, that's a lot of fun. Okay. So you listen to the podcast, you listen to Trevor's and you're like, okay, wow. So this person did it without a college degree, so maybe I can too. And then you, you ended up joining the accelerator and I guess what was like your, your biggest takeaway?

[00:21:58] Avery Smith: What was the thing you enjoyed about the [00:22:00] accelerator the most?

[00:22:00] Ryan Ponder: I mean, hands down it was being able to. Use the tools in a meaningful way. With the Google Cert, it was learning to use the tools, but there was no context really. It was a lot of, you know, hey, put this code together and hey, see the result. But there was no real business context or real like, you know, broader.

[00:22:19] Ryan Ponder: Hey, here's how we tell a data story context, which is what I, is something we learned in the in, in the accelerator. So that my biggest takeaway was how to put it all together in a meaningful way and then also be able to show that. And I think being able to show that is what truly helped me land the job.

[00:22:34] Ryan Ponder: I.

[00:22:35] Avery Smith: That's awesome to hear. I think data for data sake is a little boring sometimes, and, uh, it makes it more fun when there's like, oh, a project and this is our goal of our project, um, which I think we do well in, in, in the accelerator. Okay. Well that's that's awesome. I'm super glad to hear that you're enjoying your job, you're learning on the job, you're still feeling imposter syndrome.

[00:22:55] Avery Smith: I think if you're still filling imposter syndrome, you're in a good boat because that means you're, you're really pushing your, your [00:23:00] learning and uh, yeah. Uh, continuing to learn with friends. What advice would you give to maybe other loan officers or maybe someone else without a college degree? Um, what advice would you give them?

[00:23:08] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, I think just hitting it head on, you know, if data's something you want to get into, go full speed at it. You know, there's so many tools and resources available to us, whether it's the accelerator, which obviously I got a ton out of, or YouTube, you know, tutorials on there. I learn a ton from YouTube and how to do things.

[00:23:24] Ryan Ponder: Yeah, go for it. You know, there's no reason to hold back. Yeah. I, I was worried at first that I'd get looked down on, 'cause I didn't have a degree. Come to find out that doesn't matter as much as I thought I did, you know, but I wouldn't have found that out had I not just gone for it. So that's, that'd be my big recommendation is just go for it.

[00:23:39] Avery Smith: Well, you were a great example, Ryan, of, of just going for it and you're a great example of an internal pivot, which I love. I think more people. Should try to do it than, than do. So thank you so much for sharing your story of going from a loan officer to a data analyst through that internal pivot without a college degree.

[00:23:55] Avery Smith: It's absolutely awesome. And I know your story's gonna inspire a lot of people. [00:24:00] Uh, we'll have Ryan's, uh, LinkedIn in the show notes down below, so if you guys wanna send Ryan a connection, you'll, you'll be okay to talk to some people if they wanna reach out. Oh, yeah,

[00:24:07] Ryan Ponder: let's do it. Yeah, I'd love to. It'd be awesome.

[00:24:09] Avery Smith: Okay. Awesome. Well, Ryan, thank you so much for coming on. It was great talking to you.

[00:24:13] Ryan Ponder: Thanks, Avery.