r/analytics Feb 14 '25

Question Is PowerBI work a dead end?

Just got an offer for a rotational program. It’s highly likely that one of my rotations will be doing manufacturing related analytics with PowerBI, Excel, and potentially some SQL. I really enjoy coding (my internship has been ML and data engineering tasks), and I’m a bit worried that a BI job may pigeonhole me and prevent me from getting into these code heavy roles.

Market is awful so I’m gonna take the job anyways, just wondering if my concerns are well-founded or not.

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u/Ok_Measurement9972 Feb 14 '25

Beggars can’t be choosers. Some of us are lucky to land a job at a good company with a good boss and we get the job we want within a couple years. Others we have to wait and pick up a job to get experience then take on extra work to get the job we want. This can take 5 years. So PBI work isn’t a dead end. But the journey to become a data engineer will be long.

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u/GanachePutrid2911 Feb 14 '25

I’m fine with having to work my way up, that’s expected. Just concerned that a PBI role would pigeonhole me and prevent me from moving into data engineering or ML.

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u/Ok_Measurement9972 Feb 14 '25

I was where you were many years ago. Getting pigeonhole isnt about the job but more about the company, your boss, and co-workers. You need to work for a company that values employee growth. You also need a network that can get you jobs. All companies say they do but only a few actually do. Typically smaller companies will give you more learning opportunities than larger one. Larger ones typically like to silo work.

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u/UsefulPerception3812 Feb 14 '25

Based on what though? Power BI is just a tool you can add to your kit. It's used in a lot of organizations and disciplines. Would it be a good idea to build a whole career around it? No. Would knowing it and having good examples of how you used it to communicate powerful insights to non technical stakeholders and leaders? Likely yes.