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Home » Explore by role » Data Science & Analytics Roles » Data analyst career spotlight: What it is and how to get started
Data analyst career spotlight: What it is and how to get started
February 20, 2024
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Welcome to another special issue of Career Chat. This week, we’re shining our career spotlight on the world of data analytics. We’ve discussed data analysis skills in a past issue, but what might it look like for those skills to take center stage in your career?
Well, it can look a lot of different ways. A title like ‘data analyst’ can be pretty vague because data analysts work across many industries and business segments. Business analysts, financial analysts, marketing analysts, and health care analysts are all examples of people who use data to find solutions—the main difference between them is the type of problems they aim to solve.
Because data analysts exist across so many industries, it can be a good option if you’re thinking about changing careers. Having established industry knowledge can enhance your ability to examine and interpret industry-related data. For example, let’s say you work in customer service for a clothing retailer. Given your years of experience responding to customer concerns about delayed and inaccurate orders, you may be uniquely positioned to interpret problems and find solutions in a supply chain analyst or operations analyst role.
That is, as long as you know how to use data analysis tools and can move through the data analysis process: identifying your question, collecting information, cleaning data, conducting your analysis, and interpreting your findings. But those are all learnable skills. Angie Rudduck, a data analytics leader at Microsoft, recommends starting with a diverse array of certification courses and blogs. “Learn from as many people and sources as you can,” she says.
Rudduck also advocates for hands-on learning, expressing the importance of trying, even knowing you may fail, and learning from others. “If you want to get a job, go stand next to the person in that role today,” she says. “Learn by seeing, and then learn more however you can.”
For more tips from Rudduck, read our full interview: 6 Questions with a Microsoft Data Analytics Leader.Where to begin
To explore using data analysis in a business setting, check out Microsoft’s Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate. Here, you’ll learn how data analysts and business intelligence analysts use Power BI, a powerful analysis tool, to solve business problems. By the end of these courses, you’ll be prepared to take the industry-recognized PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst certification exam, and you’ll be eligible to receive a 50% exam discount voucher.
For an introduction to the data analysis process, start with Google’s Data Analytics Professional Certificate. These courses cover the basics of starting a career in data analytics and guide you through the data analysis process using Google Sheets, SQL, and R.
To build your data analyst programming skills, try the University of Michigan’s Python for Everybody Specialization. Data analysts use Python to gather, clean, analyze, and visualize data—in other words, you can use Python at every stage of your analysis.Keep learning about becoming a data analyst
To keep exploring a career as a data analyst, take a look at some of our most popular guides:
How to Become a Data Analyst (with or Without a Degree)
6 Popular Data Analytics Certifications: Your 2023 Guide
5 Data Analytics Projects for Beginners
15 Data Analyst Interview Questions and Answers
Or check out a compilation of all our top data analysis courses and guides.
Drop any lingering data analyst questions in the comment section below and we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction. Otherwise, we’ll see you next week!
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