u/SouthernPolicy1798

I'm an analyst, and part of my role is to keep a bunch of reports constantly updated. The process was painfully manual, because almost no one here knows Power BI, Tableau, Power Query, or VBA. We have a data warehouse, but my manager still goes in every morning to export the data as a CSV, then does the usual routine of "make charts in Excel" for whatever visuals people request.

When I joined, I started building things in Power BI and Tableau, and honestly, because expectations were so low, everyone treats me like I'm a magician. I've now finished most of the initial query work, so I can put in the new file, hit refresh, and the whole report updates itself. They think it takes me half the day, but in reality it's about 8 minutes if nothing weird breaks.

The annoying part is that our data warehouse still isn't directly connected to anything we use - don't ask - so someone still has to manually grab the raw export instead of it coming through some magical API connection. So now I'm debating whether to tell my manager: "Look, put the file here and hit refresh," so the reports can get done every day without me having to keep monitoring them myself, and I can move on to better work.

Or should I keep pretending this is still a manual process and not say that most of it is now automated? Honestly, I'd rather move up here than leave, so part of me feels like if I show them I can automate the boring stuff, it might get me better projects instead of endlessly refreshing reports.

I ended up in the emergency room for two days, which meant I had to cancel a very important job interview. I notified them only a few hours beforehand. The recruiter turned on me, saying that the company would immediately put me on a "do not contact" list and that he would never send me any other opportunities. He tried to pressure me strongly to attend the interview while I was still very ill, but I knew that would make my condition much worse, so I stood my ground. Honestly, there's not much I can change now, but I just needed to vent. This whole situation, without a doubt, was the worst job interview experience I've ever had.

]I plan to contact the company directly, as there was an external recruitment agent involved. I hope this works out.

I'm trying to figure out my next career move while I finish my studies, so I've been browsing a lot of finance and career-related subreddits for ideas.

In almost every thread, I see people very casually talking about salaries of $120k+. Sometimes it's $250k or even $350k, from people working jobs that sound made up, and often not things that need long years of study like medicine or engineering.

How are all these people making these numbers? I'm from Canada and I've never seen money come this 'easily'. Is this just an American thing where people suddenly find themselves wealthy? I mean, if they were all surgeons, I'd get it, but I see these numbers all the time in fields like tech, consulting, and even marketing. Seriously?

Look, I know I'm a reasonably intelligent person, and I had the opportunity to study something I'm passionate about, so I chose ecology and conservation. I'd be over the moon if my salary hit $50k when I graduate, and I'd feel successful if I reached $80k within 6 years.

I know that money isn't everything, but seeing these numbers all the time makes me start to doubt the path I've chosen for myself and feel like I'm so far behind.