Community Spotlight Members Round 2

website/docs/community/spotlight/alan-cruickshank.md

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+---
+id: alan-cruickshank
+title: Alan Cruickshank
+description: |
+  I've been around in the dbt community, especially the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/london-dbt-meetup/" title="London dbt Meetup" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">London dbt Meetup</a>, since early 2019—around the time that we started using dbt at tails.com. My background is the startup/scaleup space and building data teams in a context where there is a lot of growth going on but there isn't a lot of money around to support that. That's a topic that I've written and spoken about on several occasions on podcasts, blogposts and even at Coalesce <a href="https://www.getdbt.com/coalesce-2020/presenting-sqlfluff/" title="2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2020</a> and <a href="https://www.getdbt.com/coalesce-2021/this-is-just-the-beginning/" title="2021" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2021</a>!
+
+  Aside from my work at tails.com, my other main focus at the moment is <a href="https://sqlfluff.com/" title="SQLFluff" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SQLFluff</a>, the open source SQL linter which I started developing as part of a hackday at tails.com in late 2019 and now is the most starred SQL linter on Github with almost 1M downloads a month.
+image: /img/community/spotlight/alan-cruickshank.jpg
+pronouns: he/him
+location: London, UK
+jobTitle: Insights Director
+companyName: tails.com
+organization: Author & Maintainer of SQLFluff
+socialLinks:
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amcruickshank/
+  - name: SQLFluff
+    link: https://sqlfluff.com
+dateCreated: 2023-06-30
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+I [joined the community](https://www.getdbt.com/community/?utm_medium=internal&utm_source=docs&utm_campaign=q3-2024_dbt-spotlight_aw&utm_content=____&utm_term=all___) in 2019 and it's been an invaluable source of advice and wisdom, especially operating on the bleeding edge of open source data tooling. It's been a place to meet like-minded people, even find new colleagues and certainly one of the places I look to when thinking about how to approach hairy data problems.
+
+In London it's also been one of the most vibrant meetup groups in person, compared to many others which are either very, very specialized or more focussed on larger organisations.
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+I just want to be useful 😁. I've learned a lot from the community over the years, and now I want to be able to give back to it. My primary vehicle for that is SQLFluff - both as a tool for the community to use, but also as a way of encouraging a wider group of people to feel welcome and able to contribute to open source software and build the tools of the future.
+
+I also see SQLFluff as a vehicle to drive more consistency in the way we write SQL, and through that drive better communication and lower the barrier for new people to enter this field and find their own success.
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+For better or worse, I spend most of my day job on people and organisational things, less on how to solve individual problems, and more on how to enable and support groups of people in being able to make great decisions themselves. In some ways, if I have to touch the keyboard too much, it's a sign that I've failed in that calling. dbt itself is a tool which enables better collaboration—and the community is full of people with great ideas on how to better enable other people around us. I hope that I'm able to pass some of that knowledge and the experience of applying it in a scaleup environment back to others also treading this path.
+
+More specifically from the dbt community, if I were to pick one recommendation, it would be Emilie Schario’s talk from Coalesce 2022 on [“Data Led is Dumb”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsMHPALc8Vg&t=1s). I think should be essential watching for anyone who’s hearing “Data Led” a lot, and wants to turn that excitement into practical action.
+
+## Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
+
+If you're not using SQLFluff on your dbt project, you probably should be: https://github.com/sqlfluff/sqlfluff

website/docs/community/spotlight/fabiyi-opeyemi.md

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+---
+id: fabiyi-opeyemi
+title: Opeyemi Fabiyi
+description: |
+  I'm an Analytics Engineer with Data Culture, a Data Consulting firm where I use dbt regularly to help clients build quality-tested data assets. I've also got a background in financial services and supply chain. I'm passionate about helping organizations to become data-driven and I majorly use dbt for data modeling, while the other aspect of the stack is largely dependent on the client infrastructure I'm working for, so I often say I'm tool-agnostic. 😀
+
+  I'm the founder of Nigeria's Young Data Professional Community. I'm also the organizer of the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/lagos-dbt-meetup/" title="Lagos dbt Meetup" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lagos dbt Meetup</a> which I started, and one of the organizers of the DataFest Africa Conference. I became an active member of the dbt Community in 2021 & <a href="https://coalesce.getdbt.com/blog/how-to-leverage-dbt-community-as-the-first-and-only-data-hire-to-survive" title="spoke at Coalesce 2022" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">spoke at Coalesce 2022</a>.
+image: /img/community/spotlight/fabiyi-opeyemi.jpg
+pronouns: he/him
+location: Lagos, Nigeria
+jobTitle: Senior Analytics Engineer
+companyName: Data Culture
+organization: Young Data Professionals (YDP)
+socialLinks:
+  - name: Twitter
+    link: https://twitter.com/Opiano_1
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/opeyemifabiyi/
+dateCreated: 2023-07-02
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+I joined the [dbt Slack community](https://www.getdbt.com/community/join-the-community/?utm_medium=internal&utm_source=docs&utm_campaign=q3-2024_dbt-spotlight_aw&utm_content=____&utm_term=all___) in 2021, and it has been an experience getting to learn from thought leaders in the space and stay in touch with cutting-edge innovation in the data space. The community has helped me become a better engineer by reading different responses to questions on Slack, and seeing genuine support from community members help other members tackle and solve their difficult problems is inspiring and has allowed me to model my community (YDP & the Lagos dbt Meetup) through that lens. I randomly enter the dbt Slack daily to read and learn from different channels. I love the sense of community that resonates in the dbt Slack channel, and the good news is that I got my current role from the #jobs channel from a post from Data Culture Co-Founder. So you can stay glued to that page if you are looking for a job role.  
+
+The dbt community greatly impacted my previous role as a one-person data team. The community became the team I didn't have, providing all the necessary support and guidance I needed to deliver great value for the company excellently, and my experience with the community was the inspiration for my Coalesce talk in 2022 on how to leverage the dbt community as a data team of one.
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+Many great leaders inspire me in the dbt community; Joel Labes for constantly interacting with new folks and providing that safe space for everyone to ask any question, no matter how dumb you may think your question may be. He will give a response that will solve your problem; Benn Stancil for his vast experience and how he communicates it well with humour in his Friday night Substack, a newsletter I look forward to, which helps me stay current with recent trends in the global data space. 
+
+Both of them resonate with the kind of leader I want to grow in the dbt Community; to be vast, experienced and readily available to provide support and guidance and help people solve problems and grow their careers.
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+I've learned how to show empathy as a data professional and be a great engineer from various best practices around working with data. I also want others to know that irrespective of their current level of expertise or maturity in their data career, they can make an impact by getting involved in the community and helping others grow.
+
+## Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
+
+Maybe, I will consider DevRel as a career sometime because of my innate passion and love for community and people. Several folks tell me I'm a strong DevRel talent and a valuable asset for any product-led company. If you need someone to bounce ideas off of or discuss😃 your community engagement efforts, please feel free to reach out.

website/docs/community/spotlight/faith-lierheimer.md

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+---
+id: faith-lierheimer
+title: Faith Lierheimer
+description: |
+  I've been a dbt Community member for around a year and a half. I come to the data world from teaching and academic research. Working in data fuses the aspects of those careers that I like the most, which are technical problem solving, and helping non-technical audiences understand data and what they can do with it. I have a dream stack with Databricks, dbt, and Looker. 
+
+  Professionally, I help shippers of perishable goods (everything from blueberries to childhood vaccinations) understand the risks their goods face in transit and how to mitigate them.This reduces food and medical waste worldwide.
+
+  You can read more about these interests at <a href="https://faithfacts.substack.com/" title="faithfacts.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">faithfacts.substack.com</a>.
+image: /img/community/spotlight/faith-lierheimer.jpg
+pronouns: she/her
+location: Denver, CO, USA
+jobTitle: Data Analyst II
+companyName: Parsyl
+organization: Data Angels
+socialLinks:
+  - name: Twitter
+    link: https://twitter.com/FaithLierheimer
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faithlierheimer/
+  - name: Substack
+    link: https://faithfacts.substack.com/
+  - name: Data Folks
+    link: https://data-folks.masto.host/@faithlierheimer
+dateCreated: 2023-06-28
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+I joined the dbt community early in 2022 hoping to find technical help with dbt, and instead found a wide support network of career-minded data professionals. Being in the dbt community has helped me find my niche in the data world, and has helped me discover ways I can grow my career and technical acumen. Being in this community has been huge in easing my career transition from teaching into data.
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+I primarily conceptualize of leadership as raising the floor beneath everyone, rather than enabling a few to touch its vaulted ceiling. As I gain more experience, I'd be delighted to be a resource for fellow career changers and teachers in transition. 
+
+And, I love to goof in #roast-my-graph in the dbt Slack. [Come join](https://www.getdbt.com/community/join-the-community/?utm_medium=internal&utm_source=docs&utm_campaign=q3-2024_dbt-spotlight_aw&utm_content=____&utm_term=all___) that channel, it's a hoot and a holler.
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+I've learned a lot from community members, but most notably and concretely, I've actually gotten excellent visualization advice in #roast-my-graph. I've taken graphs there several times where I felt stuck on the presentation and have learned a lot about effective vizzes from my peers there. 
+
+As I continue to gain experience, I hope others can learn from me what a successful career change looks like. And, ultimately, to take the work seriously but to not take ourselves that seriously.
+
+## Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
+
+I have a black cat with one eye named Gus and my purpose is now to give him the best existence possible.

website/docs/community/spotlight/jing-yu-lim.md

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+---
+id: jing-yu-lim
+title: Jing Yu Lim
+description: |
+  For ~3 years, I was a Product Analyst at Grab, a ride-hailing and food delivery app in Southeast Asia, before taking on an Analytics Engineering role in Spenmo, a B2B Fintech startup. I joined a tech company as an analyst in June 2023, but was recently impacted by a layoff. I'm also one of the co-organisers of the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/singapore-dbt-meetup/" title="Singapore dbt Meetup" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Singapore dbt Meetup</a>! 
+
+  My story with dbt started in Jan 2022, when I joined Spenmo where I taught myself dbt, mainly via <a href="https://docs.getdbt.com/docs/introduction" title="dbt's documentation">dbt's documentation</a> and <a href="https://www.getdbt.com/community/join-the-community/?utm_medium=internal&utm_source=docs&utm_campaign=q3-2024_dbt-spotlight_aw&utm_content=____&utm_term=all___" title="Slack community" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slack community</a>. We used Snowflake as our data warehouse, and Holistics for BI. I spoke about data self-serve and Spenmo's journey with dbt at multiple meetups.
+image: /img/community/spotlight/jing-lim.jpg
+pronouns: she/her
+location: Singapore, Singapore
+jobTitle: I'm open to work!
+companyName: ""
+organization: ""
+socialLinks:
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limjingyu/
+dateCreated: 2023-07-01
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+I joined the dbt community late January 2022, while setting up Spenmo's first dbt project. I was completely new to dbt, and relied heavily on the #advice-dbt-help channel in dbt Slack whenever I got stuck. I have learnt so much from reading discussions in other channels as well (e.g. #leading-data-teams, #advice-mock-interviews, #db-snowflake, #tools-holistics).
+
+The dbt community also helped me expand my professional network, where I met so many amazing individuals! It all started with #local-singapore which was created by community member Jolanda Zwagemaker sometime in April 2022. We organised dinners to connect with one another, which eventually led to an opportunity to run Singapore dbt Meetup (HUGE thank you to dbt) - it is heartwarming to see connections forged between many attendees of the meetup, where we also learn from one another. It really does feel like a community!
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+Claire Carroll and Mila Page! My very first touchpoint with dbt was their articles in [The Analytics Engineering Guide](https://www.getdbt.com/analytics-engineering/). I remember relating to it so much that I was saying "YES" to every other line I read, and sending text snippets to my friends. 
+
+To me, Analytics Engineering could help overcome certain challenges I face as an analyst, and make the job feels less like a "hamster wheel." As the concept of analytics engineering is fairly new in Singapore, I feel the need to spread the word and bring about a mindset shift among not just data teams, but anyone who needs to work with a data team.
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+One of my favourite presentations from the Singapore dbt Meetup was ["How would the ideal Semantic Layer look like?"](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1t1ts04b7qA-BVlV3qbNZ4fI-MSZn0iL6_FhsaWhJk_0/edit?usp=sharing ) by fellow community member Thanh Dinh from Holistics. It taught me a new perspective on metrics: they could be like dbt models, where dependencies can be set up between metric models.
+
+I definitely have so much more to learn as an individual, but I hope to share some of my tips and lessons in terms of data modelling with others.
+
+## Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
+
+Thank you dbt for enabling us to run meetups! It has been critical for ensuring a great experience for the Singapore community. Also a huge shoutout to Amada, the Global Community Development Lead, for always being super helpful and supportive despite the 12-hour time difference!

website/docs/community/spotlight/josh-devlin.md

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+---
+id: josh-devlin
+title: Josh Devlin
+description: |
+  After "discovering" dbt in early 2020, I <a href="https://www.getdbt.com/community/join-the-community/?utm_medium=internal&utm_source=docs&utm_campaign=q3-2024_dbt-spotlight_aw&utm_content=____&utm_term=all___" title="joined the community" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">joined the community</a> and used it as a learning tool while I tried to get dbt introduced at my company. By helping others, I learned about common pitfalls, best practices, and the breadth of the tool. When it came time to implement it months later, I already felt like an expert!
+
+  In December 2020 I attended the first virtual Coalesce conference, attending all 4 days across 3 time zones! I found my quirky-nerdy-purple-people, and felt at home.
+
+  3 years later I had the pleasure of presenting at my first <a href="https://www.meetup.com/sydney-dbt-meetup/" title="dbt Meetup in Sydney" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dbt Meetup in Sydney</a>, and then <a href="https://coalesce.getdbt.com/blog/babies-and-bathwater-is-kimball-still-relevant" title="at the first in-person Coalesce" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">at the first in-person Coalesce</a> in New Orleans. My passion is helping people, and I'm glad that the dbt community gives me a place to do that!
+image: /img/community/spotlight/josh-devlin.jpg
+pronouns: he/him
+location: Melbourne, Australia (but spent most of the last decade in Houston, USA)
+jobTitle: Senior Analytics Engineer
+companyName: Canva
+organization: ""
+socialLinks:
+  - name: Twitter
+    link: https://twitter.com/JayPeeDevlin
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-devlin/
+dateCreated: 2023-06-27
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+I have been a subscriber to 'The Data Science Roundup' (now ['The Analytics Engineering Roundup'](https://roundup.getdbt.com/)) since its inception, so I knew that dbt existed from the very beginning, since the time that dbt Labs was still called Fishtown Analytics.  Despite that, I never really understood what the tool was or how it fit in until early 2020 when I first started experimenting with the tool.  I immediately joined the community and found it warm and welcoming, so I started to help people where I could and never stopped!
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+I like to think I represent the warm, helpful vibes of the early days of the Community, where folks like Claire Carroll warmly welcomed myself and others!
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+I've learned that the more you give, the more you get. I've put hundreds of hours into helping other people in the community, but I've gotten all that back and much more. I hope I can encourage others to give of themselves and reap the rewards later!
+
+## Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
+
+In a previous life I was an orchestral musician!