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How do you advance your skill set?

LeahK
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

GOT THOUGHTS.png

Welcome to this week's Thursday Thought!  With the introduction of Live Training on the community, I figured it was only fitting to follow a complimentary theme for today’s question.  As always, please feel free to include as much or as little information as you like.  All “thoughts” are welcome & encouraged!

 

Question:

How do you approach expanding your Alteryx skill-set? What steps have you taken to advance your knowledge of Alteryx?

9 REPLIES 9
MarqueeCrew
20 - Arcturus
20 - Arcturus

Marquee Crew Logo.png

How did I (do you) advance your skill set?

 How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice.

When I first started using Alteryx, there was no community.  The only live training was via a classroom.  I was thrilled to go to what is now known as Inspire (I’m still thrilled to go to Inspire) to get training, soak up knowledge, and to get energized.  But for me, there is no better training than having a responsibility combined with a looming deadline.

 Ask a peer:

For me, community was asking Todd for his advice.  If that method failed, I would call Alteryx and speak to Carlos or Maureen.  I am happy to be able to provide mentorship through the community.  Necessity is the mother of invention and some of my inventions were truly cringe worthy.  If the answer is difficult to get to, looks visually appalling  or is difficult to communicate to your peer, then you probably have room to advance your skills.

 Make time:

What are you doing with all the time that Alteryx is saving you each day?  Do you read any Alteryx blogs?  Are you looking to see what training is recorded (or scheduled) from Alteryx?  Have you taken one of the weekly challenges?  I make time for advancing my skill set because it is important to me.  I’ve also learned so much from helping in the community.  I often answer into posts having figured out the solution via trial and error.

 Shameless self-promotion:

Alteryx brings your employer value.  Alteryx alone though isn’t the value.  It enables you to create value and requires investment of your time.  Share your achievements and encourage others with their successes.  For me, Alteryx makes work fun.  The community provides gamification as stars are awarded and badges are earned.  The results of my work include recognition as an ACE and satisfaction of my clients as I help to enable them to grow their businesses.

 

If you’re reading this, you’re already ahead of the game.  Check out the Live Training link and take a course outside of your comfort zone.  Check out the agenda for inspire and get your boss on-board with training at inspire.  Set a goal and let someone know about it.  You need to be held accountable.

 

Cheers,

Mark

Alteryx ACE & Top Community Contributor

Chaos reigns within. Repent, reflect and restart. Order shall return.
Please Subscribe to my youTube channel.
LauraCK
6 - Meteoroid

 

Without a doubt the Alteryx training resources had been an amazing plattaform just to expand my knowledge of what is even possible with Alteryx. I strongly recommend to all beginners to check and absorb as much as possible. And also the power of the community answering questions and posting questions... 

RIght now I am also looking forward for our Alteryx User Group, I am sure it will help a lot too.

AndyMoncla
10 - Fireball

I use the community and I ask for help.  I also go back to older workflows and critique them.  I usually can make improvements.  Others can make improvements to my work, too.

LeahK
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

@MarqueeCrew, @LauraCK, @AndyMoncla -- Thank you for sharing!  There are certainly a lot of great resources on the community that help our users expand their skill-set.

 

I've found the Tool Mastery knowledge base articles particularly useful, especially if I want to understand how and why a specific tool was used.

As an example, If I come across a solution to a problem with an attached workflow, I'll look up corresponding Tool Mastery articles, so that I actually understand how each piece fits together.

 

@LauraCK, I am glad you mentioned User Groups in your reply. Joining a local User Group is a great way to meet/network with peers, and share best practices :)

MarqueeCrew
20 - Arcturus
20 - Arcturus

@AndyMoncla is modest. He's the spatial guru that I go to for help.  

Alteryx ACE & Top Community Contributor

Chaos reigns within. Repent, reflect and restart. Order shall return.
Please Subscribe to my youTube channel.
AndyMoncla
10 - Fireball

Mark, thanks for the love - just in time for Valentines Day!  Love the hearts.

 

Everyone else, we all help each other.  I help Mark and Mark helps me. We all seem to love solving puzzles, so reach out.  Ask the Community.  As a specific person.  Ask Alteryx.

 

In the early days of Alteryx, Ned Harding said that if you couldn't figure something out in 10 minutes "Ask."  I'm a little more stubborn and prideful, so it is probably more like 10 hours or 10 days, but I do ask.  Ned's advice has stuck with me.  Let it stick with you, too.  Ask.

papalow
8 - Asteroid

I second your "Ask a peer" suggestion.  Peers or mentors are invaluable.  Today, a few minutes of input from another user helped me solve two problems I have worked on for several hours. 

papalow
8 - Asteroid

LauraCK,

The community is really great about answering questions.  I have also found the community to be tolerant of new users like me who haven't yet mastered the language of Alteryx.  My background is finance -- not IT or data science -- so my Alteryx language skills are still in their infancy. 

 

To new users, set aside your fear and ask questions. 

ZacharyM
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

To me, the single biggest asset for learning the tool (way back when) was the Weekly Challenge. Do the challenge, post your solution, but here's the key: Also read other people's solutions. The single biggest thing to realize about Alteryx is that there is almost always more than one way of getting to a solution - what separates the beginners from the advanced users is being able to identify which one of the multiple ways suits each particular situation. The Weekly Challenges and how vastly different people's solutions can be really helps drive home this concept.

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