Who I Am
My name is Abdulrahman El-Saeed. I'm an Egyptian living and working in Dubai. For the past 5+ years I've been in sales — B2B, retail, and everything in between. I've closed 190+ corporate contracts, exceeded targets for 10 consecutive months, and been promoted to Store In Charge in my first year at ELC.
But something has been calling me in a different direction: data.
Why Data Analytics?
Throughout my sales career, the moments I was most energised were never closing a deal — they were when I was diving into the numbers. Analysing why one product outperformed another. Building a report that helped management understand a trend. Spotting a pattern in the pipeline that nobody else had noticed.
My MIS degree from Cairo University gave me a foundation in database management, business analytics, and statistics. But I never had the chance to use it properly — until now.
The Decision
In early 2026, I made a decision: I would invest 20 weeks of consistent, structured effort into transitioning from Sales to Data Analytics. Not a vague resolution — a specific plan with deadlines, phases, and deliverables.
The plan: Excel → SQL → Power BI → Python → Job Ready. 2–3 hours every day, 6 days a week. Every phase ends with a real project.
My Background (What I Bring)
People sometimes underestimate what sales experience brings to data analytics. Here's what I see in myself:
- Business context: I understand what metrics actually matter in a real organisation.
- Storytelling: Sales is communication. Data analysis without communication is just numbers.
- CRM data: I've lived inside Salesforce and Zoho CRM — I know what messy pipeline data looks like.
- Resilience: 4,000+ outbound calls will teach you to handle rejection. Learning a new skill requires the same mindset.
Where I Am Now
I'm currently on Phase 1: Excel. Working through Mohammed Al-Assal's course, building pivot tables, dashboards, and data cleaning workflows. My first capstone project — a Sales Performance Dashboard modelled on my ELC experience — is due on 25 April 2026.
I'm documenting everything: weekly reports, projects, what I'm learning and what I'm struggling with. This website is that documentation.
Why Public?
Building in public keeps me accountable. It also means that if you're on a similar journey — a career changer, someone who wants to learn data analysis from scratch, someone navigating the Dubai job market — this might be useful to you.
The roadmap, articles, templates, and weekly reports here are all freely accessible. No paywall. Just enter your email.