My Journey to Visionary (and a resume update!)
In March 2026, I was named to the Tableau Visionary program. I’m a sentimental person, and major milestones always lead me to pause and reflect on the journey.
For many people in the history of the Visionary program, their ascension was fast, going from their first time using Tableau to Visionary status in a handful of years. That’s not my story!
I’m 37 now, and Tableau has been one of my tools of choice for almost 14 years. I got my first Tableau license in 2012, made my first “for fun” Tableau Public project in 2016, and have been an active community contributor since December of 2018. Along the way, I’ve published hundreds of vizzes, spoken more than 50 times at Tableau User Groups, and had my Tableau projects viewed online tens of millions of times. I’ve spoken at Tableau Conference six times and had more than a dozen Vizzes of the Day on Tableau Public. Oh, and I won Iron Viz. In short, it’s been a long and busy journey to get to this point.
The Visionary program is filled with the people who have inspired me. These are the designers, creators, and innovators who have made modern analytics and data visualization practice what it is today. No, Tableau isn’t the only tool that’s brought the field forward, but it’s absolutely one of the most crucial, and so many amazing ideas have come from this group. It’s always going to feel surreal to be considered part of it.
So, as I reflect on how I got here, I wanted to take an intentional look backwards, and what better way than redoing my resume? And in honor of the occasion, why not test my Tableau skills while I’m doing so.
Below, you’ll see my update. It’s fresh, clean, and built entirely in Tableau as a single-sheet build using map layers. No background images, no floating sheets, no text boxes… just one sheet! You can interact with it on Tableau Public here, too.
I’m excited about a few things in particular. First of all, I love how the career timeline turned out. Using a sawtooth design helps make the timeline more legible without needing labels, as each spike represents a year. But if you’re not a fan, there’s a few other parameter-based options you can try too! Second, you can color the timeline by either where I was working at the time, the type of timeline, or a combo of both. It helps me reflect on my own history pretty effectively! Third, I’m using the Ken Flerlage-approved Poppins font. It doesn't fully display as expected, but it looks pretty good! Fourth, I really like how the timeline tooltips work, providing extra detail with major events and a basic summary of what I was doing for the “quiet” months. And finally, yet again, I’ve been able to show that map layers offer almost unlimited options. No, there’s no real NEED to have done this resume as a single sheet build using map layers, but I always like testing both my own boundaries and those of Tableau, and it was cool to know that this works.
As far as the content of the resume goes, my career absolutely has not been a straight line. I’ve switched industries, role types, and sectors. I’ve had jobs that didn’t last. I’ve stagnated, scuffled, and shined. And, looking back, I’m proud of how all the steps along the way contributed to where I am today.