min. readIntroducing Myself
I am Sebastian Jara, a BI engineer from Paraguay. I am 28, and for more than four years, I have turned data into stories that help teams decide with clarity. My path did not begin in IT. As a kid, curiosity ran the show. I loved opening gadgets to see how they worked, even if that sometimes meant breaking them more.
A home computer became my first lab. Hours went into Paint, pinball, and minesweeper, with plenty of time spent exploring system settings without internet. That habit of “opening the hood” pushed me toward Electrical Engineering. It felt like the closest match to dismantling problems and finding solutions. Early in my career, a mentor reinforced two things that still guide me today, keep learning on purpose and set clear goals you can measure.
Before I Was a BI Engineer: My BI Journey
Business Intelligence arrived during an apprenticeship where learning by doing was the norm. Mistakes were not failures, they were feedback with a fast return. Courses gave me foundations, while daily practice created growth. I moved from static reports to semantic models that can support many views across the business.
However, tooling followed the problems. Power BI, SQL, and DAX became natural because real deadlines do not wait. I start with the decision a stakeholder needs to make, then design the model, transformations, and visuals that serve that decision. Along the way, I profile sources, document assumptions, and keep version control tidy so teammates can reproduce the work.
Validation closes the loop. Measures get tested against sample scenarios. Trends are sanity checked with domain experts. After release, I track adoption and meet users to learn what landed and what missed. That cycle turns a presentation into a product people return to.
After Becoming a BI Engineer: Abstra and the Way I Work
I chose Abstra because I wanted a multicultural ecosystem and projects that would raise the bar. From day one, I felt that People Focused is real. The onboarding was organized, my tools and access were ready, and the team helped me integrate fast. Open and transparent communication, built trust, and care, leading to improved delivery. I collaborate with leaders in the United States, I learn from specialized peers, and I contribute to products that require precision.
The culture values clarity, ownership, and continuous learning, which lets me focus on fundamentals:
- I frame the question,
- I define the decision,
- and I design toward the action that should follow.
Everything else supports that chain. In practice, I refine problem statements with stakeholders, define success criteria, and outline data plans that respect refresh windows and security. I model tables for performance and meaning, create measures that mirror the logic of the business rather than the shape of the raw data, and design visuals that communicate at a point. I document how to read the dashboard, who owns each metric, and how to request changes. I monitor usage to learn which views drive decisions and which ones need revision. The spark that keeps me motivated is impact. When an analysis aligns a strategy, reduces uncertainty, or reveals an opportunity that was hiding in plain sight, I know the work is doing its job.
Advice for Future BI Engineers
Starting without a technical background is possible. Curiosity is enough for the first steps. Begin by asking better questions before searching for complex formulas. Practice empathy with the people who will use your work. Listen for pain points, constraints, and timelines. Build small, validate often, and explain your logic in plain language.
Treat process like a skill. Keep a tidy model, write clear documentation, respect data quality, and make tradeoffs explicit. Tools will come with practice, whether that is Power BI, SQL, or Python. What sets you apart is the ability to connect data with decisions and to communicate findings so they lead to action. Data does more than measure. Used with intent, it transforms teams and changes the story they tell about their future.