I interviewed 3 beginners who were able to land their first data job despite having NO prior experience.

One was a high school math teacher. Another delivered pizzas and worked at a warehouse. The third worked night shifts doing quality control.

No computer science background. No master’s degree’s. No perfect resume. And they definitely didn't wait until they matched every single job requirement.

How’d they do it?

It wasn’t by spam applying to 1,000+ applications (that hardly ever works).

In fact, all 3 landed their jobs by applying less, not more.

Quality > Quantity

although you do still need some quantity

Let me show you the pattern I noticed across all three stories.

The Teacher Who Pivoted in 61 Days

Thomas was a high school math teacher who hated his job.

He spent a full year in a data science bootcamp through Rutgers. He learned Python, SQL, and machine learning. Everything you need to know. Built projects. Put them on GitHub.

Excitedly, he applied to a TON of jobs…

And got zero interviews.

Then he joined my program in April. By June, he had a senior analyst job.

Woah!

What changed in those 61 days?

Thomas learned he was pretty much invisible.

• GitHub was too hard to navigate (and had no traffic)

• He wasn’t getting past the ATS

• No one was even seeing his applications

So he did three things:

1. He built a public portfolio with clean dashboards.

2. He posted on LinkedIn every few days.

3. He sent a cold message to the hiring manager.

That cold message was what got him noticed.

Then came the interview.

Then came the offer.

Oh, and here's the crazy part. The job required 2 to 3 years of healthcare experience.

Thomas had zero.

But Thomas thought, “I’ll try anyway…”

Got the interview. Got the offer.

Do not get discouraged by job descriptions! Many are written by a recruiter who doesn’t really know, or even worse, AI.

If you're 50% to 70% qualified, just apply.

Let THEM say no. Don't reject yourself.

The Warehouse Worker Who Snagged a Job

Kedeisha left the military, got a degree, and expected to walk into a $100k job.

Instead, she found herself delivering pizzas for Domino's. Then working 12 long shifts at warehouse.

But she was determined to land a data job.

Of course she studied all the data skills (Excel, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, etc).

But after joining The Accelerator, she did something most people avoid.

She scheduled 2 coffee chats per week.

Not just with recruiters or hiring managers…

But with people who were already working in data, just 2-3 steps ahead of her.

She asked simple questions: "How did you get where you are? What advice do you have for me?"

And guess what happened?

Her first two jobs came from people she knew. A referral I gave her in our DAA community. Another from a veterans network.

Why apply to 1,000 jobs and leave your it up to luck?

Create your own luck → Network.

The Night Shift Worker Who Switched in 95 Days

Rachael was stuck working overnight shifts. She'd listen to podcasts (including mine) while working.

In January, she joined my bootcamp. By April (95 days later), she had an offer from Optum Healthcare as a business intelligence analyst.

Boom!

But how?

Rachael had a biology degree. No business experience. And her resume kept failing ATS systems.

So Rachael stopped relying on Indeed and LinkedIn Easy Apply.

Instead, she did something kinda scary. She started talking about her data career pivot. To everyone and anyone.

So when she was at church on Sunday, she told her friend about her data journey.

And her friend was like, “Oh, my work hires a lot of data analysts! Let me look for you!”

Two days later, a recruiter called Rachael, "We got a great review about you!"

Rachael got another interview. Then the final round with the whole team.

And two days later, they offered her the job.

Here's What All Three Did Differently

They followed what I call the SPN Method:

Skills. They learned Excel, SQL, Tableau, and Power BI. They learned just enough to prove they could do the job. Not everything. Just what mattered.

Portfolio. They built real projects and shared them publicly. Not buried in GitHub where nobody looks. On LinkedIn where people could actually see them.

Network. This is the part most people skip. Thomas sent cold messages. Kedeisha did coffee chats. Rachael asked a friend for a referral.

If they ignored just one part of the SPN Method, they struggled.

And so will you. You need all 3 pillars.

If you want to follow all 3 parts in an easy-to-follow format, consider joining the Accelerator (like Thomas, Kedeisha, and Rachael all did).