About a month ago I released the Tableau Talent Finder out to the #datafam. This Tableau Public dashboard + Google Form/Sheet combo was meant to help those in the community who had recently lost their jobs due to the financial impact of COVID-19.
I was blown away at the response from the Tableau community as the dashboard has received over 2000 views and had over 70 individuals fill out the Google form. While I am hopeful that this dashboard has helped a few folks, I'd like to take it a step further!
Earlier this week I reached out to folks who had filled out the Google form to ask if they'd like to be featured in a highlight post.
I asked those interested in participating to answer the following:
1. Reason You Started Using Tableau
2. URL To A Tableau Public Viz That Showcases You Best (Not A Resume)
3. Most Interesting Tableau Related Project You've Worked On
4/5. And any two questions from here.
I had a few people immediately respond and am excited to share this first highlight post with all of you!
Cherie Bardsley
Cherie works in the Retail & Consumer Goods industry and has 5 years of experience with Tableau. If Cherie seems like a great fit for a role at your company feel free to reach out at cherie.bardsley@gmail.com.
Reason you started using Tableau
About five years ago while working as a Business Analyst at a major nonprofit in Denver, Colorado, I discovered the company had Tableau licenses, but was not using the product--they were using SSIS and SSRS, and Excel for the majority of their analysis and reporting. A colleague of mine, who was the BI analyst at the time, and I decided to take an online course to learn about more about Tableau. After the first class, I fell in love with the product and have been growing my Tableau skills and experience ever since.
URL to a Tableau Public viz that showcases you best
I feel that this viz that I recently created as part of the #MakeoverMonday social data project for Viz5/Operation Fistula is one of my best: https://public.tableau.com/profile/cherie.bardsley5886#!/vizhome/ObstetricFistulainMadagascar_15887193748100/ObstetricFistulainMadagascar. It was singled out as one of the favorite vizzes of the week by the leaders of #MakeoverMonday and Operation Fistula. It also caught the attention of Tableau Zen Master Sarah Bartlett who selected me as one of her #TableauFF for the week of 5/15/2020. Recognition from Sarah was a HUGE honor as she is someone in the Tableau community that I respect and admire. Her tweet announcing me as one of her #TableauFF's started a huge amount of interest in my work from others in the community. I can't thank Sarah enough for her support!
Most interesting Tableau-related project you've worked on
Wow! It's hard to pick just one, but here goes! In my most recent job, I built around 20 dashboards for a retailer in the Denver area. The project was interesting as I was unfamiliar with this particular retailer's products and had to learn as much as I possibly could about their business in the span of only about 4 weeks! It was also challenging as it involved huge amounts of transaction data (hundreds of millions of rows), working with a third-party Tableau partner who could host the vizzes as the company did not have its own Tableau Server, managing complex extracts of the company's data on the third-party Tableau Server, and working with a customer who had very little knowledge of Tableau to define the requirements. Sadly, the project came to an abrupt end with the shutdowns due to COVID-19, but up until then, the customer was really loving what we had built for them.
What would you choose as the 8th wonder of the world?
This question is so easy for me. My answer is: Yellowstone. I was incredibly fortunate to work for the park's nonprofit partner for 9 years. It is one of the most magnificent places on the planet!
What is the most spontaneous thing you have ever done?
Those who know me know that I am an avid river runner. I have rafted rivers most of my life all over the western United States, including 10 expeditions on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Several years ago, my dad, who lived near the Colorado River in western Colorado, called me on a Saturday in early June to tell me the river was running at near-record levels and if I ever wanted to run Cataract Canyon at high water, now was the time as "surf's up!" I didn't even think about it. I just immediately booked two passengers for the next raft bound for Cataract and arranged for time off from my job. We then packed up and jumped in the car and drove nearly straight through from northern California to Moab, Utah. When we crossed the Green River at Green River, Utah, I was driving so I asked my husband what the river looked like. All he said was, "Oh my god, we are gonna die!" It wasn't until we crossed the Colorado River in Moab, Utah, that I saw how high the river there was. The next words out of my mouth were also, "Oh my god, we are gonna die!" Knowing that the Green and Colorado join just before you enter Cataract Canyon, I knew the combined flow from these two flooding rivers would be like nothing I had ever seen. Well, it was the biggest whitewater I have ever experienced, and we survived and had a great time. To this day, I still can't believe that we just dropped everything we were doing and took off, but I'm so glad we did. It was the adventure of a lifetime that I will never, ever forget.
Eman Alvani
Eman works in the Financial Services industry and has 5 years of experience with Tableau to go along with a Tableau Desktop certification. If Eman seems like a great fit for a role at your company feel free to reach out at ealvani@gmail.com.
Reason You Started Using Tableau
Company transitioned to Tableau for reporting back in 2016.
URL To A Tableau Public Viz That Showcases You Best (Not A Resume)
https://public.tableau.com/profile/eman.alvani#!/vizhome/Top25AllTimeGrossingChristmasMovies/DieHard
Most Interesting Tableau Related Project You've Worked On
100 Top Hospitals for IBM
Name three famous people, living or dead, you would invite to a dinner party
Carrie Underwood, Matt Dillon, and Diane Lane
What terrible movie do you think they should remake so they can get it right?
Christine. I think they can make it scarier and maybe get a cast of more believable actors.
Dhruv Popat
Dhruv works in the Retail & Consumer Goods industry and has 1 year of experience with Tableau. If Dhruv seems like a great fit for a role at your company feel free to reach out at dhruvpopatren@gmail.com.
Reason You Started Using Tableau
At one of my analytics internships I had the option to choose between a Data Science project and a Business Intelligence Project. I felt Tableau allowed me to express the creativity that had always been curbed by my electronics engineering curriculum in the past. I started learning SQL and Tableau at the same time but I was always more inclined towards Tableau and always will be.
URL To A Tableau Public Viz That Showcases You Best (Not A Resume)
Most Interesting Tableau Related Project You've Worked On
The above project was the most challenging project. It was not the magnitude of the data and the time it took me to assemble it , but also the need to capture the emotions of a million people on one dashboard. My mentor and the leader of the NOVA TUG group suggested I work on it.
Whats one fact about the universe that blows your mind?
The fact that it might not be the only one out there :)
If there was a day in your honour what would people do to celebrate it?
Learn Tableau , Play Soccer , Eat Indian
In no particular order.
Shane Fife
Shane works in the Public Sector industry and has 3 years of experience with Tableau to go along with a Tableau Desktop certification. If Shane seems like a great fit for a role at your company feel free to reach out at shane.fife15@gmail.com.
Reason You Started Using Tableau
It was introduced to me by the residential statistician at my alma mater
URL To A Tableau Public Viz That Showcases You Best (Not A Resume)
Most Interesting Tableau Related Project You've Worked On
The college I work at, we discovered two important dips regarding retention rates (during winter break, and a month before next academic year. This dashboard helped us plan for the next academic year and we improved our retention rate from the lowest it's been in over a decade to the highest its been in over a decade.
What’s your opinion on self-driving cars becoming a thing during your lifetime?
It will happen in my lifetime considering we went from horse carriages to the moon in the span of a 100 years, we can have self-driving cars very soon.
What’s something you do differently than other people?
I'm a prolific dreamer. I've had over 40 dreams recorded since I started recording. Average word count is 255, with the largest dream over 800 words (2 pages single spaced). They've been very helpful in the insights to my life and life in general.
That wraps up the first highlight post of some of the amazing talent found on the Tableau Talent Finder. Please feel free to reach out to any of these individuals if you know of a potential opportunity that might be a great fit!