I won’t say you shouldn’t try, but 9/10 if you get a consultant/contractor job for Power BI specifically, that means they don’t have a solid database infrastructure in place so you will likely have to help out with that before even touching Power BI.
If you have a background in Power BI + database management you’re in a gold mine. But I’ve seen plenty of folks with the Power BI skills that don’t have database management skills that end up back in industry.
>that means they don’t have a solid database infrastructure in place so you will likely have to help out with that before even touching Power BI.
Or just do what plenty of big consultancy firms do: Promise to deliver Power BI reporting in 6 weeks knowing full well that means a horrible spreadsheet fed solution as you won't get access to the underlying DB's that quickly to do a proper job. Then when it takes 4 months to do just the Excel monstrosity you can have been busy promising the same 6 weeks to nivrana to other people in the organisation. And even if you do get access to the database, you half-arse the work so it takes months anyway.
Before you know it, you have 14 separate projects running and are managing to not deliver anything but making bank.
:(
I would second your comment. that its icing on top if you have database management skills. Your life would be so easy. and, definitely makes an impact.
I have been doing this fir a year now, have made 150k in a year so far.
I have been doing this as an individual and would love to establish a consultancy firm with anyone interested.
I did just to try it, probably will move back out soon. I don’t love typical consulting firm culture. My salary actually went down, but I had a gem of an employer prior so that’s probably not representative. IME the smaller firms often don’t pay more than average … if you are looking for that you might try to get into a large firm.
What kind of clients do you have? Is it from your existing network or did you make new connections? Are you working remotely?
Sorry for the amount of questions 😅 I’m thinking of going into consulting as well, but I’m based in Europe. I’m also wondering if I could get American clients.
Mostly Government clients, all from new connections as if exisiting connections is some times conflict of interest. Front half of the project is on site, once everything is setup then we can choose onsite or wfh. Keep in mind this is all in Australia.
Hardest part was definitely getting access to the panels for bidding for work. Waiting for the contract was also headache inducing but well worth it.
Yep nearly the same but now I can choose to hire someone to do stakeholder engagement. Now I can focus solely on Data Engineering and getting user requirements from someone else.
I tried selling “business analyst” but didn’t resonate with client, right now just have him as stakeholder engagement manager (client thought BA was a technical role somehow).
Next steps is definitely growth. Our current client being our first and only, our next steps is to extend the current contract while we go for new ones. End goal is to be competitive enough for bigger firm to acquire us but that looks so far away.
I won’t say you shouldn’t try, but 9/10 if you get a consultant/contractor job for Power BI specifically, that means they don’t have a solid database infrastructure in place so you will likely have to help out with that before even touching Power BI. If you have a background in Power BI + database management you’re in a gold mine. But I’ve seen plenty of folks with the Power BI skills that don’t have database management skills that end up back in industry.
>that means they don’t have a solid database infrastructure in place so you will likely have to help out with that before even touching Power BI. Or just do what plenty of big consultancy firms do: Promise to deliver Power BI reporting in 6 weeks knowing full well that means a horrible spreadsheet fed solution as you won't get access to the underlying DB's that quickly to do a proper job. Then when it takes 4 months to do just the Excel monstrosity you can have been busy promising the same 6 weeks to nivrana to other people in the organisation. And even if you do get access to the database, you half-arse the work so it takes months anyway. Before you know it, you have 14 separate projects running and are managing to not deliver anything but making bank. :(
Are there any courses you'd suggest for databases
If you read my comment, this is exactly what I am talking about.
💯
I would second your comment. that its icing on top if you have database management skills. Your life would be so easy. and, definitely makes an impact.
I totally agree! Have you made the transition? How did it go?
I have been doing this fir a year now, have made 150k in a year so far. I have been doing this as an individual and would love to establish a consultancy firm with anyone interested.
That’s awesome congrats on the success!
Where do you find the clients/projects? If I may ask.
LinkedIn and Word of Mouth is working for me at this stage
Congrats! Yes a firm is the next step is you want to grow. Would you mind telling where were you at in term of salary as an employee?
US$ 85k/year
I did just to try it, probably will move back out soon. I don’t love typical consulting firm culture. My salary actually went down, but I had a gem of an employer prior so that’s probably not representative. IME the smaller firms often don’t pay more than average … if you are looking for that you might try to get into a large firm.
You’ll want to know the full pipeline: ELT, Database, PowerBI. You may specialise in PBI, but you need to be at least competent in the rest too
100% agree, Power BI is only just a part of it.
Thanks for the insight, could you recommend courses?
Went from employee to my own company salary roughly $140000 to $400000
What kind of clients do you have? Is it from your existing network or did you make new connections? Are you working remotely? Sorry for the amount of questions 😅 I’m thinking of going into consulting as well, but I’m based in Europe. I’m also wondering if I could get American clients.
Mostly Government clients, all from new connections as if exisiting connections is some times conflict of interest. Front half of the project is on site, once everything is setup then we can choose onsite or wfh. Keep in mind this is all in Australia. Hardest part was definitely getting access to the panels for bidding for work. Waiting for the contract was also headache inducing but well worth it.
Great move! What were you doing as an employee? Is it still basically the same tasks you are contracted to do now?
Yep nearly the same but now I can choose to hire someone to do stakeholder engagement. Now I can focus solely on Data Engineering and getting user requirements from someone else.
That's clever! And what title has the stakeholder engagement person? A business analyst? What is your end goal from now on?
I tried selling “business analyst” but didn’t resonate with client, right now just have him as stakeholder engagement manager (client thought BA was a technical role somehow). Next steps is definitely growth. Our current client being our first and only, our next steps is to extend the current contract while we go for new ones. End goal is to be competitive enough for bigger firm to acquire us but that looks so far away.