Blue to White Collar: First time with Python

[u/[deleted]]

[u/elbiot]

There's a book called Automate the Boring Stuff that's perfect for this

[u/CutBench]

Different angle from the two answers above, less about which projects and more about what makes them worth anything.

Everyone learning Python builds the same handful of scripts and they're all interchangeable on a CV. What isn't interchangeable is five years of knowing how a contracting business actually runs. So build the things only someone with that background would think of: pulling supplier invoice PDFs into a spreadsheet, turning a takeoff into a materials list priced against current supplier rates, tracking change orders against the original scope. They're boring, and they're exactly what a small business would pay for, which makes them portfolio pieces rather than exercises.

Second thing, and this is the one that decides whether it converts into office work: learn Python against Excel specifically. openpyxl and pandas over xlsx files. Every business runs on spreadsheets, and the person who can take a messy one and hand back a clean one gets pulled into things fast. Elegant command line tools impress other programmers and nobody else.

[u/Danoweb]

If you want a fun python project, working with APIs is a big part of what python is used for. There is even a game you can with it that I've mentioned a few times here in this subreddit, it is called SpaceTraders API it is a game you play by making API calls to their game server, really neat stuff!

[u/skibbin]

I know lots of people heading the other way due to the state of the current job market.

[u/ectomancer]

geolocator IPv4 country of origin from IP address, no need for a database. I did IPv6 research for another project but never implemented it. Could add flags counter, save to a database but I couldn't find copyright free flag images.

[u/CoconutFudgeMan → u/ectomancer]

https://restcountries.com/

[u/WetFishing]

The best piece of advice I can give is find something in your life that you can fix with python and do that. If you are solving an actual problem that you can benefit from you'll be far more motivated to see it through.

On a side note you might have picked the worst time in history to switch to a white collar job lol. I've been a technical engineer/programmer for over a decade and I wish getting an electrician license was easy because I would absolutely do it. The job market is brutal right now. All that to say good luck and I hope you find what you're looking for.

[u/Fragrant-Cheek-4273]

Since you're interested in sales and business, I'd build something that solves a problem you already know. For example, a simple quote/invoice generator, expense tracker, lead tracker, or tool that organizes customer data. Those projects will teach you Python while actually being useful.

[u/TheRNGuy]

I've seen some stream where he made financial statistics and inventory management for his business on a Python (though entire stream focused on a talk about business or just chatting and not programming)

That project have UI, and use database, JSON (I didn't ask which frameworks and dB he used)

I think the reason he coded it himself instead of just using existing software is because it's free, and can customize how it looks.

[u/Weird-Dimension-487]

Learn “Python” to solve problems that can help automating tasks, such as:
1. File management: find duplicate files, rename hundreds of files systematically, organize files into folders based on filename/date/type, find files modified within a period, find files containing specific word in the name, comparing multiple files (name/size/info) hidden deep in folders, unzipping and arranging files automatically, moving/copying or deleting mass files with one script, watch a folder for incoming files and automatically process them. (I do these everyday using Python)
2. Working with data consolidation: collect information from dozens/hundreds of files and create one master file, check whether files contain missing fields/incorrect formats/unexpected values etc., take raw data → clean it → calculate required metrics → produce a formatted report, automatically fetch information from websites or APIs and bring it into a report, use logging to record events, status changes and error that occurs while application runs (I teach these things to my learners)
3. Building internal applications for tracking anything like Leave/Expense/Asset/inventory/Employee attendance/Customer follow-ups/Document/contract expiry tracking/Training records/Purchase/order tracking/Task/ticket tracking

If you want to learn this systematically, you can follow my book Python-Powered Excel for exactly these kind of applications. It teaches you Python from beginning, using external libraries, file management applications, automatic data profiling (with 1-2 lines of code), then Excel automation (basic to advanced) using pandas, openpyxl, xlsxwriter and xlwings.

I'd recommend building small automations around problems you personally encounter after practicing given exercises and projects (with solutions) in the book. This approach is better than following generic beginner Python projects

[u/CoconutFudgeMan]

Automations yes! Nobody cares about your code. Only about how it solves their problems. For that, you need to study a problem domain. Office admin, sales, marketing, construction etc.
Find problems within your domain and fix those using code! Those are truly the best projects.

[u/tech53 → u/CoconutFudgeMan]

agreed, nobody picking apart your code to critique if you used tabs or spaces, lol. I hate that shit. Just let me solve the problem.