My BI Journey - Pt. 2 (Professional)

Follow along with the second part of a two part blog series of how I explain how I transitioned my BI career from Excel to Power BI and where I am today.

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The start of my BI journey happened while I was in college. I didn't even know that I wanted to be in data, my mind was pretty set on art. That all changed pretty quickly though.

Collette - Yield Analyst (2019 to 2020)

I'd like to say that this was my first job after completely my MBA, but I actually started working full time during my second semester of my MBA in January 2019. Go ahead, call me crazy, but for me this was my dream job at the time. I got to work in business intelligence (utilizing Excel) and within the travel industry (traveling is one of my passions outside of work). The benefits were also pretty decent.

As a yield analyst, my primary job duties were around ad-hoc reporting utilizing Excel with Power Pivot, DAX, and pivot tables. There were some set reports in Excel that would require maintenance, but a lot of times someone from the air or inventory teams would request one off reports. For these reports, we would query data from SQL servers and OLAP. I would also analyze hundreds of tours of high and low forecasted loads to make recommendations to the inventory and yield teams to help maximize departures loads and revenue.

Eventually, Excel wasn't the best tool for some of the reporting that was needed. Tables were not always the answer and didn't help the end users gather the insights they needed quickly. There was one report in general where I was helping the air call team with a report that was monitoring calls and notes on bookings per agent. There was a lot of data, and excel was not the best tool for visualizing the data. It was at this point that I asked my manager if I could learn Power BI to utilize that for this report and other reporting within our department.

I learned Power BI on my own utilizing the Microsoft Learning Documentation. Since I already had knowledge in DAX and our data, learning the Power Query and visual side of Power BI was not difficult at all.

Once learning Power BI, I was able to convert the report form Excel to Power BI. I also was able to develop about 15 new reports in Power BI that helped teams across the company to make data driven decisions through the dynamic reporting that was provided. One report that I enjoyed the most was a wish list report.

Collette is a guided tour company that provided guided tours around the world. They also offer add-ons the tours, such as hotel upgrades, optional excursion and pre/post night tours. All of these different components can have waitlists - and if the waitlist has enough people, the inventory team could try to contact vendors to see if we could accommodate extra guests. Prior to the wish list report, there was nothing giving this information to the team to help make decisions as quickly as clicking around in a Power BI report. They could quickly see what components had waitlists, for which tours, and which dates.

Prior to the wish list report (and many others like it), there was no other report that gave the level of insight and information as the interactive report did in Power BI. Enabling the inventory team to click around and get the insights needed, allowed us to better serve customers.

Unfortunately, COVID hit in March 2020, and the tourism industry took a big hit. I was initially furloughed in March and laid off in May 2022. While I miss working in the tourism industry, I am grateful for my time at Collette and getting the opportunity to learn Power BI.

FIS - Risk Analyst I (2020 to 2021)

After being laid off from Collette, I spent the spring and summer looking for a new job. I knew that I wanted to move from Rhode Island to Florida. I found a job at FIS and started in August 2020.

I got to keep building Power BI reports - which I still loved to do. This time around though, I wasn't just querying data from a SQL server. I got to build cubes utilizing SSAS tabular models in Visual Studio - this is where some of the OLAP knowledge came into play from my MBA course.

Within this role, I got to collaborate with internal stakeholders to complete ad hoc requests, including new reports and data researching. I specialized in areas such as vulnerabilities, OS server patching, and secure configuration management. I became a SME within our reporting team on these topics as I reported on them and dug more into the data of each area.

I also eventually expanded outside Power BI and SSAS models in Visual Studio and handled a lot of my own data model needs. For this, I created views and scripted code using SQL Service Management Studio. I would also often use SQL to dig into the raw data when needed.

Lastly, I also learned to utilize SharePoint Lists. I developed a list environment that helped the team maintain inventories across data warehouses and reports. Additionally, the lists were used for auditing and change management purposes.

While my main focus was on Power BI, I got to expand skills into SSMS, SSAS and even SharePoint lists.

I ultimately decided to leave that job in November of 2021 in pursuit of other opportunities with Parable Associates.

Parable Associates - BI Analyst (2021 to Present)

I started with Parable Associates in November 2021 as a Business Intelligence Analyst.

While I had no experience in healthcare or RCM, I had three years of experience with Power BI. During my job application and interview process, I provided a portfolio with sample Power BI, SQL and DAX work, which helped me land the job. While my portfolio has since evolved since starting with Parable, it can be found here.

Since starting (as of July 2022), I have worked with one client to help them transition their reporting to Power BI. During the few months with the clients, I helped transition reporting from Qlik to Power BI. Since transitioning existing reports, I have started to create new reporting in Power BI to expand the current suite of reports. Overall, the client has been excited with the new reporting, and often mentions how much easier it is to gather the insights with a few clicks versus exporting to Excel and creating pivot tables.

While the work as a consultant is similar to previous work in Power BI, it is also different. Previously I have always worked with internal stakeholders with reports, this time I am working with external stakeholders. I am not only just representing Parable Associates, I am also representing the client with the work I am providing.

Helping clients create BI solutions has been rewarding. The clients are happy and blown away at the data available at their fingertips. They are able to quickly gather insights that help better assist their clients.

I am absolutely enjoying the work I am providing to the client. I get to keep clients' needs on the top of mind while adding more own innovation and creative touches while creating these reports. I ensure that interactivity and usability will enable end users to gather the insights needed that help drive the business. Overall, the work has been rewarding knowing that the clients are able to utilize the reports to better serve their clients.

Final Thoughts

If you would have told me in high school that I would be working as a BI Analyst and enjoying what I do every day for work, I would have called you crazy. I wouldn't have even known what a BI Analyst was. I might have even convinced you that I was going to either be an artist or accountant.

Moral of the story is, that you can come from any background and still find yourself in data or business intelligence. It is not always about how you got started, it is about where you are now and where you plan on going.

It's been a crazy adventure so far from art and graphic design to business intelligence. I am excited to see what the future holds for me within the field of Business Intelligence.

There are a lot more snippets of work I can share, so enjoy the below if you'd like. I have included old art work to new art work in the form of Power BI reports. Pieces include art from high school and college, projects from college, and reports from Maven Challenges, sample datasets and Parable sample template.