How Do I Become a Data Analyst?
To become a Data Analyst, you must have key data analysis skills and an ability to glean insights from large data sets.
Data Analysts Career |
Data analytics is a field ripe with opportunity, as companies across all industries have made big commitments to big data, building out their analytics departments – especially in telecommunications, insurance, advertising, financial services, healthcare, and technology. That growth is expected to continue well into the future as industries lagging in big data analytics adoption – including education, government, and manufacturing – have pledged to increase their big data analytics activity in the future.
1. Learn Data Analytics Fundamentals
When thinking about how to become a Data Analyst, your first step should be to learn the data analysis fundamentals and data analysis tools like advanced Microsoft Excel; programming languages SQL, Python and R; Spark and Hadoop for number-crunching; and Tableau, Matplotlib, or ggplot2 for creating beautiful visualizations that bring data to life.
Data analysis courses can be a great way to learn these fundamental data skills, giving you a strong footing on all these platforms, and the ability to gain hands-on experience with data management, statistical programming, programming languages, data cleaning, data visualization, and more.
2. Work on Projects to Develop Your Data Analytics Skills
If you want to become a Data Analyst, you'll need to get a firm grasp on a Data Analyst’s basic tools. Once you've done so, you can begin putting your knowledge to work. Successful Data Analysts will need to keep up-to-date with the latest and greatest tools associated with data analysis, including:
• Spreadsheets and querying languages depended on by Data Analysts, such as XML and SQL
• Programming languages and frameworks commonly used by Data Analysts like Python, R, and Hadoop
• Visualization tools popular with Data Analysts like Tableau, PowerBI; Plotly, Bokeh, and Matplotlib
They will also need to have experience with one or several leading data analysis platforms, including Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics.
Put together practice projects that touch on all the different stages of data analysis: researching companies and market opportunities, establishing the parameters of the data you need to collect, gathering and cleaning that data, then modeling and analyzing it using custom-built algorithms. Finally, turn the insights you’ve drawn from your work into beautiful visualizations, or even try organizing them into a dashboard that allows others to query and interact with your dataset in a user-friendly way.
As you go, you’ll also be practicing the soft skills that elevate the best Data Analysts above their peers: a good eye for detail, an ability to think creatively and analytically, excellent communication skills, and, of course, a head for numbers.
3. Develop Visualizations and Practice Presenting Them
To become a Data Analyst, you'll want to start using programs like Tableau, PowerBI, Bokeh, Plotly, or Infogram. Practice building your own visualizations from scratch, finding the best way to let the data speak for itself. Excel comes into play even during this step: although the basic premise behind spreadsheets is straightforward – making calculations or graphs by correlating the information in their cells – Excel remains incredibly useful after more than 30 years and is virtually unavoidable in the field of data science.
But creating visualizations is just the beginning. Data Analysts also need to be able to use these visualizations to present their findings. These communication skills may come naturally to you, but if not, you can improve with practice. Start small, if necessary, delivering presentations to a single friend for example, before moving on to colleagues.
4. Develop a Data Analyst Portfolio to Showcase Your Work
One of the most important steps to take when planning how to become a Data Analyst is deciding how you will demonstrate your data skills and knowledge. A professional portfolio is a must, and to get started, you should put the code you’ve written (even as part of your coursework) up on GitHub to show what you can do and begin building your professional portfolio.
Becoming a member of an online data science network like Kaggle is another great way to show that you’re engaged with the community, show off your chops as an aspiring Data Analyst, and continue to grow both your expertise and your outreach.
Finally, a Well-executed project that you pull off on your own can be a great way to demonstrate your data analysis abilities and impress potential hiring managers. Pick something that you’re really interested in, ask a question about it, and try to answer that question with data. Document your journey and present your findings—beautifully visualized—with a clear explanation of your process, highlighting your technical skills and creativity.
5. Apply to Relevant Data Analyst Jobs
There are a wide variety of Data Analyst jobs you can get with data skills. All of the following roles draw heavily on data analytics and can be entry-level or more senior data roles.
• Researcher
• Database Administrator
• Data and Analytics Manager
• Digital Marketing Manager
• Statistician
• Transportation Logistics
• Business Analyst
• Systems Analyst
• Healthcare Data Analyst
• Operations Analyst
• Data Engineer
• Data Analyst
• Quantitative Analyst
• Data Architect
• Data Scientist
There are many other variations out there new applications for data analytics are being developed all the time, and even the jobs listed here will continue to evolve as data analysis becomes more prevalent. Such a highly dynamic field, according to consulting firm Mckinsey & Co., means demand may outpace the projected supply of data professionals by 50 or 60 percent, making Data Analyst jobs even harder to fill. All of which is to say that if you have Data Analyst skills, you’re already in a great position when it comes to following a Data Analyst career path.
How Do I Become a Data Analyst With No Experience?
If you're wondering how to become a Data Analyst without any work experience in the field, your first step is to acquire the relevant data skills; then, you can demonstrate them publicly. Some of these skills are relatively easy to acquire individually, others are more complex. Even so, the field as a whole is large and diverse enough that it can be difficult to know where to even start. A structured learning environment that systematically covers all the basics is the best introduction to the field and will ensure that, from the outset, you’ll be clear on what you still need to learn.
Data Analytics courses and data science bootcamps, for example, are a popular option for aspiring Data Analysts. Here, you can learn key data skills and gain hands-on experience in an accelerated learning format with the confidence that the time you’re spending on learning is focused on the areas where it will benefit you most.
Once you’ve acquired key data skills, the next step to becoming a Data Analyst is to practice using these skills, ideally by building your own projects that you can share publicly. An effective way to display your work – and your data skills – is by posting the code you’ve written, even as part of your coursework, on GitHub. This will show off what you can do, and form the beginning of your professional portfolio.
Don’t stop at the basics. An ambitious, well-executed data project that you pull off on your own is a great way to demonstrate your data abilities and impress potential hiring managers hiring when applying for a Data Analyst job. Pick a topic that you’re really interested in, ask a question about it, and try to answer that question with data. Document your journey and present your findings – beautifully visualized – with a clear explanation of your process, highlighting your technical data skills and creativity.
Finally, joining an online data science network like Kaggle can be a great way to show that you’re engaged with the community, show off your chops as an aspiring Data Analyst, and continue to grow both your expertise and your outreach.
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