Onboarding on Surfalytics

The fastest way to get help later is to be a name people already recognize. Your intro is how the community meets you.

Do this:

1. Open the #introduce-your-self → channel in Discord.
2. Scroll through a few intros first. Copy what you like about the good ones.
3. Click New Post to start your own thread — don’t reply inside someone else’s.
4. Paste the template below, fill in the blanks, and post.

👋 **Hey everyone!**

**Name:** [Your name]
**Location:** [City, Country]
**Current role:** [Your job title or "Student"]
**Goal:** [What you want to learn or achieve]
**Fun fact:** [Something interesting about you]

Excited to be here! 🚀

You don’t need to memorize the whole server. Learn the handful of channels you’ll use every week, then skim the rest so you know where things live.

Start with these

Every section, one line each

Skim these once. You do not need to join them all. Ask in the matching channel and the right people see it faster.

General

Learning

Tools

Jobs

Misc

Cities

Voice channels

Events

Check the Events tab at the top of the server. Office Hours run every other Friday at 10:30 AM PST. Come with any question. If the time does not work, ask in #ask-anything.

The Office Hours event. Click Interested and Discord reminds you before it starts.

Add every event to your calendar. Subscribe to the Surfalytics calendar in Google Calendar. New events show up there by themselves.

Any member can create an event or a workshop: Events → Create Event, pick a time, invite people. We encourage you to run a workshop. Teaching something is the best way to learn it.

Members who post something in their first week are far more likely to still be here — and hired — six months later. Lurking is comfortable; it also doesn’t work.

Do this:

1. Open #ask-anything → or #share-week-progress →.
2. Find 2–3 threads where you have something to add.
3. Reply with something real — a follow-up question, your own experience, or a resource that helped you.
4. Found a useful book, course, or article? Share it in #book-course-review →.

This is the habit that carries you through the weeks when motivation dips. Saying out loud what you did — and what you’ll do next — makes you far more likely to actually do it.

Do this:

1. Every Monday, open the new thread in #share-week-progress.
2. Reply using the template below. A short, honest update beats a perfect one.
3. Read two other updates and reply to one.

**Job Search** 🧑‍💼:


**Learning** 👨‍🎓:


**Interesting Stuff at Work** 🧶:


**Wellbeing** 🎹:


**Goals this week** 🚩:

Ten minutes that explain how everything here fits together — the community, the projects, the weekly calls, and what “success” actually means.

Do this:

1. Read What is Surfalytics → (about 10 min).
2. Post one takeaway in #ask-anything — what surprised you, or what you want to get out of the community.

Everything Surfalytics does, on one page. Membership on the left is where you are now. The free course in the middle is the roadmap you will follow.

New content, event announcements, and member wins usually land on social first. Following now means you won’t miss them.

Do this:

1. Follow all three accounts below.
2. Subscribe to the newsletter — one deep-dive post a week on data engineering, analytics system design, and career growth.

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Blog & newsletter

Start with these four posts:

Jan 6, 2026Just Enough Python for Data Roles 🐍

Oct 6, 2025🎯Ultimate cheatsheet for Data Engineering System Design interview.

Mar 11, 2025How to Measure Your Business the Amazon Way

Dec 23, 2024Check list for fixing your Data Resume

The full list is in the blog archive →.

Latest from the blog

Jul 3, 2026Europe Wealth Paths for Data Professionals

Jul 2, 2026USA Wealth Paths for Data Professionals

Jul 1, 2026Canada Wealth Paths for Data Professionals

One place to see what you’re working on this week, and every job you’ve applied to. This is what keeps you from losing momentum around week three, when the novelty wears off.

You need two things. Pick a tool for each — or one tool for both — and copy a ready-made template; don’t build from scratch.

1. A weekly plan

Your tasks for the current week, checked off as you go. Each week’s roadmap tasks drop straight in here, alongside everything else you’re juggling — applications to send, a portfolio project, a course to finish.

Keep it to one of two shapes:

• A simple checklist — fastest to start. One list per week, tick items off, move what you don’t finish to next week. Microsoft To Do, Google Tasks, or Apple Reminders all work.
• A board — cards in columns (To do · Doing · Done), dragged across as the work moves. Worth it once you have more than ~10 things in flight. Notion Kanban Board or Trello.

A plain checklist in Microsoft To Do — one list, one week, nothing to configure. Start here; switch to a board later only if you outgrow it.

2. A job application tracker

The one everyone skips — and regrets when a recruiter calls about a role they don’t remember applying to.

One row per application. At a minimum, track company, role, link to the posting, date applied, and status (applied → phone screen → interview → offer / rejected). Add a comments column for the recruiter’s name, the salary range, or why the role appealed to you. Once you’re sending 5–10 applications a week, this table is the only thing that tells you what’s actually working.

The Notion Job Application Tracker template — status as a coloured tag, plus tags for remote / location / full-time. Free, published by Notion.

A spreadsheet does the job just as well. This one adds a response date, an interview column, and a networking contact — colour-coded so the active leads jump out.

Five minutes now saves a broken evening later — Module 4 in particular assumes this is all in place.

Your machine

Accounts to create

• 💻 GitHub — github.com — non-negotiable; we set it up together in Module 0
• ☁️ Cloud provider — AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud — you’ll need a card on file before Module 4
• 🤖 AI coding tools — Cursor and Claude — used throughout the course to write and debug code. If you can’t get access to them (region or budget), Kilo Code is a free, open-source alternative.
• 🔗 LinkedIn — linkedin.com — for sharing progress and connecting with peers

Recruiters and hiring managers check your LinkedIn before they reply. A few posts about what you’re learning turn an empty profile into someone worth talking to.

Do this:

1. Write 3–5 sentences about something you learned this week — a concept that clicked, a bug you fixed, a tool you tried.
2. Post it on LinkedIn.
3. Share the link in #your-post-sharing — the community will jump in with likes and comments.

This week I learned [topic].

The thing that finally made it click: [one specific insight].

Where I got stuck: [the hard part, and how you got past it].

Next up: [what you're learning next].

#dataengineering #analytics #learninginpublic

A post from the Surfalytics page. Yours can be shorter and more personal, but notice the shape: a hook in the first line, short paragraphs with space between them, a list or two, and one clear link at the end.

There is one roadmap for everyone, Module 0 to Module 12. Where you go deep depends on you: where you are now, your target role, and your target country. Ten minutes here saves you weeks of studying the wrong thing.

Do this:

1. Open How the roadmap works → and read the six points at the top.
2. Find your group. No data experience yet, already an analyst, or in data and want higher pay.
3. Read the road map for your target role: Data Analyst, Analytics Engineer, or Data Engineer.
4. Post in #ask-anything: your group, your target role, and the module where you plan to go deep.