Finding your people in data (and building a community that actually sticks)

In the latest episode of The View on Data, hosts Jerrie Kenney, Erica “Ric” Louie, and Faith McKenna get real about one of the most underrated career skills in data: finding community, and redefining what mentorship can look like when you don’t have a magical “career sage” on speed dial.

From local meetups and data Twitter chaos, to the dbt Community Slack, the group breaks down how relationships form, how they last (or don’t), and why finding community is important.

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What community‌ means when you work in data

The conversation started with a deceptively simple question: What does community mean in the data space?

For Faith, it clicked at dbt’s annual conference. It was the first time she met people who had the same day-to-day work struggles of debugging, stakeholder pressure, and the weird mental load of being “the data person.” Community stopped feeling like networking and started feeling like relief.

Ric shared a different angle: when you’ve always worked inside dbt, it’s easy to take the community for granted. But once you compare notes with friends in other careers, you realize how rare it is to have a space where people will openly share patterns, lessons, and hard-earned shortcuts without gatekeeping.

Jerrie’s path started locally: meetups, community college conferences, and the kind of sessions that only data people would attend voluntarily (like “mistakes you’ve made in data”). That local-first approach later expanded into online communities—Slack groups, Locally Optimistic, dbt Community, and everything in between.

The punchline: community isn’t a platform. It’s a feeling. It’s finding people who understand your work without needing a 10-minute explanation first.

Finding your people is part luck, part reps

A recurring theme: you don’t always “strategically network” your way into community.

Faith told the story of attending Coalesce solo, feeling awkward, and sitting next to people who looked friendly. Those strangers turned into real friends.

Jerrie described the “try everything” phase: joining multiple Slacks, using Donut intros, and taking dozens of conversations, only to realize that not everyone will relate to your specific path. That’s normal. You’re not doing it wrong. You’re just sorting signal from noise.

And Ric dropped one of the most useful truths in the episode:

Sometimes you only know you’ve found the right people after you experience the wrong ones.

Mentorship isn’t one person. It’s a toolkit

Jerrie shared how she couldn’t find the traditional “advisor” style mentor during a career transition, so she reframed the goal. Instead of waiting for someone to map her future, she started prototyping her path, sharing what she learned, and letting the community respond. That shift turned mentorship into something more realistic:

• skill-specific guidance
• cheerleaders
• feedback loops
• peers who are learning the same thing at the same time

Faith added a tactical insight: asking “Can I pick your brain?” rarely works. Asking a specific question often does.

Examples that land:

• “You transitioned from teaching into data. How did you do that?”
• “You always give me advanced SQL feedback. Where did you learn those patterns?”
• “I’m applying to your team. What should I know about the role and the culture?”

Mentorship becomes dramatically easier when you give people something concrete to respond to.

Maintaining community without burning yourself out

Faith shared a low-lift way she stays connected: a weekly “wins of the week” thread in Data Angels. It keeps relationships warm without requiring constant 1:1 meetings. (Also: wins range from “CFO loved my dashboard” to “I learned to ice skate,” which is exactly the right energy.)

Ric was honest about capacity: for the last couple years, she’s had more bandwidth to invest in personal community than professional. And that’s fine. Community doesn’t have to look like being active everywhere all the time.

The bigger idea the group circled: kindness scales. You don’t need a master plan. You need consistent, human interactions that leave doors open—so reconnecting later feels natural.

Why community is bigger than career opportunities

Yes, community can help you find your next job. But the group urged listeners to think bigger than that.

Community is also:

• a place to nerd out with people who actually care
• a way to get thought partnership when you’re solving hard problems
• a sanity saver when you’re a team of one
• a buffer against isolation when work gets weird
• a reminder that your struggles are normal and not uniquely yours

If your friends outside of data don’t understand why “we refactored the models and lineage finally makes sense” is a huge emotional win, your community will.

Episode takeaways

• Find people who make the work feel lighter.
• Ask specific questions. Respect time. Get better answers.
• Stop looking for one perfect mentor. Build a mentorship toolkit.
• Stay connected in ways that fit your season.
• Be kind. Keep doors open. Small interactions compound.

As the episode wrapped, the hosts left a simple challenge: find one person you admire and ask one specific question about how they got there. See what happens.