My first post!

Hello all! My name is Annie Nelson. There is a good chance if you are reading this that you found me on Tik Tok. I never thought I would be making my own website, or writing a blog, but here I am! Let me explain what has brought me here.

In January of 2022, I was sitting at the tail end of my graduate education (in the health profession) and feeling like I had been forced to memorize things and write papers for so long, that I had lost sight of my love for learning. I kept hearing buzzings about how the tech industry is "so hot right now". I was curious- it seemed to me like if I could learn a tech profession, I could potentially do it as a "side hustle" while I finish out the period of my life where I'm still paying to work (internships, basically). After some research and realizing my pattern loving brain could be a great fit for working with data, I decided to learn analytics for fun. I had a lot of questions about what the process would like like, and what opportunities might be available to me at the end. I have realized in the last few years how lucky I am to be someone who loves to learn, is always willing to try new things, and has had the opportunity to get a graduate degree and live the life that I do live. So, I decided to not only try out this experiment for myself- but to document it on TikTok so that other people who were curious like me but not in the position to give up any extra free time to pursue it, could see what my journey looked like.

To begin my journey, I signed up for the Data Analytics Career Certificate from Google, through Coursera. I also signed up on TikTok as @AnniesAnalytics and began documenting my journey. What happened next surprised everyone, including me! Before I had even reached the halfway point in the courses I was taking, I had become completely hooked. I had expected it to be a lot of working with spreadsheets and I would figure out this whole "database" thing as I went, but I did not think it would be very important. Boy, was I wrong! Not only is SQL (the "database thing") important- but it is also a lot of fun! I found myself digging into every query, and feeling a thrill of excitement every time I wrote one that was successfully executed.

While this was happening, I also gained quite the following on TikTok. When I post a photo on Instagram/Facebook, it gets maybe 10-50 likes, usually. So I did not think my videos would reach very many people- I just hoped they would reach the right people. Soon after I started the page, my videos started making the rounds. Within the first few weeks, some of my videos had been viewed 10 thousand, 30 thousand, and eventually over one hundred thousand times. By my third week on TikTok, I had over 6,000 followers. Amazingly, my posts were often filled with encouraging comments such as "I am rooting for you!" and "I am a data analyst, feel free to reach out with any questions". As well as comments such as "You break this down and make it so clear, it takes a lot of my anxiety away". I did start my TikTok to help and entertain people, but I did not think it would be a hit so quickly!

By the time I had reached the third module of the course, I had been given so many interesting suggestions from my followers that I could no longer keep up- I had to screenshot them to return to later. I decided to make a LinkedIn so that I could connect with everyone who was interested in following or supporting my journey- whether they were beginners like me, or already in the field. I did wonder to myself if it was risky to put myself out there like that, but I quickly realized I had made a great decision. The positive community which I have already built in my LinkedIn after only a few weeks has been inspiring to me.

Another additional project I took on, was sharing my notes publicly. I had shared a video advising people to take notes, with some screenshots of the ones I was taking. Immediately, I was getting comments asking if I could share my notes. I did not like the idea of sharing Google Drive files publicly, so I asked around about other options for note sharing. Many people already in tech pointed me to GitHub- and told me that their teams use it all the time to share things such as queries, so it would be a perfect place to share my notes and queries. So, off I went to set that up, and then build a LinkT.ree in order to share my notes with anyone who came across my profile.

The first few weeks of this journey were very busy! Now that I have gotten a little bit more settled into the process, and completed more of the course, I am starting to set my sights on what my next steps will be after I finish the course. This is what brought me here.

Early on in my journey, someone suggested I write blog posts with what I am learning- in order to show anyone in the future who may wonder about my "self-taught" approach what I was doing. Others suggested making my own website once I had a portfolio, so I could showcase my work. I decided this sounded like it could be all done in one place, my own website! After doing some research, I decided to make my website on Wix. Initally, I had been interested in SquareSpace- but they have a monthly fee for their websites! Part of my journey is that I am trying to do this all low cost, so that was out. Wix was listed as a great alternative to SquareSpace- and it has a "forever free" plan.

Today, Valentine's Day 2022, I finally got around to making my website. It isn't pretty, and it has no content in it yet- but it exists! As I move forwards, this will be a good space to continue to collect my thoughts and provide updates about my learning to all who care to read!