Week 13-14: New study notes and landing a job in the age of AI recruiting
Plus, Python models, Jinja & macros and beginning of the Practice Project.
Part of the “Mastering dbt” series. Access to the full Study Guide. Let’s connect on LinkedIn!
The past 2 weeks have been hectic as I started a new job AND moved flats in the same week - I do not recommend it!
I did slow down with the posts a bit, but I have no intention of abandoning this project. With a full-time job, I’ll obviously need to adapt my schedule, but I aim to post at least once a week.
Speaking of the new job, in addition to the study notes from the past two weeks, I've included some valuable tips for landing a job in the age of AI recruiting below. Next week, I’ll share more about my new job itself.
Study notes added:
We finished the topics for Checkpoint 4 and began applying our learnings to the Practice Project. We covered a lot of topics in this Checkpoint, so the Practice posts will be broken into a few different parts.
A full list of the study notes is available in the study guide.
Here’s how to land a job in the age of AI recruiting
TL;DR: Work on side projects (like this dbt Study Guide) and talk about them on LinkedIn to increase your profile visibility.
I quit my data job in July 2024 to freelance and upskill. A year later, I felt the need to put my new skills into practice, so I began job hunting.
I started searching while in Europe, but the market was flat. After months of insisting, I made the tough call to return to Brazil—where I got hired in under a month.
However, even though the Brazilian tech market was booming, I never landed an interview for the dozens of jobs I proactively applied for. But every week, recruiters kept approaching me on LinkedIn. One of those messages led to the job I just started.
Sure, my 10-year on-and-off experience in data and a recent Big 4 contract helped to attract the recruiters. But it’s also worth noting that since launching my Study Guide, my LinkedIn visibility increased 9×.
The first big spike came when I announced the dbt Study Guide on 30th July (23.5k impressions). The next jump happened when I posted about speaking at the dbt Labs HQ in Dublin.
During this period, I gained 699 new connections—loads of aspiring data pros, but over half were senior professionals and people in IT services and consulting. LinkedIn won’t show how many recruiters follow me, but they definitely sit within these groups.
The bottom line:
AI has transformed job hunting. Candidates can now blast tailored CVs at scale, and HR teams use AI to filter the flood. Speaking to a human about your skills is harder than ever.
So, you need to let the recruiters come to you.
Show your work publicly. Share your learning, your projects, your Zoomcamps—whatever you’re building while you’re job searching.
Don’t stand still during your job search, applying mindlessly. Stand out and show yourself.
(Speaking of which, DataTalks Club has a new cohort for their Data Engineering zoomcamp coming up soon!)
Does this make sense to you? I would love to hear from you here or on LinkedIn!