Last week at Insurance and Finance User’s Group (IFSUG), I caught up with Sunil Gupta, a SAS Press author and a SAS expert. He was chairing one of the sections and presenting some information himself, which Angela Hall and Waynette Tubbs discussed in their blogs. However, Sunil is a busy man – the week before he was teaching a class about getting the most from PROC TABULATE in a live lecture from his SAS Savvy site. Touring SAS Savvy If you are just learning BASE SAS or SAS Enterprise Guide, then SAS Savvy should be a part of your weekly rotation. This site is a well-organized collection of original material and thoughtful links to other SAS resources. In addition, each month, Sunil hosts a live SAS Training session, giving you direct access to a leading SAS expert! Frequently Updated Savvy Content For the training sessions, Sunil uses a desktop sharing program and a voice conference. For the PROC TABULATE class, two others joined the session, so it was easy to ask questions and not feel like you were getting lost in the crowd. Sunil commented that after learning PROC TABULATE, he had stopped using PROC FREQ and PROC MEANS because […]
Tag: Getting Started
Ready for the Next Generation of SAS?
There’s so much excitement about big data, data scientists, and all things that mean you need some serious SAS BI skills. On Monday I was discussing the Kinsey Insitiute projections for data related jobs, but even the New York Times ran The Age of Big Data an article about it. Appears everyone is talking about it! oooh … Buzz! I love it. SAS BI Developer Demand is Growing The past December, BusinessIntellience.Com, reported that SAS Business Analytics SMB Sales Jumped 42 Percent and went on to comment that ”[this] jump demonstrates that enterprises of all sizes are seizing business analytics as a vital competitive tool.” Last week, the same webzine was reporting that SAS in Leaders Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms according to the Gartner Inc report. As SAS Institute sells more SAS BI solutions, naturally more SAS BI Developer jobs become available. On the Indeed.Com you can search out job trends to determine which fields seem to be growing. [Disclaimer! These figures are based on Indeed.Com job postings and I have no idea what their counting rules are – so I realize this could be that more recruiters use Indeed or Indeed has a better aggregation methodology.] With that said, check out the SAS BI […]
Peek Inside SAS BI Book: Building Business Intelligence with SAS
You may be aware by now, our new SAS BI book Building Business Intelligence with SAS:Content Development Examples launched last week on the SAS Press site. That’s right, SAS Press or Amazon will be delighted to bring a copy of this SAS BI book to your door. When Angela and I set out to write this book, one of the first things we discussed was how new users get access to the SAS BI toolset and have no idea of its astonishing capabilities. This book guides you through each one so you understand it. Intermediate and advanced users will also find this book as a valuable reference. Several times, Angela & I have both found ourselves pulling out the draft copy to reference an advanced technique. This book fulfills a unique spot in the marketplace; there is no other single book that leads you through each SAS BI component with step-by-step examples along with hundreds of tips and techniques to make you successful! SAS Institute offers over nine SAS BI courses to cover all the topics we have jammed packed into this book. Making this an excellent study guide for those planning to take the SAS BI Content Development Exam. Your SAS […]
Android/WebOS Apps for Quick SAS Reference
I’m delighted that Phil Holland, Holland Numerics, has written a guest post today. Phil, clearly a SAS icon, is the author of numerous SAS books that are available from multiple sources. He recently expanded his work into some new and exciting formats, which he is discussing in this post. Writing SAS Books Let me be very clear about my attitude to writing books. I am never going to sell enough of my SAS books to compete with J K Rowling. I write books purely to market my SAS skills, and I’m never going to earn enough from selling books that will allow me to retire early, even if I wanted to! I discovered over the last few years that there are a lot of illegal copies of both my two previous books, and I mean a lot! Part of me is flattered by the proliferation of my books, and another part of me is offended by the criminal acts of illegally copying MY BOOKS! It appears that several people have obtained (bought?) paper copies of my books, scanned them and distributed the scanned copies on Torrent sites. I’ve informed SAS Publishing of these Torrent sites, but it is futile to […]
Career: Secrets from a Professional SAS Recruiter
Recently I spoke with Dick Smith, Talent Engagement Manager for PiTech Solutions, about some tips for working with recruiters. He’s an experienced technical recruiter so I think you’ll find this information particularly insightful. He offers a good mix of traditional job search strategies and ways to leverage social media for your job search. Working with SAS Recruiters As for working with SAS or specialty recruiters, the technology world is most times defined by skill sets or product expertise. In SAS for example, there is a big difference between a SAS/Stat Programmer and a SAS BI/Analytics skill set. For my money, the KISS method applies in either case. So to begin with, keep your resume simple and straightforward. Tell the reader what you can do, what your best expertise is, and what you are looking to do with your career next. Our screening process here at PITech Solutions, for instance, has a focus on the individual. Of greatest importance to us is to clearly understand what kind of position you are really looking for, or put another way – what is the ideal job for you? What do you see as your strongest expertise in the IT field at this point in your […]
SAS Global Forum: Is Google Analytics and SAS BI a good subject?
I’m really excited, Angela and I were invited to speak at the SAS Global Forum in Orlando in April. We were asked to talk about the SAS BI package and we have narrowed down our topic to SAS Information Map Studio, SAS Web Report Studio, and, if time allows, the SAS Information Delivery Portal. The point of the presentation is learning about the SAS BI clients – getting the data has proved to be a journey of it’s own. Step 1: Need some interesting data … The hardest part of preparing a teaching presentation is find data that presents some mystery and allows you to tell a story that resonates. Right now the leading topic is along the lines of “How do you let people know you have a book out there? How do you build excitement?” For us, building a companion website (this blog) that gave the users an idea of the book content was our answer. Plus the website would be a continuation of the book information for the users. The next question is – “How do you know it’s working?” Using the data that Google Analytics collects for this blog, I have been researching what kind of […]
SAS BI: Sample Data for Facial Recognition and UFOs
Oh my goodness … Christmas has come early children! You must have been extra good this year because look what all I have found! A few times before I have discussed where to find SAS sample data sources and even how to create your own sample …