Ivan Alekseev
I discovered Surfalytics and quickly became hooked. Right from the start, one of the most valuable takeaways was understanding the role of analytics and data as a whole. Plus, some of the webinars were incredibly engaging and impactful!
A while later, I landed my first job as a systems analyst working on product development in retail, earning an average starting salary. After seven months of experience, self-learning during evenings and free time (~10 hours per week on average), I received an offer with a salary approximately 2.5 times higher than my initial one.
One of the key factors in my growth was Anatoly's excellent SQL course. It helped me refine the skills I already had.
Interestingly, I wasn’t actively looking to change jobs at the time, but networking opened up an opportunity. With skills in SQL and Tableau/Power BI, finding a job can be faster than Thanos snapping his fingers. If you add Python to the mix, opportunities will come looking for you!
To anyone starting out: stay determined and never give up. Success will follow.
Mark Waechter
Huge thanks to Surfalytics team! Though I got my first rejection as a Data Engineer today, I’m optimistic—it feels like the start of my journey after making it through two interview stages.
Surfalytics provides structured, unique insights across technologies. Before this, I worked as an SEO specialist, marketing analyst, and project manager. While I used tools like BigQuery, I lacked proper data management practices. In late 2020, I decided to pursue a Data Engineer role for better pay and opportunities, as marketing analysts rarely relocate.
I now work as an Analytics Engineer, managing everything from ELT scripts in Python to Power BI and dbt. The course helped me connect the dots, turning scattered knowledge into a clear picture. I’m currently a junior-to-mid-level professional but feel ready to grow further with more real-world experience and interview prep.
Sasha Messner
I worked in internet marketing for a long time, but eventually, I realized it was time for a change. Data analytics had always intrigued me.
I stumbled upon this course and found it invaluable. It clarified the roles in the field, the skills needed, and helped me choose my direction. I started with web analytics, closely related to my previous field, while also learning Python, SQL, Tableau, and ETL processes (the hardest part!). These skills gave me an edge during interviews—employers were more interested in them than in tools like Google Analytics or GTM.
The profession has evolved significantly since my marketing days, with an expanded scope, which is great.
Advice:
Create a GitHub and upload everything—course practices, SQL and Python exercises, even with errors. Include the link in your resume.
Ask detailed questions during interviews. Many employers either don’t know exactly what they need or want someone who can do everything (web analytics, predictive modelling, ETL) for a low salary—beware of such disorganized companies.
I’d like to thank Dmitry for the course! It played a huge role in helping me land an offer as an ETL developer at a major bank. My main stack now includes Informatica, Oracle, Python, and Power BI. Before I had 6 months of experience in tech support.
As Dmitry advised, I went through about 15 interviews, which helped me understand the typical questions. Some interviews were strange, like writing an API in Python or answering advanced questions on decorators, iterators, *args vs **kwargs, Oracle (partitioning, indexes, PL/SQL), or even network theory. Sometimes, I was asked to prepare test datasets from 10-15 tables or explain basic SQL concepts like "how WHERE works." 😃
Despite my background as a physical education teacher, interviewers were impressed that I understood DWH architecture and could articulate the value of Data Engineers and Analysts to a company—thanks to the course!
I also delved deeper into certain topics like Talend, Luigi, Docker, and Linux. While I still have gaps in BI and statistics, I’m working to fill them. A special thanks to Anatoly for the SQL course—the explanation of window functions was the best I’ve seen!
I transitioned from sales to data analytics and recently received a Data Engineer offer from X5 while continuing my studies. The journey took 9-12 months: the first few were slow and filled with doubt, but the last 5 months were intense and focused. In hindsight, I realize the process could’ve been shortened to 6 months.
I studied data analytics and enhanced my knowledge with Surfalytics Data Engineering courses.
Surfalytics free YouTube content is an amazing resource to understand the roles of analysts, data scientists, and engineers. The structured program starts with the basics, unlike other platforms that dive straight into Python and SQL without business context. The first three modules helped me clarify my direction.
Completing assignments was crucial—they taught me the tools hands-on. For example, I turned Excel tables into beautiful interactive dashboards.
The webinars were a highlight: engaging speakers explained complex topics in simple terms, and with fewer participants, I could ask all my questions. Each webinar left me ready to tackle new tools and tasks.
I sacrificed financial and personal comforts for a year to focus on learning. The hardest part was overcoming self-doubt and staying consistent. After four months, I saw progress and felt more confident.
Landing my first role was tough—I sent 300 applications, completed 10 tasks, and received 1 offer. Competition was fierce, and my lack of experience was a barrier.
After 1.5 years, I now earn more than I did with 5 years of experience in sales. I have a clear vision of my career path and potential future income.
Maria Odintsova
Surfalytics course gave me the technical skills I needed to work as a Data Engineer in the European market. I previously worked as a systems analyst on financial projects but lacked hands-on experience with modern ETL tools.
After moving to Finland, I realized that working as a BI analyst required fluency in the local language, which could take years to master, while developers didn’t face this barrier. Surfalytics course helped me quickly (within months) improve my skills in ETL tools and cloud technologies from Western vendors.
Every company I’ve encountered here has already completed cloud migration. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to master modern tools and work on projects with European companies. Course curriculum is well-structured and effective.
I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude and share my excitement. I’ve received an offer for the position of Junior Analytics Engineer and I can hardly believe it. For me, this is the best possible start, something I couldn’t have even imagined! I had been seeking a Data Analyst position here in Canada, and let me tell you, job hunting here felt like a nightmare at times. The entire process took six months, during which I received four offers—three of which didn’t quite align with my goals, in another field, so I had to turn them down each time. That was incredibly challenging, especially being in a new country and feeling as though I couldn’t find the job I really wanted. And yet, I wasn’t willing to settle for something I didn’t want.
Many people simply shrugged and even suggested that if I wasn’t prepared to take any opportunity, then North America might not be the place for me. But thanks to Dmitry , I found exactly what I was looking for. He always told me it was all about mindset, and now I completely agree. No matter who you are, if you work hard, keep learning, and surround yourself with people who encourage you to aim higher, you’ll make it.
I also want to extend my gratitude to Nikita and Tsebek for their help and support.
Before 2022, I spent a decade working for one of the top three banks in Russia. My responsibilities spanned data warehousing (Teradata, Oracle, MS SQL), ETL processes, business intelligence, analytics, reporting, and insights generation. For the last three years, I led a team of three departments with around 50 team members. I hadn’t coded since 2017, spending most of my time in countless meetings.
I arrived in Vancouver in mid-March 2022 and immediately started applying for Data Engineering and Data Analytics roles. I followed a simple formula: 10 applications to get 1 interview, and 10 interviews to land an offer. But after my first interview, it became clear that my biggest gap was hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure). Even though I had listed cloud skills on my resume, I struggled in technical interviews.
I tried various courses—some from AWS and Microsoft, others on Coursera and Udemy—but none of them seemed right. They were either too superficial and lacked practical elements or were too complex and time-consuming. Then, I came across the Surfalytics course, Introduction to Data Engineering and Analytics. It was exactly what I needed: a balanced mix of theory and hands-on practice. After two weeks of dedicated effort, I gained a solid understanding of cloud technology, data solution architecture, and a clear sense of where to dig deeper if needed.
The result? By May 1st 2022, I had secured my first full-time remote position. I continue to interview and grow my skills. Huge thanks to the creators of Surfalytics — I couldn’t have done it without their support!
I genuinely love sharing cool, useful and most importantly free educational stuff. Best thing is, you can totally master most of the things without spending a dime. I know what it’s like not being able to afford a course or a bootcamp.
Today it's SurfalyticsTV by Dmitry Anoshin. It's honestly baffling to me why it only has 1k subs given the quality and quantity of the content.
And it will only get better. I would highly recommend checking it all out, the mock interviews, the first two modules of the free course, and the shorts.
When I moved to Canada, I initially worked in marketing at an EdTech company while learning English. After a year, I decided to leave that job to focus entirely on transitioning into data analytics within a Canadian IT company. It was a challenging time with savings slowly depleting and job opportunities scarce due to market layoffs.
The bright spot was Surfalytics. It’s an amazing community of positive, driven people. They say you should aim to be in a room where you feel like the least knowledgeable one, and that’s exactly how I felt during our analyst and engineer meetups. It was a great experience, no sarcasm.
Surfalytics helped me build connections, get strong references, and improve my resume and skills. Having a supportive network, where I could always turn for advice, feedback, or training, was invaluable. Even when I faced technical issues that seemed unique to my setup, the community support kept me motivated and focused. Being part of this community made a significant difference in my job search journey.
Anna Akimova
When I started the SQL for Beginners course on Surfalytics, I already had some SQL experience. I wanted to use window functions and CTEs, but our MySQL version didn’t support them, and no one was upgrading it just for my analytics needs. I also wanted to expand my knowledge beyond DML and learn to write DDL queries. My mentor from Yandex Practicum recommended the SQL for Beginners course on Surfalytics, which had great reviews.
I went through the course thoroughly. Big thanks to Anatoly for such a structured and complete SQL course, with a strong focus on practical exercises, all clearly explained! Beyond DML and DDL operations, the course covered CTEs, window functions, and even dived "under the hood" of databases, discussing query plans, table joins, and performance.
Funny story: in a technical interview for a new job, I had to use window functions for the first time based solely on what I’d learned from Anatoly's course—and I nailed it! Now, I’ve started the Data Engineering course. I had other courses and books planned, but I made this a priority because I wanted a comprehensive view of the field—and that’s exactly what it’s providing.
Ekaterina
I was a telecom engineer and worked in that field before taking a break for maternity leave. I didn’t want to return to my previous job—I’d always dreamed of becoming an analyst but had no relevant experience or education. While on leave, I started the Surfalytics course. Although the first three modules were challenging and required extra research, I kept going, applied for jobs, and got some test assignments.
Finally, I landed a junior analyst role at a financial reporting company! My starting salary was modest, but over time I’ve been promoted and even moved into a bank position. Thanks to Dmitry for such a wonderful and accessible course!
Upon graduating, I joined a U.S. company as a BI Analyst. In December 2023 I had to leave my company when my work permit (CPT) expired. I planned to return in January with a new permit, but the company declared bankruptcy and froze hiring. I was unemployed and felt lost.
Finding the Surfalytics community was a game-changer. I felt a sense of community with like-minded professionals, and the high-quality, free resources helped me build and organize my skills. Even though I didn’t fully leverage the community at first, I later realized the vast potential it offered.
In 2024, I reconnected with Surfalytics when Dmitry launched its English-speaking branch with a minimal subscription fee for Discord access. Here, I found mock interviews, live projects, and theme-based channels that were invaluable for honing my skills. Practicing SQL interviews, for example, helped me recognize and work on handling stress during live coding tasks.
The weekly updates and job-search progress shared by other members kept me motivated and focused. And through the Just Enough GitHub course, I solidified my Git and GitHub knowledge, with asynchronous pet projects helping me retain what I’d learned.
In Surfalytics, any question finds an answer, and the support you receive fosters both personal and professional growth. I’m grateful to Dmitry and the community for helping me advance my career in ways I hadn't imagined!
Maxim G.
It's been almost a month since I started my new job, and I’m really enjoying it. The role involves data processing and storage, which is exactly what I wanted. The salary is great too! But it wasn’t easy—I had to learn a lot before and even more now on the job.
When I joined Surfalytics I barely knew anything about SQL beyond a basic SELECT query. Terms like data warehouse and Kimball were completely foreign to me. But thanks to your clear explanations, I finally understood the big picture—how everything works together in data teams.
Looking back, here’s some advice I’d give to anyone starting out:
1. Decide early whether you want to focus on BI, data engineering, analytics, or data science, and stick with it.
2. Start applying for jobs as soon as possible. You’ll quickly identify gaps in your knowledge and know where to focus your learning.
3. Repeat what you learn, or you’ll forget it! I took SQL courses three times in less than a year because I didn’t use it enough at my old job. It only stuck when I started building my own projects.
4. Create a GitHub repository or Tableau Public portfolio for your projects. This not only helps reinforce your learning but also gives you something to show during interviews and can be useful in your future job.
Thanks again, and good luck to everyone in the community—don’t give up!
Anton Ivanov
In June 2020, I discovered Surfalytics, and it became a game-changer for me. Early on, I realized the importance of data analytics, and some webinars were incredibly useful. After some time, I landed a job as a systems analyst in retail product development, earning an average starting salary.
With 7 months of experience and self-study (~10 hours a week), I managed to secure a new offer with a salary about 2.5 times higher. Surfalytics SQL course, one of the best out there, helped refine my skills. Networking played a big role too—I wasn’t even planning to change jobs, but the opportunity found me!
For anyone starting out, with SQL, Tableau, or PowerBI, you can land a job quickly. Add Python to that, and jobs will come to you! Never give up, and good luck to everyone!
Alex L.
After relocating to Canada, I decided to change careers from risk analytics after 10 years in the field. I applied to 220 data analyst jobs, went through 16 interviews, but kept getting rejections. I even tried returning to risk analytics, but with limited success.
I then set my sights on data engineering, even though it felt like a huge leap. With the support of the data community—especially Dmitry, who guided me on what tools to learn and how to improve my resume—I began to feel more confident. After facing initial rejections, I learned to refine my approach and focus on the key problems interviewers wanted to solve.
Within three months, I applied to 45 jobs, attended 8 interviews, and finally landed an offer. My experience taught me that job searching is a marathon—persistence and support from the right people make all the difference.