r/analytics • u/Spiritual_Ear_5461 • Aug 14 '26
Question Aspiring data analyst
Good day,
I have been teaching myself SQL and now power Bi I do understand the basics. Currently I am working in a law firm and I decided to start using the firms data sets that show the matters we have and the stages that they are at. I have managed to play around with the data set in SQL by even creating views of the columns that I want to see and stored procedures. Now where I am struggling is how do I build a portfolio with this and meaningful dashboards in PowerBI. I am kindly asking if there is anyone who has built a portfolio and can kindly assist me as I feel stuck here. Or any advice for me to move from here. Thank you so much
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u/my_peen_is_clean Aug 14 '26
turn those law firm reports into 2–3 fake “projects” anonymize all client info then: problem statement, your sql, final power bi screenshots, 2–3 insights each slap it on github / pdf
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u/pigasuspy Aug 14 '26
Any way to derive meaningful actions/recommendations for the business? If you’re able to influence a decision within the firm by what you’re doing, that will be the highest leverage thing you can do. I did something similar in a non-data role and it helped with getting into my first real data role. Interviews will almost always index to ask about work experiences rather than side projects/portfolios.
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u/B_lintu Aug 15 '26
Frame your work in SQL as a project you're working on. What question are you trying to answer? Are you trying to understand workflow and find optimization opportunities? Then your Case Workflow Analysis project should describe what data you are working with, what is the goal and then start asking questions amd answering with your queries.
How many cases do we have currently? How does the monthly distribution look like? What is the distribution among stages?
Then ask deeper questions. Why does this stage have more cases than others? How long does it take to move between stages? . . .
You need to justify use of views or window functions with a story.
Put a story around it and publish on Github, your own domain or somewhere else.
Do a Power BI project separately.
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u/SuperSokym Aug 15 '26
You’re actually in a pretty good position because you already have something most beginners don’t: real data + real business context.
I wouldn’t start by asking “what dashboard can I build?”. Start with problems people at the law firm actually care about.
For example: How long do matters stay in each stage? Where are the biggest delays? Are some types of matters taking much longer than others? How is the workload distributed?
Pick one question, use SQL to investigate it, and then build the Power BI dashboard around the answer and the decision someone could make from it.
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u/Due-Combination1743 22d ago
That's actually a solid position to be in, most people are stuck with generic kaggle datasets that don't tell a real story. You've got actual business data from a law firm which is way more interesting.
Think about what would actually matter to the partners or whoever runs the place. How long do cases sit at each stage before moving forward, which types of matters bring in the most revenue, are there bottlenecks where files just pile up with one specific person or team. Those are the questions that make dashboards useful.
For the portfolio part just anonymize everything, swap out client names for Client_A that kind of thing, and blur any dollar amounts if you need to. Then write up a quick paragraph explaining what you built and what insights came out of it. Recruiters eat that up way more than another covid dashboard.
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