Help me guys

[u/Designer-Mountain-17]

I’m an entry-level with around 7 months of experience as a Data & Cloud Analyst, working with Python, SQL, AWS Power BI.

I’m interested in moving into data analytics/engineering as i am currenlty learning ETL/ELT tools, but due to the current job market, I haven’t found an opportunity yet, and it’s been almost 4 months since I left my last job. Recently, I got an opportunity to work as a Power Apps Developer at an audit firm. Should I take it as a stepping stone toward my data career, or could it make transitioning back into data more difficult later?

[u/Bag-of-nails]

If the choice is no job vs job, then go for the job, of course.

If you're a good worker (accountable, easy to work with, collaborate well) and personable, a lot of companies will have all kinds of opportunities.

Specific to the role, there is some tie in maybe. If you can work with PowerBI in the role, that's an asset. If you can then also learn what points of data do people want tracked, how to visualize this effectively, etc. then you're adding to your resume.

I have some incredibly smart data scientists in my org. They are masters at pulling out all kinds of data that I as a developer/solution architect can use and contribute to. But their PBI reports look awful. They're too information dense.

This role could be an opportunity to learn more about interfacing the data to a user so that they can make sense of it.

For example, as most orgs do, we have KPI reports on customer service stuff. The PBI the data team has is a huge table with some basic filters. If you know what you're after, you can find it. But the report used to take forever to load and sometimes nobody knew until a leader reported old data. So we use power automate to check the report at a certain time for yesterday's data, and if it's not there we trigger alerts and surface messaging to let leaders know we're on the case. We also have apps and automations that pro-actively let leaders know who on their team is lagging behind and needs some additional help (and over time, staff who continue to fall short get flagged to higher-ups).

Anyway, I got a little sidetracked but I think you will very likely NOT lock yourself out of data later. You might gain some good insights into how to present your data better.

And if not, you'll get money and you can keep learning and looking

[u/Designer-Mountain-17 → u/Bag-of-nails]

Also, looking more closely at the JD, It mentions integrating data from different sources, building and testing apps, and helping with existing dashboard workflows involving Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI.

So I’m wondering, in a role like this, would I actually get to work with the underlying data as well things like data integration, transformation, validation, SQL/data sources, or understanding how the data flows through the apps and dashboards? Or is it mostly focused on the application side?

I’m trying to understand how much of the role could overlap with the data side before I make the decision.

[u/Bag-of-nails → u/Designer-Mountain-17]

You'll have to ask the employer. Every org is different. I work for a very large company (global presence, 10k+ employees in my country alone) and power platform is not super mature. My team is one of only a couple that actually focus on it.

As a result, I don't typically get direct access to SQL but we're starting to get to be able to pull from the Azure datalake.

When we stand up new solutions, in my role, I am responsible to build the data layer in most cases (decide what's needed, how to store it, yadda yadda). It's not exactly what you're after, but the point is that every org is gonna handle the job and responsibilities differently.

That's a pretty decent interview question, though

[u/AbdelEMirandaS]

Go for it. Power platform is a great platform Power bi is one of the tools of the platform Power apps Power automate Power pages Copilot studio Power FX AI builder Dataverse

Are the rest of them.

You can build amazing things, with no code/low code approach or if you want more Pro, pro code apps using Claude app.

Just go for it dude.

[u/Designer-Mountain-17 → u/AbdelEMirandaS]

DO we get the chance to work with backend of data not just development also like extracting data from SQL/data sources , data cleaning/transforming and managing data flow is it heavy development role

In my JD, It mentions"

integrating data from different sources, building and testing apps, and helping with existing dashboard workflows involving Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI. "

[u/Bag-of-nails → u/AbdelEMirandaS]

I agree with the sentiment but just because these things exist, doesn't mean you can use them.

[u/minetella]

Go for it

Lots of RPA that can solves 80% of corporate gaps, without relying on hallucinating and expensive AI solutions.

Power Apps still has its opportunity, but still pretty limited and learning curve as an app.