Breaking Into Data Analytics
This Is Our Blog On Technical Skills In Data-intensive Positions. Read our Previous Blog On Data Science — The Career Of Future.
Let’s take a look at what you need to know as a Data Analyst.
Why Choose a Career in Data Analytics?
There are quite a few practical reasons a data analytics career might be appealing, including:
- Highly-paid.
- A Fast-growing industry with skilled workers in demand.
- Lots of room for career advancement.
But there are quite a few less obvious reasons working in data analytics can be a great choice, too:
- Satisfying and challenging day-to-day work that’s focused on problem-solving.
- (Often) a good mix of technical work and interpersonal communication work.
- Technical skills like programming transfer easily to many other careers.
- (Often) work-from-home flexibility.
- Very few mandatory qualifications — employers in the field are most interested in skills, not specific degrees or certifications.
- Wide variety of available roles in the field.
Interested? Then take a look at what is Data Analytics?
DATA ANALYTICS
Data analytics focuses on processing and performing statistical analysis of existing datasets and establishing the best way to present this data.
Data processing: The series of acts or steps performed on data to verify, organize, transform, integrate and extract data in an appropriate output.
Statistical Analysis: This is the representation of Statics(Pie chart) and analyzing or summarizing Data after collection of Data.
The field of data and analytics is directed toward solving problems for questions we know we don’t know the answers to. More importantly, it’s based on producing results that can lead to immediate improvements.
Analytics brings together theory and practice to identify and communicate data-driven insights that allow managers, stakeholders, and other executives in an organization to make more informed decisions.
Data Analyst, understand’s the data, analyzes the data, cleans the data, visualizes the information and also needs to know how to use data to enable an organization to make more informed decisions. These roles are high in demand.
Skills For Data Analyst Should be?
Effective data analysts possess a combination of technical skills and leadership skills.
Technical skills include knowledge of database languages, some of these top skills for data analysts include:
- Structured Query Language(SQL)
- R or Python-Statistical Programming
- Communication Skills
- Microsoft Excel
- Data Visualization
- Critical thinking Presentation Skills
- Machine Learning
- Mathematical & Statistical Skills are also valuable to gather, measure, organize and analyze data.
Leadership Skills include knowledge of complete decision-making and problem-solving. These abilities allow analysts to think strategically about the information.
Programming Languages:
Data Analysts should typically have command of at least one programming language among,
- A 2019 survey by analytics recruiters Burtchworks found that Python had finally edged out SAS or R as the preferred language of Data Analysts.
Responsibilities Of Data Analyst:
The responsibilities of data analyst typically include the following:
- Interpreting data, analyzing results using statistical techniques.
- Designing and maintaining data systems and database.
- Mining data from a primary and secondary source.
- Demonstrating the significance of their work in the context of local, national, and global trends that impact both their organization and industry.
- Preparing reports for executive leadership.
- Creating appropriate documentation.
- Filter and “clean” data by reviewing computer reports, printouts, and performance indicators to locate and correct code problems.
- Collaborating with programmers, engineers, and organizational leaders.
- Locate and define new process improvement opportunities.
Job Duties For Data Analyst:
Requirements:
- Proven working experience as a Data Analyst or Business Data Analyst.
- Technical expertise regarding data models, database design development, data mining & segmentation techniques.
- Strong knowledge of database, statistical packages for analyzing datasets.
- Strong analytical skills to collect, organize, analyze the data.
- Adept at queries, report writing and presenting findings.
Data analysis requires candidates with a very strong foundation in topics such as statics, operations research and machine learning as well as database skills in order to retrieve, clean and process data from a variety of sources.
Types of Jobs that Require a Knowledge of Data Analytics:
- Business Intelligence Analyst
- Data Analyst
- Data Scientist
- Data Engineer
- Quantitative Analyst
- Data Analytics Consultant
- Operations Analyst
- Marketing Analyst
- Project Manager
- IT Systems Analyst
- Transportation Logistics Specialist
Demand For Data Analysts Is Skyrocketing:
Data Analysis is one of the most in-demand jobs for 2021. Demand is one of the reasons data analyst salary is significantly high. Data Analyst has finally become ubiquitous across industries and companies of all sizes.
- In 2018 the World Economic Forum published its predictions for the future workforce through 2022. In it, the WEF identified that by 2022, 85% of companies will have adopted big data and analytics technologies.
- WEF also found that 96% of companies were definitely planning or likely to plan to hire new permanent staff with relevant skills to fill future big data analytics related roles.
- In Fact, The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the need for business analysts to increase 14% by 2024. This is one of the highest average percentages among growing occupations.
- According to IBM, the number of jobs for data professionals in the U.S will increase to 2,720,000 by 2020.
Lastly, on the soft skill side data analysts must have a collaborative nature and have great communication skills.
What Do Data Analyst Make?
The average annual salary of data analyst in different countries can range from approximately-
- India: Over ₹9,50,000
- USA: Over $65,000
- United Kingdom: Over £27000
- Canada: Over C$56000
- Australia: A$82K
- Singapore: S$55K
- Germany: €45,338
- Denmark: DKK 881,794
- Malaysia: RM 44127
Note: It’s also important to consider that while these are the base averages for various countries as a whole, they will also vary considerably based on the city.
Data Analyst role is also a natural stepping stone for more senior data driven jobs. According to PayScale, data analysts move on to roles such as senior data analyst, data scientist, analyst manager, and business analyst. These roles come with sustainable increases in pay, too.
At Last,
Data Analyst Career Path: Pros and Cons:
Data analysis roles can be great, but they’re not for everyone! Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of these roles:
At last, confused between Data Science and Data Analyst and not able to make a difference between next in our series we have a blog on that too so follows us for updated content every week.
Till then read our previous blog on Data science-The Career of Future:
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Author: Riya Patidar
Editor: Ashutosh Raghuwanshi, Devendra Patidar