Background
There is a Secret Role in tech (especially in the west) that people are not discussing enough about.
The biggest career dream while growing up as a Young Nigerian used to be landing a job in the oil and gas industry.
The GenZ’s may not be able to relate but that was the “in-thing”.
Personally, I knew of a driver as far back year 2011 who was on a monthly Salary of N400,000 (about $3000 at the time).
Fast forward many years later, a lot has changed globally.
Except Arsenal Football Club still have not won a Premier League or an European Cup 😁.
One of the things that changed is an unprecedented increase in the use of Technology.
Which in turn increased the demand for tech pros.
And that also increased the number of people interested in and gaining tech skills, but not faster than the demand.
Now, most people aspire to work in tech for so many reasons from the pay.
To the bragging that comes with being a Tech Bro/Sis.
To being able to work from home, land remote opportunities and even work multiple jobs at the same time.
One of the tech roles that has been on the rise are Data roles.
And even though the secret role is in that niche, it’s not one of the Mainstream ones such as Data Analyst, Data Scientist, Data Engineer etc.
The Secret Role
The birth of Microsoft Power BI was one of those things that changed.
Power BI is a Powerful Business Intelligence and Analytics tool launched by Microsoft in the year 2015.
And that has changed the game of Enterprise Data Analysis and Reporting for many organizations.
Before Power BI, there was Tableau.
But since Power BI, Microsoft have continued to eat big into the Market share and currently clear leader by Gartner Reports.
And today, there are hundreds of thousands of jobs for people skilled in the use of Power BI for developing reports and Dashboards for companies.
What more?
Learning Power BI does not require coding skills.
Neither does it take donkey months before you learn enough to start landing the roles.
I must also add, the fact that many people who already use tools like Office well will find it easy to get started with Power BI.
And I must warn that learning Power BI is not exactly a piece of cake.
It is honestly very easy to get started.
Getting Skilled in Power BI
Power BI can be learnt without any serious prerequisite skills asides the ability to use the computer and work with any computer application.
However, the more experience you have with apps like Excel or any other Data Tool or programming, the easier you may find it.
Over the years, I have trained participants with varying backgrounds including those with zero data related experience.
And several of them (though in the abroad) are now working on roles delivering Power BI solutions in their organizations.
As far as learning resources go, the link you need to bookmark on your browser is Microsoft Learn.
Because it has everything you need to learn about Power BI for free and will continue to be a reference in your Journey.
That being said, I had written some 4 to 5 years ago about Learning Power BI fast and you should check that out.
You should also check out Udemy if you are looking for self-paced courses that are very affordable.
Complementary Skills
Although, there are a lot of jobs where the actual job is 100% on Power BI.
Many of them apply different titles such as Power BI Developer or Power BI Analyst.
Some are just even advertised as Data Analyst or Data Visualization Roles.
Most vacancies posted always list SQL, SSRS and SSAS skills in their requirements and having them on your CV is usually a key to getting the calls.
Therefore, you should strive to have basic knowledge of SQL (Which also is not difficult to start) to get you through the processes.
Then, have some idea of SSRS and SSAS.
The best part is, once you know Power BI, it’s much easier to acquire SQL, SSRS and SSAS.
Especially, SSRS and SSAS because there is a lot of Power BI knowledge that is almost 100% transferrable to them.
The Journey of a thousand miles, begins with one step. Eat the frog now, Get Started with Power BI.
