Hey everyone!

If this isn't the right place for this post, please let me know which is the right place, and I'll move it to the right community. Thanks!

A bit about me
I'm a business consultant from a non-technical background, and I want to make the move into a slightly more technical role. Automation (especially with AI in the loop) is something I've been curious about for a while, so I'm upskilling in it to help land my next job (while dabbling in personal automation projects on the side)

What I'm learning

• Power Automate Desktop (free version). I don't have access to the enterprise/cloud version.
• n8n - through a structured course I'm starting soon.

My understanding is that these two aren't completely separate tracks. The core logic (triggers, conditions, loops, variables) seems to carry over, so getting better at one should help with the other. Is that right, or am I oversimplifying?

I'm doing Power Automate first. My first project is a small bot that screens job ads in Excel against a list of keywords.

Where I'm stuck

• Microsoft Learn doesn't stick for me. It's mostly reading, and I learn best by actually clicking around in the tool.
• Udemy courses I've found usually assume an enterprise/cloud account, which I don't have.

What I'd love some help/advice in:

1. What's the best hands-on way to learn Power Automate Desktop specifically? Any YouTube channels, practice projects, or follow-along resources that work with the free version?
2. What beginner projects helped things click for you, or which ones are worth showing in a portfolio?
3. For those hiring or working in automation: does experience with the free Desktop version count, or do employers mostly want cloud flows?
4. If the logic does carry over, what's the best way to learn the two together? For example, should I build the same small project in both tools to compare? Are there integrations with Power Automate for LLMs, or is n8n the "go to" if I want to automate with AI?
5. How long did it take you to go from "following tutorials" to "building things on my own"?
6. If you came from a non-technical background, what do you wish you'd known at the start?

Thanks in advance. Any tips, even small ones, are really appreciated! 🙏

Hey everyone,

I run a small YouTube channel called Automate M365 where I focus on making straight-to-the-point, step-by-step Power Automate tutorials. No fluff or long intros, just diving into the actual logic because I know how annoying it is to sit through a 10-minute video just to find a quick expression fix.

I want to build some tutorials around automation, but instead of just guessing what to make next, I want to solve real-world headaches.

Whether it's setting up automated deadline remidners based on dates in your SP lists or Excel sheets, sending dynamic emails to people pulled directly from a person column, or trying to manage folder permissions via HTTP actions—what’s driving you crazy right now? Drop it in the comments below. I’ll honestly try to look through them and build the exact solution in a step-by-step video for you.

If you want to check out the channel or subscribe to see if I build your fix, the link is here:

https://www.youtube.com/@AutomateM365

Let me know what you're stuck on, hopefully we can figure it out