How to Ask for Help

Asking for help is a professional skill. A well-formed question gets answered in minutes. A vague one gets bounced back.

The 30-Minute Rule

Quick Reference

Stuck less than 30 minutes — keep digging.

Stuck more than 30 minutes — post in the help channel NOW.

Do not wait until the standup. Blockers raised early get resolved early.

The Perfect Help Request

Problem:  My dbt run fails with "relation does not exist" on int_movies_enriched.

What I tried:
  1. Ran dbt run --select stg_movies — succeeded
  2. Checked that int_movies_enriched.sql exists in models/intermediate/ — it does
  3. Checked profiles.yml — schema is set to "public"

Error message:
  Database Error in model int_movies_enriched (models/intermediate/int_movies_enriched.sql)
  relation "public.stg_movies" does not exist

Repo link:  github.com/myname/movies-pipeline  (branch: feat/dbt-models)

Watch Out

Do not post "it's not working" without the exact error message.

Do not paste 300 lines of code. Share the repo link and point to the relevant file and line.

Do not DM instructors directly — post publicly so others can learn from the answer.