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"Do you and Zach Wilson hate each other?"

I get asked questions like this, and it makes me laugh. We're good friends for the record. Most people play zero sum games, where one person wins and another loses. Questions like this got me thinking about how content creation is a positive sum game. You can consume content from many people, and this benefits everyone. Here, I unpack the differences of zero sum and positive sum games.

In this episode, we explore the incredible story of Zach Wilson, a data engineer who skyrocketed his annual salary from $30,000 to $500,000 in just five years. Zach shares his experiences working for top tech companies like Facebook, Netflix, and Airbnb and details his transformation from a struggling drug user to a highly successful engineer. Connect with Zach Wilson : 🤝 Follow on Linkedin ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube 📩 Subscribe to Newsletter 🎒 Learn About Bootcamp Connect with Avery 📊 Come to my next free “How to Land Your First Data Job” training⁠ ⁠🏫 Check out my 10-week data analytics bootcamp ⁠📩 Get my weekly email with helpful data career tips⁠ ⁠🧙‍♂️ Ace the Interview with Confidence Timestamps: (4:29) Key to Career Success (10:39) Is Job Hopping Worth It? (18:16) Data Analyst to Data Engineer (22:19) The Rise of Analytics Engineers (32:21) Zach’s Upbringing (37:32) The Secret to Growth Connect with Avery: 📺 Subscribe on YouTube 🎙Listen to My Podcast 👔 Connect with me on LinkedIn 📸 Instagram 🎵 TikTok Mentioned in this episode: Join the last cohort of 2025! The LAST cohort of The Data Analytics Accelerator for 2025 kicks off on Monday, December 8th and enrollment is officially open!

To celebrate the end of the year, we’re running a special End-of-Year Sale, where you’ll get: ✅ A discount on your enrollment 🎁 6 bonus gifts, including job listings, interview prep, AI tools + more

If your goal is to land a data job in 2026, this is your chance to get ahead of the competition and start strong.

👉 Join the December Cohort & Claim Your Bonuses: https://DataCareerJumpstart.com/daa https://www.datacareerjumpstart.com/daa

Zach Wilson is one of my favorite people, and when we chat, it's total honesty and great vibes. In this episode, we discuss his transition from a staff data engineer at Airbnb to an entrepreneur (!), and we both talk about our experiences with ADHD, the data engineering field today, content creation, and a ton in between. 

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Check out my substack: https://joereis.substack.com/