Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BACKGROUND
As I was preparing for the interview process for my current job, I was in search of tutorials, books, groups and
anything I could get my hands on to be successful as a new SAS programmer. Once I got the job, I needed to put
theory into practice and start some hands-on learning. In this paper, I present my thought process with what I was
thinking as I was going through this time period. Ive chosen not to number the list as it reads better in bulleted form.
http://aitraining.net
Im not going to explain this much more than the key is to get the job retain the job which hinges on how helpful
your team is in your SAS learning which leads to successful SAS programming and finally presenting your own
SAS knowledge back to your team and hopefully to a much larger audience.
Whats most important to you as your building blocks? Its okay to have a different version of your own
interpretation of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. For me it was reflecting on how I got the job and knowing how to
retain it as the key for the first my first100 days. Starting from the bottom of the pyramid and moving up:
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Employee Evaluation
Data Cleaning
Coding
Learn where your peers keep their SAS programs. Are they accessible on a shared drive?
Is there any index system to their programs? Is this being used? Can you create one?
Determine which programmer best illustrates the type of coding you would like to do.
The challenge with coding is that there are multiple ways to get at the same result and for the new SAS
programmer this can be very confusing. When you meet with your peers start asking if there is another way
to code for the same result. If you can, keep track of the alternate ways so you can start seeing a pattern
with the end goal of determining what works best for you.
o The classic example is joins and merging.
Data Politics
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Timelines
Consider having a 30, 60 and 90 day plan or 100 days, first year
o What can you be successful with right out of the box?
o We know you did work in your first year but did you learn anything? If you have not documented
your learning it will be harder to demonstrate to your boss.
Realize that SAS learning will involve weekends and that is okay.
Improve the system: When you take a SAS class create a system for note taking.
The challenge of being a good note taker and/or documenter of organizational processes
is that others on your team will immediately look to you to write everything down. This is
usually couched in terms of them being too busy, its all automatic, they dont stop to
think about the how and the why of what they are doing my advice: Dont buy what they
are selling. Everybody needs this skill regardless of organizational hierarchy. This is a
team cultural challenge that will need to be overcome or you will be the designated note
taker from now until entirety.
Know what books are available from your department SAS learning library. Purchase an embossed library
stamp and emboss your personal books. Label books on the spine that are team books so others on your
team know whats available on the team bookshelf.
Business Intelligence user group - community (start one); this is much broader than the SAS user groups.
Invest in Camtasia Studio or Snag it; make your own how-to training videos.
Create a Training plan by listing all possible SAS classes from SAS and competitors
o Start with the SAS Training Paths for different job classifications from the SAS website.
o Two issues that you might encounter:
Boss thinks: One class makes you an expert issue; more often then not you will not
know what training you really need until youve encountered several projects.
I explain it like this when there are whole books written about one statistical
equation that should speak volumes (no pun intended) that the one beginning
SAS class is not enough. Would you hire a mechanic who only had the general
course on automotive repair?
Solution: Make a pitch that you will come back and train others if you can get more
classes. Also argue for conferences that have pre and post training workshops to
augment your training.
o If you are lucky enough to have taken a SAS recorded on-line course remember you have access
to the course for a year. Take it again and savor it now that you have more experience on the job.
Things will make much more sense to you the second time around. Save the course notes that are
provided for future reference. If your course comes with reference sheets dont forget to print
them.
o SAS Education has produced a new video titled What is a good first SAS Training course? Review
this.
o Create your own You Tube Video on SAS training
Contact SAS Corporate and get them to approve your use of SAS for You Tube.
Contact your General Counsel and get them to approve future SAS You Tube videos.
Know how best you learn (in class, on-line, synchronous / asynchronous) and be able to advocate for what
you need. Know that your boss will naturally guide you toward the asynchronous on-line learning that is
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100 Things to Do in Your First 100 Days as a New SAS Programmer, continued
typically that least expensive of all the options outside of buying a few SAS books and saying, good luck
and have at it.
Training on the Cheap:
o Look for vendor seminars and/or sponsored webinars by consulting firms.
o SAS website; SAS Talks, SAS Webinars, SAS White Papers/Case Studies
Become master of the lunch and learn webcast; archive these on your shared drive and
type up a one page synopsis for the team.
Invest in yourself: If you are like me and believe that on-going training is the key to success offer to meet
your boss budget half way and ask for more training by helping to pay half. They pay for registration; you
pay for gas/hotel/food. This proves you are serious not only about your job but the skills that go with it.
Get your team to go for Top Tips at every meeting; rotate presenters
o If you can walk away from your weekly team meetings with something in your hand (yes, you need
to demand presenters write them down or have them available on the shared drive) or you might as
well not do this exercise - then youve successfully built in a life- long team learning initiative. Be
aware that everyone says this is a great idea but few will take the time to really come up with new
and interesting tips. Set the bar high.
Listen for a Train the Team opportunity. Even the best programmers that have been working at your
company for a long time do not know everything. When you hear of an area that is causing a serious time
delay or frustration in coding offer to look it up. What I have noticed is It typically is a topic that is rarely used
but very important.
Internalize that training resides in the team and not the individual;
o SAS training is expensive. Period. So any training offered to employees must come back to the
team in a formal presentation, shadowing and handouts (not just copied but scanned and saved on
the shared drive this needs to be an organizational team mandate). This has to be my biggest
pet peeve, someone goes to training and comes back with no notes, no handouts and offers no
presentations to the team.
o Approach training as if this is the last class your company will offer you and you have to ensure
others get trained. Essentially you are proving to your boss that if they select you to attend training,
youve got the ability to build the team. Its about building capacity and it starts with you.
Develop the persona of wanting to be the one people go to for SAS questions. Do this by having your SAS
library at your fingertips. Start writing one page SAS tips for your team.
www.safaribooksonline.com
o Safari has all the SAS press books on-line along with 24,000 technical books at the time of this
presentation. For approximately $100 per year you can have a five item bookshelf and you can
rotate monthly what you need.
Lex Jensen blog
o This website will come up when you start searching for SAS presentations and papers from user
conferences. Save this to your browser favorites as it is the go to source for SAS help. The
papers are short and typically cover one topic really well.
o When you get back from WUSS save your Top Ten papers you found helpful from the conference
on the shared drive for your team at work.
Practice
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Your Future
Dream Big: Have the goal be to open it up to other local businesses. There is
no reason why you cant invite several nearby companies (as long as they are
not competitors) to your presentation. You dont have to know everything about
SAS just one area really, really well. Do a limited radius search from your
business address and contact companies and ask if they use SAS and if they
would like to participate. It could be the beginning of a user group if you dont
already have one easily accessible.
o Attend local/regional user groups. My local ones are:
Develop a life long learning attitude; what does this look like to you?
Get to your university library and get an alumni card (if applicable) or a community user card.
Know what your education reimbursement is and how it works from your organization.
Know the education level of your team mates (and their sensitivity).
Share the math behind the SAS model and why its important; dont let that knowledge disappear. Work on
being able to explain it without going into the math but rather the conceptual picture of the equation.
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Know who applied for your job and their comfort/acceptance level with you.
Know who you can trust and to what degree. Unfortunately this information always comes too late to be
helpful from a teammate.
Know who advocates for competitor products and why
o Know if there is a movement to convert all users to one enterprise product
Know who likes to talk in pictures vs. who likes the numbers
o Listen for data storytelling; how does the end product of your SAS program get communicated?
o Know that there can be a subtle political backlash with all the great training ideas in the previous
section. Remember that teammates or even your boss may become suspicious of all your great
outreach efforts.
o One of the themes that can come up is youve got all this time to do all these great additional
presentations, trainings and create great documents for the team let me translate this for you:
Dont you have any work to do? One way to combat this attitude is to ensure that most of your
work that can be perceived as not working on the current job load in your department is done off
hours. This will be a continual challenge for those of us who naturally want to do more. Just be
sensitive that others may question your motives as all of these ideas have the additional effect of
building your resume. As long as you always give back to your organization everything you learn
and encourage others to come along with you youll be successful.
SAS
Know what SAS products you have available run this code:
PROC SETINIT NOALIAS;
RUN;
This is what I am most interested in:
Print in color from the Enhanced Editor and add training commentary in separate column
Google SAS Code and what you are needing to do for examples
Learn to search your shared drives at work for SAS Code elements you need
Best book purchase: The Little SAS Book (Delwiche and Slaughter)
o Take the time to download the data sets and commit to going through the two page examples daily
or weekly. They are short enough to learn something new every day. Keep your book at your desk
and bookmark where you are.
Be a team player and add a book to your department library; there usually is a discount if you buy a book at
the user group conferences. This also has the added benefit of demonstrating to your boss and team you
really got something out of the program.
Know the SAS product line; know what you got and what you are missing
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100 Things to Do in Your First 100 Days as a New SAS Programmer, continued
PROC PRINT
PROC MEANS and PROC UNIVARIATE
PROC FREQ
PROC CHART and PROC PLOT
PROC TABULATE
Have Fun!
o
o
Halloween 2011 our team became M*A*S*H Master Analytical Statistical Headquarters
Celebrate your SAS accomplishments. No one else does this better than you!
CONCLUSION
Everyones first 100 days will be different. As you can tell, mine centered on learning as much as I could about SAS
and convincing my boss that SAS will always be at least for me a constant learning curve and Im okay with that.
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100 Things to Do in Your First 100 Days as a New SAS Programmer, continued
RECOMMENDED READING
Delwiche, Lora D., and Slaughter, S. (2008). The little SAS book: A primer. SAS Institute: Cary, NC.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Your comments and questions are valued and encouraged. I would enjoy hearing from you about your educational
journey with SAS. Maybe something magical happened for you on day 101 that I need to know about. I am also
more than happy to share my You Tube video, training documents and general notes. Lets learn together!
Contact the author at:
Dr. Kari Kelso
Senior Data Analyst
VSP Global
3333 Quality Drive
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
(916) 851-6141
kari.kelso@vsp.com
SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS
Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. indicates USA registration.
Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.
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