Joe Grammar

🚀 Preparing for a Power BI interview? This might save you weeks of prep. I recently went through a resource that compiles 220+ Power BI interview questions with clear, practical answers—and it’s a goldmine for anyone working with data or aiming for a BI role. It covers everything recruiters and hiring managers actually ask about: ✔️ Power BI fundamentals (Desktop, Service, Gateway) ✔️ Data modeling concepts (star vs snowflake, relationships, cardinality) ✔️ DAX—from basics to advanced time intelligence ✔️ Performance optimization & large dataset handling ✔️ Real-world scenarios like refresh failures, DirectQuery, RLS, and incremental refresh What I really liked is that it’s not just theory—it focuses on how you’d explain your thinking in an interview, with scenario-based questions and sample solutions. If you’re: 🔹 Preparing for a Power BI / Data Analyst interview 🔹 Revising DAX and data modeling concepts 🔹 Looking to strengthen your practical BI knowledge This kind of structured revision can make a huge difference. 💡 Pro tip: Don’t just memorize answers—practice why you’d choose one approach over another. #PowerBI #DataAnalytics #BusinessIntelligence #DAX #DataCareers #InterviewPrep #MicrosoftPowerBI

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🌅 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀? If yes, this is for you. 👀 There’s a free local group called Houston Business Analysts, and it’s one of the best ways I’ve found to connect with other BAs in the Houston area. I first heard about the group from Terrence Chatmon and Michael Moser last year and started attending in May. Recently, a new LinkedIn page was created for the group, so some of the past meetup history isn’t visible there. And this made me want to share a bit about what the group has been doing. We meet in person on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at Improving. And in my opinion, these aren’t typical “sit and listen” presentations. They’re 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. 😎 Small group discussions where people share ideas, experiences, and questions about the practice of business analysis. As someone currently between roles, this group has been exactly what I needed: ✨ Face-to-face interaction ✨ Meeting other BAs in Houston ✨ Interesting conversations about how we actually do the work Here are some of the topics we’ve discussed since I started attending: (Shortening actual titles to better fit here) - Design Thinking - Lean Six Sigma - Effective User Stories - Maximizing BA & PM's Time ROI - Root Cause Analysis Workshop - Agile Best Practices - Effective Meetings in the Age of AI - Business Analysis Planning - Asking Difficult Questions If any of that sounds interesting, come check out a meetup and see what you think. 📅 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽: Wednesday, March 18 📍 Houston – Improving office 💬 Free to attend 👇I’ll drop the event link in the comments, along with links to some past meetup topics. If you're a 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗔 (𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝗔-𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀), we’d love to meet you.

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This post reminded me of a quote from Huey P. Newton: “If I define myself as the tip of my thumb, then I deny myself my hand, my arm, my body… I deny myself my totality.” That really resonates in today’s data job market. Data analyst roles are projected to grow 34% by 2034, but postings are down nearly 40% since 2020. The need hasn’t disappeared — companies are just pickier. They hire fewer people, but expect more from each one. The lesson? If you define yourself just by your title — just SQL, just dashboards — you limit your impact. The real value comes from: ✅ Asking the right questions ✅ Understanding stakeholders ✅ Turning data into decisions ✅ Connecting insights to outcomes Titles matter. Tools matter. But growth comes from embracing your totality. Your ability to solve real problems and make an impact — that’s what helps you stand out in a crowded space. #RVA #DataInsights #BlackHistoryMonth #DataInMotion

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Lately as I've transitioned into a new role I've been able to lean in to designing web application's instead of traditional BI dashboards (Looker, Power BI, Excel). I'm really beginning to see the value in this kind of approach. Short term this will likely give many organizations some initial growing pains (essentially another vector for developing technical debt) but long term I think we are going to enter a new age of Analytics where we aren't so limited by the capabilities of some large platform and are instead only limited by the skillset of the analytics teams. #data #analytics

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📍 Texas is Thriving — And the Data Speaks for Itself Recent market updates reveal strong momentum in Texas real estate, offering promising opportunities for land investors: ✅ Dallas–Fort Worth has been named the top U.S. market for real estate investment in 2025 by PwC and ULI. With robust job growth and continued population expansion, DFW remains a premier destination for long-term value creation. ✅ Houston’s residential market is showing strong recovery, with four consecutive months of sales growth and a 16% year-over-year increase in luxury home purchases. Improved consumer confidence and lower interest rates are fueling renewed demand. ✅ Across the state, Texas continues to outperform national economic trends — attracting businesses, expanding infrastructure, and driving demand for entitled land. - What does this mean for investors? There is a narrowing window of opportunity to acquire high-potential land in regions experiencing rapid appreciation. At MA Development, we provide full-cycle support — from due diligence and entitlement to strategy and exit planning — so you can invest with clarity and confidence. 📩 Message us “TEXAS” to learn more about our active investment opportunities. #TexasRealEstate #LandInvestment #StrategicGrowth #MADevelopment #TexasEconomy #LongTermWealth #DFWMarket #HoustonRealEstate #SmartInvesting #PrivateEquity #BuildWithConfidence

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Ever wonder why some people with "perfect" resumes still struggle to land that Data Analyst role? Most candidates walk in with a long list of degrees, every certification under the sun, and a massive toolkit of software. But then comes the "make or break" question: "Tell me about a project where your analysis actually helped someone make a decision." ​It sounds simple, right? Yet, so many talented people freeze. It’s not because they don't know the tech. it's because they have spent all their time learning tools instead of learning how to solve problems. ​ ​If you’re working hard to break into Data Analytics right now, here’s a friendly tip: Stop worrying so much about collecting more certificates. Instead, start building projects that solve real-world puzzles. When you can show a manager that your work didn't just end with a chart, but actually helped a business move forward, you’ll stand out from the crowd every single time. #DataAnalytics #Data

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**Headline: The Data Professional’s Guide to Christmas 🎄📊** Whether you are a Data Engineer, Analyst, or Architect, today is the one day of the year where our "pipelines" actually involve chimneys and our "deliveries" are 100% physical. Here is how the holiday looks through an analytics lens: 🎅 1. The Ultimate Data Architecture If you think your tech stack is complex, imagine Santa’s North Pole infrastructure: *Edge Computing: Millions of "Elf-on-the-shelf" devices sending naughty/nice telemetry 24/7. *Route Optimisation: Solving the world’s largest Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) in under 24 hours. *Agentic AI: I’m convinced the reindeer moved to an autonomous navigation system this year. 🦌🤖 💻 2. The Production Log (SQL Health Check) For those who speak in code, here is the holiday status report: SELECT 'Merry Christmas' AS message, SUM(gratitude) AS mood_index, COUNT(cookies_eaten) AS load_test FROM life_production WHERE date = '2025-12-25' AND status = 'Festive'; Result: 0 errors, 100% Joy. ✅ 📈 3. Beyond the Metrics In our world, we might see a Christmas tree as a Funnel Chart with a 100% conversion rate at the top (the Star). ⭐ But today is about more than just the "Scatter Plot" of a busy year. It’s about focusing on the Outliers—those rare, beautiful, non-synthetic moments with family and friends that simply cannot be captured in a dashboard. My Holiday Wish for the Data Community: ✨ Filter out the noise. ✨ Normalise your rest. ✨ Scale your happiness. Merry Christmas to the hardest working "Data Sentinels" in the industry! 🥂✨ #MerryChristmas #DataEngineering #Analytics #SQL #DataVisualization #TechHoliday #AI2025 #Python #PowerBI #LookerStudio #DataAnalysis #BusinessAnalysis #Excel #MachineLearning

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Throughout my career, I have learned that the logic from "The Big 3" builds upon each other. Once you learn one, you can apply those learnings to the next. I typically recommend Excel as a starting point to understand the basics of coding at a granular level, especially since you can experiment and create outputs one cell at a time. Check out w3schools.com for an awesome, free learning experience!

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Get the latest insights into the Texas Commercial Real Estate (CRE) market for Summer 2025. In this update, we break down key market trends, investment opportunities, and economic factors influencing office, retail, industrial, and multifamily sectors across the state. Whether you’re an investor, developer, or industry professional, this market snapshot will help you make informed decisions in today’s evolving real estate environment. 📈 Topics Covered: Current CRE market performance in Texas Sector-specific trends: Office, Retail, Industrial, Multifamily Investment outlook for the second half of 2025 Key challenges and opportunities in the Texas market Stay informed and ahead of the market. Subscribe for more real estate market updates and investment insights.

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What if you could look at an entire city and instantly know which ZIP codes are built for growth… and which are built for cash flow? I recently completed an end-to-end Real Estate Market Analysis covering 39 ZIP codes in Austin from 2015 to 2025. This project started in Excel using Power Query, moved into SQL for deeper financial analysis, and finished with an interactive dashboard in Tableau. Here’s the full workflow: 🔹 Data Preparation (Excel + Power Query) - Unpivoted wide datasets into a structured tabular format - Cleaned and standardized fields - Prepared data for relational modeling 🔹 Data Transformation & Modeling (SQL) - Validated data consistency - Converted text-based dates into proper DATE format - Built analytical tables and views - Calculated multi-year growth percentages - Computed rental yield (ROI = Annual Rent / Home Value) 🔹 Investment Classification Model Using average growth and yield benchmarks, I categorized each ZIP code into: - Growth Markets - Cash Flow Markets - Prime Balanced Markets - Risky / Flat Markets 🔹 Visualization (Tableau Dashboard) - Interactive investment-type map - Growth vs. Yield comparison - Multi-year performance tracking - Dynamic filtering by ZIP code The goal was simple: Turn raw housing data into structured, investment-focused insights that support smarter decisions. 🎥 In the video, I walk through the Tableau tabs and the final interactive dashboard. For all sharp minds in the space, what would you have done differently? I’d genuinely appreciate your feedback. #RealEstate #RealEstateAnalytics #HousingMarket #PropertyInvestment #RentalYield #MarketAnalysis

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Since joining @Serellium last summer, I've been heading up our team's data analytics portfolio to help make the federal contracting market more accessible, more entrepreneurial, more innovative. The world of federal contracting has been such a learning experience for me. The industry is incredibly convoluted but equally intriguing with how much opportunity there is.   The craziest thing I've learned about this market is how many of the same legacy companies are winning such a significant share of the market. Millions and billions in contract awards, over and over.   Most businesses find this market inaccessible. They don't know where to start, or how they fit in.   In reality, there is so much room for entry: • Many contracts are set aside for small businesses • Primes actively seek specialized local partners • Entry points exist well below the “mega-project” level   The biggest barrier hasn’t been the competition but rather the lack of clarity and confusion that comes with entering the federal contracting space.   This is one of the most recent projects I’ve been working on, where I led the data analysis of a 2026 Market Outlook to inform investors and operators of the federal construction contracting market in Texas. For this report, we collaborated with the lovely @Founder M&A team to best showcase the govt industry opportunity for those in construction and special trades in Texas: what it is, where it's going, and how companies can get their foot in the door.   https://lnkd.in/eh3Zwcnb

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