About
I've been working with data since 2016. I first started with the on-prem SQL Server S-stack of SSIS, SSAS, SSRS. I did some QlikView and Qlik Sense, and some Power BI. Nowadays, I work mostly with Snowflake, Databricks, Azure, and dbt, of course. While tools and languages have come and gone, SQL has stayed. I've been a consultant for all of my professional life.
When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
I started using dbt around 2019-2020, I think. Snapshots (no longer "archives") were a new thing along with the RPC server! I asked around my then-company: pretty much nobody had used dbt, though some commented that it did look promising. That left me looking elsewhere for experiences and best practices around the tool, and I found different blog writers and eventually the dbt Slack. I quickly noticed I could learn much more from the experiences of others than by trying everything myself. After just lurking for a while, I started to answer people's questions and give my own thoughts. This was completely new to me: voicing my input and opinions to people I had never met or who were not my colleagues.
Which dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
There are quite many. I started to write some names here, but felt the list was getting a bit long and I'd still forget somebody! What the community leaders have in common is that they are approachable, knowledgeable, and passionate. They want to help others, they want to drive the community forward, and they are down to earth. I've had the pleasure of meeting many of them in person at the past two Coalesces, and I hope to meet many more!
Growing my own leadership in the community... That's an interesting question: I hadn't really identified myself as leader in the community before. Maybe I should come out of the Slack channels and join and/or organize some dbt Meetups? I always try to answer even the simplest questions, even if they've been answered a hundred times already. Every day, new people are introduced to dbt, and they are facing issues for the first time. Every one of us was new at one point!
What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
I've learnt a surprising amount about the different teams and ways of working with and around data. I've learnt that it is highly probable that somebody somewhere has already had, and likely solved, the problem you are having. All that is needed to connect the dots is for people to speak and listen.
When asking and answering questions, I try to hone in on what they're really trying to get at. I ask, why is it that you want to do something in that particular way? I like to say, don't love the solutions, love the problems!