 Hello, I'm your host, Alex Freeberg. Thank you so much for joining me. Today, we will be discussing how I change careers to become a data analyst, as well as just recently became a data analytics manager. Now, there is a lot to discuss, and I have made a copious amount of notes, so I didn't miss anything important, but I'm kind of reintroducing this Alex the Analyst show. It's been about seven months since I posted my last episode, so a lot of people who have recently subscribed to the channel have no idea what this is. They're seeing this like hour long video, and they're very confused. That's because I haven't done it in a while, and I miss it. I want to do it. And so I am back. I'm kind of reintroducing it with kind of an updated version of a previous episode, which was the second episode that I ever did, which was how I changed careers to become a data analyst. I posted that back in September 10th, back on September 10th of 2020, almost a year and a half ago. And a lot has changed in a year and a half, and I only had 5,000 subscribers at the time, so the channel's also grown a little bit. And so I wanted to not only reintroduce the series, because I want to pick it back up and start posting these every so often as well, but kind of dive into a lot of the things that have happened in the past year and a half since I made that video, because I've moved, I'm now an analytics manager and not a data analyst anymore, and so things have changed. And so I want to kind of update you on all those things. And so if you haven't heard my story, this will be a good intro to kind of how I got into analytics and you can kind of see my background and hopefully it'll be helpful to you. When I posted the first time back in 2020, the whole reason was so that you could see, kind of how I was able to do it, so that might be helpful to you. And so I hope this one can be just as helpful. And so like I said, there's a lot that is going to, that we're gonna discuss. But again, this is a long form content. I don't do any cuts unless my kids wake up, which I have a baby monitor right here. So if they wake up, I will have to make a quick cut. And then at the end, we will have our question of the day and our vegetable of the week that may confuse you. Don't be confused, it'll all make sense at the end. So let's jump right into it again. I think this is gonna be a long one. And if you haven't already, go pick up your, trust me, I'm an analyst mug on the Alex the Analyst Shop. You don't have to do that, but just a little plug for myself. It's a nice mug. It's a good one. So I'm gonna start at the very beginning, like right out of college, and then we're gonna go till present. And I will try to entertain you with anecdotal stories and probably a lot of just nonsense. But I don't have a degree in anything related to data analytics. In fact, it's probably one of the things that is most unrelated to data analytics, which is I have a degree in recreational therapy. If you don't know what that is, that's okay. I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to go into occupational therapy, physical therapy, go back and get my master's. And so recreational therapy was kind of a stepping stone. And so I originally lived in North Carolina. I moved out to Texas for an internship, which you have to do to complete the bachelor's degree. And when I'm out there, I'm doing this. I'm doing this internship and I meet this girl. And I kind of have my life planned a little bit differently. I plan to move back, do a master's program. But I met this girl and I ended up marrying her. You may have seen it on the channel. She's been on a few times. And I fall in love and I'm like, I gotta stay. I'm like, I can't go home. This isn't happening. So I finished that internship and I get the first job that I possibly can. I applied like 200 jobs. And if I got one, I'd stay and I'd marry her. If not, I'd have to go back because I couldn't afford to live here because I was broke. And so I got a job as a resident advocate at this nonprofit. And at the nonprofit, I was basically doing day-to-day needs of these people who were in the shelter. And so I'd cook for them. I'd clean, I'd get them paperwork that they need to fill out and stuff like that. And that's what I did for about six months. And during those six months, I had really gotten to know the people at my work and they respected me and I respected them and they could see that I was pretty intelligent. And so when a job came up for, I think it was, oh geez, I don't have this in my notes. I believe the title was a data collection specialist and analyst. I believe that's what it was called. No, that is what it was called. And it came up and I applied for it because my wife told me about it. She was like, hey, you're really smart, you can do this. And so I applied for it and the people interviewing me, I knew and they all were like, hey, we'll give you a shot. And so they gave me the job and it was basically collecting data for grants at this nonprofit. It turned out I was the only applicant because it was a nonprofit job and it didn't pay super well. And so I got it and it was fantastic. I also wanna mention salaries while I'm going through this. So that resident advocate job, I was making 36,000 and this is like Dallas, Texas. So Dallas, Texas is a kind of a higher cost of living. So 36,000 might sound okay to some people, but it's pretty low for Dallas, Texas. But then I got that data collection specialist and analyst job and I was making 47,000 and let me tell you something. I don't really come from money as well as I've never really had a lot of money. And so I felt like I was just, I was killing it. I'm like 47,000, I'm killing it. And to some of you, that is killing it. And so that's where I was at and I was really, really happy with that salary. So give me a second. So it was really only Excel and I really was just working with spreadsheets and that's it. It was just spreadsheets. And we decided we wanted to kind of advance our systems and we wanted to install or get a new database to track our data better and set up a lot of views and reporting dashboards and stuff like this. So we're using Salesforce. And so I'm the one who's gonna be implementing Salesforce as the data person here and we bring in a consultant who's gonna help us with this. And when he comes in, he's like, hey, you're the data guy here. So you must use SQL. And I literally was like, what is SQL? And he's like, come on, man, you're the data guy, you should know what SQL is. So I go home, I look at what SQL is and it turns out that it is one of, in my career, I didn't know this at the time but it's been one of the biggest tools and skills that I needed to learn to be successful and get to where I am. I didn't know that at the time but I figured out what it was. And so I go home and I just start learning it. I'm like, this is like super useful. I could totally see why this is a good thing to learn. And so I start looking at like jobs and a lot of them have SQL in it. So I like put all my eggs in this one basket of SQL. I just only learn SQL. After six months in that analytics data collection specialist and analyst job, things started going negative is what I'll say in the workplace and I wanted to leave. And so I wanna have a job lined up and so I started applying to a bunch of different places. Now I have a background in healthcare. That's what recreational therapy is. I've worked in lots of hospitals. I was a nursing major at one point. So I kind of have a healthcare background and so that's what I applied to mostly was healthcare background in data analytics positions. And I got just crazy lucky. And this healthcare analytics company hired me. And at the time it's really funny my wife had gotten a different job for more money up in Oklahoma like a director level position. And we almost took it and moved up there. And I probably would not have become a data analyst or stated data analyst. I probably would have gotten some other job while she was making a lot of money. And I, you know, wasn't. And so we decided, which really discussed it and really talked about it. And we were like this close to moving to Oklahoma and her taking that job. But we were like, hey, listen, you know, let's see where this goes. This could be the right move. You still have your job. I still have my job. And we'll both at least be employed and that's a good thing. So I took the job. And it just happened to be basically the perfect job for me. The, my boss was the, I guess, VP of operations and analytics there. And it was a really small company like less than 50 people. And in my office building where we were in person there was only like 10 of us. So I knew everyone really well. And I got to work with him one-on-one almost every day for months on end. And he really became a mentor to me. And he mentored me for, you know, I was there for a little over a year. He mentored me that entire year. And honestly, I felt, you know, just, I felt like I was learning the right skills. And I felt like I was really going down the right path because he was teaching me really advanced stuff in Excel. Things that I do in my Excel tutorials are things that he, a lot of things that he taught me or that I've learned through like courses and stuff. And, you know, he taught me a lot of really advanced SQL stuff that I just would never have been able to learn on my own. And all of these things were just, things I don't, looking back now, I can tell you were some of the most influential things in my career thus far. But, you know, it's hard to know that when you're in it but looking back, I'm like, man, that was the experience of a lifetime. I just learned so much in that one, in that year that I was there. Excuse me. So, you know, during this time, and I guess something I should have mentioned before is, when I first learned about SQL, I just took a Udemy course, right? I just took one single Udemy course and I did it three like three times. Again, I was what I would consider quite broke. I didn't have much money and my wife and I had just gotten married and we just found out that she was pregnant with our first kid. So, I mean, we were broke. We did not have any money to be spending on like subscriptions, like monthly subscriptions to like different websites and stuff. I just could buy a $10 Udemy course, which turned out to be amazing. And so, I took that and I worked on it, I would say three to five hours every single night and just repeatedly and repeatedly worked on it until I was like just genuinely what I could consider really good. But, you know, I wasn't amazing and when I got this job, I realized I was not amazing. I was probably beginner level, but I was really good at the beginner stuff though, which is good. That's kind of where you need to be to get like an entry level job. And so, this whole time, even while I'm working at this healthcare analytics company, I'm working on Udemy courses and I'm building projects and I'm working through Coursera courses. I mean, a lot of the stuff that I talked about on the channel are things that I, 100% actually did and I just became like addicted to learning because I was just so excited about this field, something I never even heard about or thought about a year, like two years ago, I now was like completely immersed in. And so, I'm working at this place and the healthcare analytics company, it, to be honest, you know, some of the paychecks that they were doing were delayed or they weren't coming through and so I had to go back and they're like, oh, sorry, we have to move some money around. And I got a little bit worried. I mean, that's the genuine reason why I started looking for other jobs was not because I didn't wanna work there because I totally, if everything financially was fine, I would have kept working there. I would not even looked elsewhere. But I didn't feel super secure in that job. I felt like, you know, if they're having money issues, I could be out of a job. And so I didn't want that. I needed security because I had a family right towards the end of working there. My son was born. And so, you know, I got, I have mouths to feed and I have a lot of pressure to make this work because we stayed here in Texas for this job. And so I started applying and I get a callback at the Fortune 500 company that I'm still at today. And, you know, they give me an interview and in the interview, I basically like sold myself. I'm like, hey, look, I am really good at SQL. I'm really good at Excel. I know Tableau, you know, pretty well. I know you guys use Power BI but I can absolutely learn Power BI extremely quickly. I have just a passion for, you know, pharmaceuticals and healthcare and I'm like, I really know this stuff. And I was like, if you hire me on, you know, you guys will absolutely, you know, benefit from this and I will be a good employee. I didn't say that perfectly, but you know, that's what I conveyed in the interview. And it was a contract to hire position. It was kind of a risk but staying at my other company was kind of a risk too. And so, but it was a contract to hire position. So it was a six month contract and then if they liked me, they could hire me on. So I had to kind of give them my all. Like if I did bad during this first six months which I was extremely worried about because it was a Fortune 500, like Fortune 10 company. It was in the top 10 of the Fortune 500. I was like, I got to give them my A. Like I got to give them my all. I got to give them my A game. And so they offered me the position, contract to hire. I was, as a contract, I'm working hourly. And so I think it was 76,000. So I was making, I think it was like $35 an hour which was just insane to me. At the healthcare analytics company I was making 63 which again felt absolutely insane. I was like, I am way overpaid because I'm learning. Like I don't, but if you, I mean, if you do look at like median data analyst salaries in Dallas, Texas is actually pretty accurate or even if a little bit under, but I didn't care. I was like, I was super broke. So it's 63,000 dollars to me. Amazing. So, one second. So I get this contract job. And when I'm telling you I give it my all. I mean, I am pulling out all the stops. Like I am going to be the best analyst this company has ever seen. I am putting in the extra work. I am learning Python at the time which is a new skill for me. I just kind of started learning it at the healthcare analytics company. We didn't use it, but I started learning it at my free time. And so I get into this job and I mean, I'm pulling out like all the stops. Like, they weren't crazy advanced. They obviously were more advanced than what I was working with but I was trying to do things that they had like never even thought about doing just because I wanted to be a problem solver. I wanted to be seen as indispensable and that they really wanted to hire me on. Like my goal was just to get hired on full time. That's all I wanted. I was like, once I get in, I was like, then I can, you know, I can, you know, progress and promote within and all these things. I was like, but I just really got a while that like I really got to put my all into this. So I'm doing a lot of ETL stuff. A lot of data collection, data cleaning, data document or what's it called? Data dictionaries, documentation, all these things. And so, you know, I started noticing some like trends and patterns in the way we were doing things. And I tried to figure out ways to automate that or ways to, you know, do things where it'd be quicker. So like for an example, we get a lot of files in from clients and I would have to go in manually check stuff and run this report to, you know, get some of the kind of just the generic information about the file. And I was like, I could automate this with Python. I watched like one video on it. So in my free time, I spent a lot of time actually building it out. And then when I got to work, I was like, hey, boss, you know, I had this idea. I tried it at home, it works. I was wondering if I could try it here. It would save us a lot of time. And I tried it and it worked. And, you know, my boss was, is it super healthcare now, super smart and healthcare side of things, but wasn't super technical. And so this like was like just a really great thing. Saved us a lot of time. And of course, you know, it wasn't something that she would have ever done because she's not a super technical person. And so I really water with that. And another thing I did was I built this gap analysis between two separate databases in SQL. And so it would take an entire SQL database, an entire SQL database and compare every single thing in it. And then give you this output of what's the same, what's different. We used to have to do that all the time. I did it like a ton of times manually in SQL, just running, copying, putting into Excel, comparing stuff like that. But then I was able to basically automate that process and save us a ton of time. They used to take hours, just genuinely it was not fun. And I wanted to not have to do that anymore. And so that's what I did. And so I was able to, you know, problem solve and figure these things out. Well, that's like month Mark came up and I was like, hey, listen, I really like working with you. I want to work alongside you. I was like, you know, so I, you know, I'm hoping you can bring me on full time. And so I get into the room and they say, hey, listen, you know, everybody's giving you glowing feedback. Everybody, all the department heads love you. I don't know, they didn't say love you. They were just like, they really like working with you. You know, we all want to bring you on full time. We want to give you a data analyst to position. And I was just like, I mean, I think I genuinely brought tears to my eyes. It brings tears to my eyes right now because they really saw the potential in me. Like they really saw how hard I was working. And I hear all these stories and it probably happens all the time. I know it happens all the time, but people who put in just work on work on work and it never gets recognized. And so, you know, the company I'm with, they really valued the hard work that I put in and it showed. And so they offered me a promotion to a data analyst too, whereas I don't know if I even told you. I was actually a junior data analyst. So I got hired on as a junior data analyst. I took a somewhat title demotion for more money at this large company in the hopes that I could just get in my, get my foot in the door. And so to get, to hear that feedback and also be offered a position two levels above because I was just doing really good work. I mean, it was just like, it was everything I had hoped and more. And it felt, it felt amazing. I was just extremely happy. And that position they offered me, I believe it was 90, 2000, and then I got an 8% bonus. So I was sitting right around 100,000 total compensation. When I was a contractor, I didn't get a bonus. And so that wasn't part of it. And so now I'm sitting like right under 100,000, which I mean is like, to me is life changing money. And it is, it is just a lot of money. And I had never, ever in my life expected to get to that point. Never, never in my life. And so I work there for another year and a half in that position. And we bring on another business analyst and another data analyst. I originally was the replaced a data analyst that was originally there. And so, excuse me. And so, you know, the team grew and a lot of things happened in between then. And I got to know the team extremely well. And I became, I think a pretty integral part of it. And I loved working with them. So about four months ago from today, well, maybe it was like five months ago. Five months ago from today, I was like, hey listen, you know, part of what I want to do is I want to eventually become a manager. Now let me just buff my resume, you know, update all the things that I've done and why don't I just see what's out there? It doesn't hurt. I've been here for, you know, two years at this point, two and a half years at this point, I was like, let me just see what's out there. Either a senior data analyst position would be fantastic. You know, I, who knows what's gonna happen, right? So I decided to just update my resume and see what's out there. And I applied to a few senior data analyst positions. I got an interview for a senior data analyst position at PWC. At the same time as I was getting this offer from, or this interview from my company. So the company, the position that I had applied for at my company was called the, I wanted to get the whole title because it's a long one. But it's the manager of application development and analytics reporting and intelligence. It's something like crazy long. But basically it's the manager of operational analytics and intelligence. On the IT side of things. So I would no longer be doing like healthcare pharmaceutical data. I'd be doing IT operations data. So very different. And I just applied to it. I just applied to it and I expected absolutely nothing to return because it was kind of a big bump up in the qualifications that they had in the actual job description were a little bit higher. But I got a call back and they were like, hey, you know, we just, you're an internal candidate. We'd like to bring it in for an interview. It was, you know, it didn't seem super promising. So I told my boss, I said, hey, listen, I applied to this job and she's like, okay, great. And I was like, hey, listen, I don't think anything's gonna come of this. I don't want you thinking that I'm trying to leave your team. I mean, I love working with you. But I was like, I just wanna see where it goes. Just wanna see if anything happens. So I get into the first interview and they're asking a lot about my background, my people skills, my leadership skills, examples, et cetera. And that would, the person I was talking to in that very first time I talked was my soon to be boss. And so I, and I didn't know that. I just, you know, went into that interview, you know, just kind of seeing what it was all about. Really, honestly. And we just kind of vibed. And it, everything went really well. And everything that he was looking for, I knew. And, you know, they really wanted somebody who was good at data visualization, which I was really good at. Somebody who knew cloud platforms, which I had been using Azure for the last two years. And I felt confident that I could implement that as well. As well as somebody who was able, who was wanting to learn and grow as a manager. And they said that specifically. Like he's like, you know, we're looking for someone who is a smaller team. We're looking for someone who wants to grow a team and kind of, you know, build this team up. And so I was like, that sounds fantastic. And so he's like, hey, let's schedule another interview. I was like, let's do it. That sounds amazing to me. For everyone who's listening on headphones and not watching, everybody always checks to see if I'm still, if it like paused or like is buffering or something at that moment when I take a sip. I always thought it was hilarious. I always think that's hilarious. So I got the second interview and I'm like, what's the worst that can happen? I was like, honestly, you know, this is an internal job. You know, if I don't like it, I can always just decline it and that would be fine. So I get into the second interview and it's with the same guy, my boss, my soon to be boss. And he's like, hey, you know, I was doing some research and I found your YouTube channel. This is like four months ago. And so it was, you know, fairly sizable. And he's just like the content on there is fantastic. He's like, you're really a teacher and you're really somebody who has a lot of the skills we're looking for. He's like, I watched several of your videos. I was like, these are, there's a lot of the things that we're looking for. And I was like, that's fantastic. And I'm glad you like the channel. I didn't know what else to say. I was like, you know, I'm glad you like it. And so we interviewed you, the whole interview. And he's like, hey, let's set you up for the third interview and I'm gonna give you, I want you to interview with my boss who is like the VP. No, he's not VP. I think he's the director. Director of IT, automation and analytics. So I think that's his title. And so I'm like, that sounds great. But everything so far was like really positive. So I get into that last interview and let's call him John. I always use John. Let's call him John. John gets in there and he's like, hey, you know, I was preparing for this interview. You know, I'm interviewing some other people for this position. And he's like, I was looking up on LinkedIn, founder of YouTube channel. I just binge watched like 10 videos. And he's like, they're fantastic. He's like, it's extremely impressive. He's like, you know, your personality and just you as a person and that kind of teaching mentality is exactly what we're looking for. And he's like, you have the skills that we're looking for before I even basically said anything. And honestly at one point in the interview, I was like, hey, listen, you know, I know it looks fantastic, but here are some of the things that I'm not good at. I almost had to like sell myself down because I didn't want him to have the expectation that I knew everything going into this job. And so I literally was like, well, you know, one thing I don't know super well is, I think I said, let me see, data engineering. I was like, it's something that I'm, look, I, you know, I want to learn, but I was like, you know, I know some of the projects that you guys are wanting to do in the next year or two that include a lot of data engineering. I was like, that's just not, it's not one of my skill sets right now. I'm working on it, but he's like, he's like, that's okay, well hire somebody. And so I really felt like they got a good feel for my personality through my videos. And so, you know, it was just, everything kind of lined up. It really did. And having this channel genuinely, I think helped, which some places don't like that. To give you some perspective, the PWC job that I had talked to, they had a huge concern with me having a YouTube channel. They're like, that could be a really big breach of whatever. And that could be a really big issue. You have to run it up to HR and to legal and all these people. And I'm like, that's fine. So a lot of companies have issues with that. And I told, I was like, hey, is this gonna be a problem? Because I talk about my job and I talk about salary and I talk about these things. And he's like, yeah, he's like, do whatever you gotta do. I think it's fantastic. So I get out of that call and they end up calling me back and saying, hey, we want to hire you. And I honestly was just completely, I was very shocked to say the least. I was extremely shocked. At that point, I have four years of analytical experience. And I've used, at least in my company, I've used a lot of the tools that we use. But I was like, I only have four years of experience that maybe would qualify for a senior data analyst position. And they're offering me a manager position, which I really want. I really want it. And that's something that I want to do in the future. And I was like, and so I was like, let me talk this over with my wife. And we discussed it for a long time. And I was like, I don't really see much downside. I was like, that's what I want to do in the end. Not in the end, but that's my next career step is becoming a manager, director level, CIO, CEO of a Fortune 500 company. That is my goal. Maybe not really, but I'm speaking into existence. But manager was like three years, four years, or even five years down the road. And they were offering it to me right now to kind of grow this team on the IT side of things. And so I took it and I didn't, I mean, I knew what to expect, but I didn't know exactly what to expect. And so just to let you know salary wise, so I was just at 92,000 with an 8% bonus. They offer me a 20% on top of that. So as my salary is 118,000 and with a 10% bonus. Now the bonus is variable. It's a very interesting thing. I had no idea this existed, but it depends on the team's performance and the company's performance. So half of that is, let's say 10% is, if our company does exactly as they're supposed to, I'll get 10% bonus. If they do worse, then I get less bonus. So I can actually get less of a bonus if our company doesn't do well or I can get like a much larger bonus if our company does extremely well. And so I'm sitting right around like a hundred and 30-ish thousand right now. Give or take a little bit. Let's say 125 to 130. Somewhere in that range depending on how big the bonus is. And again, I'm sitting here and I'm literally like this is more money than I ever thought in my entire career I would make. And I've been able to accomplish a lot of my goals pretty quickly. And so I'm sitting here and I'm just like, I feel extremely humbled. Like just extremely, extremely humbled to be where I'm at so early on in my career with a gigantic opportunity sitting in front of me to build this team and really progress my career. And I have every intention of doing that. And I've already made a lot of big goals and commitments for the next year or two because I like, again, I'm just, that I have that same feeling like I had when I was back when I was a contractor trying to get hired on full-time. That sense of I need to work my butt off and make it happen and really prove myself and make them want to, not only back then give me that full-time position but now want them to keep growing my team and then promote me even further later on. So that's where I'm at. And the job is really interesting. We're working with all these IT teams and we're working with all this operational data. So when incidences and accidents come in somebody needs to do the analytics on that. And so we have a whole platform set up that does a lot of that, but for the first month or two even almost, I just kind of sat back and looked how things were done and learned the ins and outs of what's going on. And I already saw a lot of room for improvement, like just a ton. And so that's what I'm going to be doing for probably the next several years, hopefully if they keep me on. And so that's where I'm currently at in my career and that's how I was able to make the transition again. I do think my skill and determination and all of those things played a role. I also think that luck and good timing and just being in the right place at the right time was also a big part of it. I'm just being honest. Like it was a big part of it as well. And so I'm not, there's a lot of people out there who have said, you know, like you're just super lucky. And I'm like, yeah, I am super lucky, but I also put in crazy hours to learn the skills and push myself and continue to improve myself. And so I don't disagree with you. I do think I am lucky on some level, but I also think I'm more lucky the more hard work I put in. And so that's just my take on it. I hope that didn't come off as like pompous as I don't want to come off that way. I understand the amount of luck and fortune that I've been given. And I don't want to squander that. Like I fully intend on working extremely hard to prove that this is a good thing and make the most of this opportunity that I've been given. So that's where I'm currently at. And I've got a really good team. So I have two analysts and three developers. And some of them are contractors, you know, contracted out from different countries as well as some are full-time. And my team is really fantastic. If you're watching this, cause I know my IT department knows that I do YouTube. If you're watching this, I have, I work with some really great people. And I'm not just saying that cause they might be watching this. I'm saying because I actually, I truly believe it. And so, you know, where do I go from here? I just keep grinding. I just keep doing my thing, keep progressing, keep doing my YouTube thing and keep working hard behind the scenes to improve my skills. Even now I'm taking courses. So like right in the background, I had stopped taking courses for a little bit cause things had been pretty crazy with the move and everything. Oh, which I never even talked about. But I moved and so I didn't have a lot of time to be taking courses and a lot of things were going on. And so now that things have started to calm down, the kids are a little older. I'm taking some courses again, trying to improve in areas that I need to improve on. One thing that I didn't mention is something that came out of that, that this getting, getting this job and the PWC job, which was I wanted to be, I had been working remote for like last year and a half, but I wanted to basically be able to work wherever I wanted in the US because where I was in my last position, they said, you know, we'll be coming back to work. We're coming back into office and you need to come back into the office. And I, I genuinely didn't want to come back into the office. I enjoyed seeing my family every day and spending a lot of time with my kids and being there for all the events. Like I valued that a ton. And so when I was interviewing for both positions, both the PWC position for the senior data analyst and this manager one at my current company, I said, I really want to be fully remote, work wherever I want. I was like, is that, is that something you can make happen? PWC said, yes, they didn't care. And they just said, you'd have to fly for certain stuff. I was fine with that. And my company was like, you go work wherever you want. They're like, I'm in Virginia. I'm in South Carolina. I'm in North Carolina. I'm out in Texas. And they all were completely remote. And so they were super supportive of that. And so right after I got the job, like maybe two weeks after I got the job, we moved out to South Carolina to be closer to my parents and, you know, be near the beach. And so now we're like near the beach on South Carolina and it's very different than Dallas, Texas because the beach is like seven hours away. And so that was a huge, huge change. And so now compared to a year ago, now I'm a manager, I'm working completely remote. And so just a lot of life changes. A lot, a lot of life changes have happened in this past year and a half since I made that original video that we talked about way back at the beginning. And so that's where I'm at. That's where I'm at and things are good. And I'm really enjoying doing these YouTube stuff, man. It's a pleasure. I don't know if you guys knew this, but I really like doing this YouTube stuff. It's just, it's a passion of mine. Like I don't intend on stopping anytime soon. I just love it. It's extremely, extremely fun to do. And I like doing this. I miss this stuff. I really did miss doing this long form content because when you guys comment below, like these are the ones that I read really in depth and have good responses to and are typically the ones that people who I've been talking with for the past like two years on the channel, who I feel like I know, and then I'll meet them in like a chat or on LinkedIn and I'll like see their picture. I'm like, oh my gosh, that's you. I'm like, that's crazy. And so it's just, again, this whole experience up till now, it's been, I've been in this field for almost five years now has been crazy fast paced as well as extremely humbling because I just never, ever, ever expected to be where I'm at. I never expected in my entire life to one be a data analyst or two to be successful in most sense of the words. And so, yeah, I mean, that's it. So here I am. You know, there's that. Not only that, what did I just say? Don't leave yet. We are gonna be moving on to a separate section of the Alex and Analyst Show, something that I really enjoy. Something that I like doing, which is answering your questions, which I need to do another Q&A, another live Q&A soon. I didn't even address. I completely forgot I was gonna do this at the beginning. If you are confused as to why I have a mustache right now, it's because on my live stream, I shaved it at 150,000 subscribers. I did it for you. And so if you're thinking I look ridiculous right now, it's your fault. And that's okay. I like, I'm pretty confident in the way I look. I've been putting myself out there for the past couple of years and I haven't gotten too many comments on. Actually, that's not true. I get a lot of comments on my bald head. A lot of comments. It's really funny to me. Honestly, it just makes me laugh. It's very funny. Okay, question of the day. Question of the day is from Nicole Castro. It says, love your content, Alex. Wondering what your opinion is on boot camps. Your suggestions with where to start for education, for entry-level career competence. What do I think of boot camps? Now I have an entire video on boot camps, but I'll give you the condensed version. My thoughts are is that the boot camps exist to make money, much like other things like other education and courses and whatnot. The difference between boot camps is they try to turn you out really fast. Their goal is to kind of teach you the bare minimum in a really fast timeframe, like five weeks, 10 weeks. And so their goal is really to make money, to turn you out, to get the new people in and keep that process going. And so they don't typically have the best records in my books and I've heard a lot of stories. Some have worked very well for people and some have not worked very well for people. Some of the things I would look for in a boot camp is do they offer a job guarantee or a job placement program? Those are really important. If they don't, could be not the best one. You might learn the skills, but they don't help you land a job. I mean, you can learn the skills online. But they can be really good for people who need a lot of direction. They don't know what to learn. They haven't watched enough of Alex the Analyst. They haven't watched all my videos and so they're very confused. You're not confused if you watch my videos, but you'd be very confused if you haven't. I would say that that might be something if you have the luxury of paying for it or the luxury of taking the time off because sometimes these like full-time things that you have to dedicate 10 weeks to, like two or three months of your time only doing that full-time. And so typically I don't recommend them for people but certain people, certain types of personalities or situations can actually benefit from boot camps. I do believe that. My suggestions with where to start for education for entry-level career competence highly recommend starting with YouTube, highly. And I'm not just saying that for myself, I learned a ton from YouTube, from other content creators or other people through YouTube who were teaching a lot of the same things that I do just in different styles and different ways. I teach the tutorials and stuff that I have are things that I think are the most important. Things like Microsoft SQL Server. You can also learn MySQL, but I like Microsoft SQL Server. Tableau, Excel, Python, these types of things, you can learn on YouTube, you can learn a lot of the basics for free, like no cost to you at all, just some of your time and you being able to be structured and do that. And right after that, go buy a $10 Udemy course that might be a little bit more structured and a little bit more in-depth. That's what I would do. Then once, if you're really committed, and I'm not saying you're not committed if you do Udemy courses, I still do Udemy courses today, but if you're really committed and wanna buy a subscription, Coursera has just insanely good content. And so does Udemy, but Coursera, I think, is a little bit more formalized education, whereas Udemy is to be someone like me who is very good in a certain subject and can make a course on it and you can learn from it, whereas Coursera is typically like from like colleges and professors and things like that. And so both of those platforms highly recommend. Can't recommend them enough. I think they're fantastic. You can become a data. I think I became an analyst for like under like 200 bucks in total of learning. I spent most of my time learning YouTube, multiple courses on Udemy and then like a little bit of Coursera at the end. And now I still do Coursera and Udemy today, but total before I got my first job, it's like 200 bucks. Compare that to like a $10,000, $15,000 bootcamp. You can see the appeal of just doing self-learning. So that's all I'll say on it. Last, another thing I wanna say before we kind of head to the vegetable of the week, which is really important, is if you, well no, I was gonna give a shout out to the sponsor. The sponsor of this video is you. It is not any of the other sponsors that I've had in the past. It is you, if you wanna support the channel. I didn't mention this at the beginning because again, I don't want, that's not my purpose of doing this, but if you wanna support the channel, you can go on a Patreon. I have a link in the description and you can support the channel. You know, you don't have to, but if you want to, there's an avenue to do that. When the channel really started growing, people were getting mad at me. Genuinely, people were sending me messages saying, hey, I really like the content you're doing. I wanna give you money just to thank you. And I'm like, I don't have a way to do that. And they're like, well, you need to set something up. And so I did that for them. So if that is one of you, I'm not gonna say you people. If that is the type of personality that you are, you really are just like, man, I need to support this guy. I'm giving you an avenue to do that. And I appreciate all the money that I get from Patreon goes right back into it. That's also where I have my mentorship program, the top tier, which is like, geez, what's it called? The director of data analytics tier or something, I can't remember. That tier is also my mentorship tier. And it's priced extremely, what I would consider very low. I think it's at $135 right now. I do that because I'm genuinely, I mean, it's a pretty big investment in time for me. I just enjoy doing it so much. I charge it what I would consider a lot cheaper. I know of somebody else who does it, who charges $600. And that's for a two one hour session. So I do it because I really do enjoy it. I promise you I'm not doing it for the money, but I don't have all the time in the world. So there's that. Just a tiny, tiny self-plug. I hope you guys don't mind. I really hope you don't. But let's get to the important parts, probably the most important part of this entire video, if I'm being honest. And my cat is just being weird. I apologize. I have a, I think she's a tabby cat for her name's Charlie. Her name is Charlotte, but I call her Charlie. And she just does random stuff when I make videos. Sometimes I even have to edit out because she'll jump like behind me. I don't want those in my other videos. This one I wouldn't mind. She'd be great to have on the show. She has been in several other shows. Is the vegetable the week? And I'm gonna keep it vegetable-based as we do. And today's vegetable of the week is pepper. So if you watched all the way to the end, in the comments, write pepper, and I will know that you watched all the way through, that you were a true fan and you were very much dedicated and you are truly going to have an amazing 2022 and become a data analyst this year. Only if you write pepper though. If you don't, if you just write like a comment, some random offhand and comment or a question, I will ignore it. Because I know that the people who are writing pepper, they're the true believers. They believe in themselves. They know they can do it. Everyone else, they didn't believe. And that's it. If the last plug and I complete, I was supposed to mention this during the Patreon. I even wrote a note and I missed it. If you wanna buy this mug or t-shirts or anything else, I have an Alex in the shop. Go and check it out. I think they're super cool. I own multiple, my own shirts. And I actually wear them because I like them. And I like this mug. I really do use this mug. Why? Because when people say, hey, that's a cool mug. I said, yeah, I made this mug. And they'll be like, all right. And it means absolutely nothing. It's usually pretty weird. But I try to make things awkward sometimes. So thank you guys for watching. This is a long video. This is probably like 45 minutes plus, I'm guessing is a long video. So if you watched all the way to the end, I appreciate you, I really do. And geez, my eyebrow has been itching this whole time. The entire time, that's not true. It just keeps itching. So I'll like every soft dog go like this and I'll kinda get it and doesn't actually get it as the worst. I am telling you that is the absolute worst. None of my children woke up by the way. So thank you to my children. Big shout out. One thing that I also wanted to discuss, let me see if I have it right here. I can't find it. I can't find it. I had it here and it's gone. So we're not discussing it. But truly from the bottom of my heart, this has been a pleasurable experience. I've enjoyed talking with you. It's been a long experience. I would say probably one of the longer Alex's Analyst Show episodes feels good to be back. This is my favorite part at the end. Some of you may, I guarantee you, there's a lot of people who are watching this who have never seen an Alex's Analyst Show and they're very confused why I'm still going. It should have ended minutes ago. But if you watch, if you go back and watch a lot of the previous Alex's Analyst Show episodes, it will make sense. I promise you. But, yeah, in it, weirdest thing. So right now I'm recording it's, I'm recording on January 14th. But we've lived here in South Carolina for almost three months now. And believe it or not, in September, October, or no, we moved here in October. In October, November, December, and January, I've been to the beach multiple times. It's been hot. Global warming, it's getting to us guys. It really is. So do your part in any way you can. It really is getting to us. I was contemplating not moving this close to the water but I just, I believe that we can do this. I believe in humanity. I really do. I really do think that when things start getting bad that we will figure out a solution. I genuinely believe that. Whether that's going off-planet or actually figuring out how to reduce emissions or neutralize the emissions so that we don't have global warming increase over the next 40, 50 years. I truly believe we'll figure out a solution to keep humanity alive. All right, guys, with that being said, I'm out of here. It's late. It's 10 30. I need to go to bed. I was gonna say go do work because it's usually when I go do work, but it's Friday. I don't have any work to do. So you guys have a good one. I love you. If you did not get to this part, I like you. But if you got to this part, I truly love you and I appreciate you. Thank you. Have a good night and goodbye.