Question of the Week: How has FME shaped your career path and did it open doors you didn't expect?

As a person that was greatly influenced by Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go; I am instantly attracted to the idea of FME and ETLs. Everything has a specialty, is connected to each other and together fulfill a function. Brilliant. 

And like the book it is often in the background where the details lie and where the interesting things happen.

So I started using FME, like many across Ontario, to access provincial datasets. Did I know this directly? No but my download package hinted at it with its uuid filename and "fme" hidden there in the log file.

And once FME was directly in my hands the personal connections, ideas and knowledge sharing began. I cannot think of a software that best mirrors the way I think.  Process mapping and workflows are the starting point now not diving into data right way as I would have with a geospatial or analysis ask. Thinking like FME, Readers and Writers and Transformers....brings me back to Cars and Trucks and Things That Go.

Add on to this a genuine community of supportive experts and a company that stands behind pushing and developing the product with the user community. I have to say FME has shaped my entire approach to problem solving. And that's just great with me! :D

​@tnarladni got me started on my FME journey and I learned so much from them! Best mentor ever!💜

Working with FME has really helped me explore data and develop workflows in a low risk way. You can try things out in a workbench without actually affecting the original dataset. If you make a mistake, just delete that transformer and try something else. In my current job, I was given the opportunity to develop a solution that began as a workbench running with task scheduler to now being an automation in flow. I feel like my skillset has grown immensely.

Thanks so much for sharing! ​@crutledge ​@sammy 

At my first internship (1997) I had to use FME to transform some data for a map I was making. I quite enjoyed playing with that, even though at that time there was no Workbench, just mapping files. After that internship I ended up working for one of the Dutch partners. Left there in 2004 and became a Safe partner in my own right in 2006. 

So yeah, FME has been a very important part of my professional life right from college 😄

FME has had a huge impact on my career path. Before FME, most of my work was focused on data analysis with Excel and Power BI. Once I started using FME, I realized I was just as interested in data engineering as I was in analytics.

What surprised me most was how many different skills I got to explore. Beyond data integration and automation, I found myself getting into workflow development, app design, and even HTML design. I never expected to enjoy designing HTML interfaces as much as I do, but it's become one of my favorite parts of the job.

Looking back, FME opened doors I didn't even know existed. A lot of my work now involves these areas, and I genuinely enjoy it. I'm also fortunate to have a director who is a big supporter of FME and encourages us to take advantage of everything it offers. And of course, a big thanks to FME for being FME!