Power BI

Term from Data Analytics industry explained for recruiters

Power BI is a Microsoft tool that helps people turn business data into easy-to-understand charts, graphs, and reports. It's like Excel's more powerful cousin, designed for creating interactive dashboards that help companies understand their data better. Business analysts and data professionals use Power BI to collect information from various sources (like databases, spreadsheets, or cloud services) and transform it into visual stories that help managers make decisions. Similar tools include Tableau and Qlik, and these are often called "business intelligence" or "data visualization" tools.

Examples in Resumes

Created monthly sales dashboards using Power BI that increased reporting efficiency by 50%

Developed Power BI reports to track key performance indicators across 5 departments

Led training sessions for staff on using Power BI and Power BI Desktop for data analysis

Typical job title: "Power BI Developers"

Also try searching for:

Business Intelligence Developer Data Analyst BI Developer Data Visualization Specialist Business Intelligence Analyst Power BI Consultant Data Reporting Analyst

Example Interview Questions

Senior Level Questions

Q: How would you approach implementing Power BI in a large organization?

Expected Answer: A senior analyst should discuss needs assessment, data source planning, security considerations, training strategy, and establishing best practices for report development and sharing.

Q: How do you ensure data security and governance in Power BI?

Expected Answer: Should explain row-level security, workspace management, sharing policies, and how to maintain data accuracy across different department needs.

Mid Level Questions

Q: How do you clean and prepare data for Power BI reports?

Expected Answer: Should explain how they combine data from different sources, handle missing values, and create relationships between tables for accurate reporting.

Q: Explain how you would create a dynamic dashboard in Power BI.

Expected Answer: Should describe using filters, slicers, and interactive elements to let users explore data, and how to make reports update automatically.

Junior Level Questions

Q: What types of charts would you use to show sales trends?

Expected Answer: Should be able to explain basic visualization choices like line charts for trends over time, bar charts for comparisons, and when to use each type.

Q: How do you refresh data in Power BI reports?

Expected Answer: Should understand basic data refresh concepts, scheduling updates, and different refresh types available in Power BI service.

Experience Level Indicators

Junior (0-2 years)

  • Basic report creation and visualization
  • Simple data importing and cleaning
  • Understanding of basic charts and graphs
  • Creating simple dashboards

Mid (2-4 years)

  • Advanced data modeling
  • Custom calculations and measures
  • Report optimization
  • Multiple data source integration

Senior (4+ years)

  • Enterprise-level implementation
  • Advanced security configuration
  • Performance optimization
  • Training and mentoring teams

Red Flags to Watch For

  • No experience with data cleaning or preparation
  • Unable to explain basic visualization concepts
  • Lack of understanding about data refresh and scheduling
  • No knowledge of data security practices