How to become a Data analyst?

aa6972

aa6972

aa6972

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Does anyone have any insight into what course, skills I should acquire to get a job in this field in the shortest time possible?

What would a employer be looking for (apart from experience). Should I study Excel, SQL, SPSS or R? Would studying statistics - say A-level be a good idea?

I have a degree in Engineering and a MSc in IT, but been stuck in a dead end job for the last few years, this field seems to the best bet to start a career given my education.

Thanks for any info guys.
 
I'd suggest that in terms of academic qualifications you should be ok. Ofcourse further qualifications will help but that could be said for anything.

As for analytical tools to learn this will depend on the area you wish to go into and their preferred choices. Being proficient in excel is always useful however. Although not strictly a "data" analyst I am an analyst and the stuff i learnt was r and matlab. However when i was in another job (different sector) sql and spss would have been better. If you can program in something get good at that and maybe one other thing and if you need to pick the others up later you can.

Generally proving you can use these sort of applications is often enough to get your foot through the door at an entry level sort of role (assuming thats the sort of area we're talking)
 
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I work with some BI/MI Data analysts within the Banking sector. Their work would bore the hell out of me, but each to their own.

Generally they need a logical brain, so a science/maths based degree, so you've got that down. You also need to be HOT on excel. Not so much programming stuff from what I have seen, but I guess you would also find more IT-oriented data analysts too.

Also should add.. Eventually once you have experience.. there are lots of contract roles for DAs.. so £400pd is pretty average in London within banking. Not a bad take home for very little real responsibility.
 
Excel is a must, sql and a bit of vba won't hurt either. The most important tool I use is business objects to get the data im interested in out of a database or the raw sql in studio managment.

Your need a knowledge of the data your working with i.e banking, asset management.

Enjoy doing vlookup's and pivot table then lots of reports.
 
I currently lead an analytics and development team for a retail bank. When i recruit i look for a few key skills and traits. Technology for me always comes second to the way someone thinks. I can teach someone how to use SAS, R or SSAS, I can't teach someone to have an analytical mindset. However, from doing an Engineering degree, you most likely fit this bill. If i were in an interview with you, i would want to be confident that you understand and can interpret data sets. The biggest gripe I have with large numbers of DAs is that they can do all of the analysis but can't answer the key question, "So What?" I can prove a correlation between variables but what does that mean for our stakeholders and my boss?

Outside of the mindset, if you were looking to get into the area, I would suggest you start with access and Excel and understand data table structures and hopefully learn some basic SQL. I would then probably do a SAS base course; over and above spss, SAS seems to be the defacto Data Analytics / Data Science tool.

If possible, try and steer away from MI and reporting roles. You will essentially just become an excel monkey churning out month end reports which few people read and fewer people understand. Better to use your skills to help shape and drive strategy than to simply report on it.

Any questions, just shout! (Apologies for any typos, on my ipad)
 
I work in the Financial Sector as a Risk Analyst, when adverts come up they generally look for a few key things.

-Numerate Degree
-Problem Solving
-SAS SQL and Excel.

However I got into the role with no SAS or SQL skills, still not brilliant at it but I am learning slowly. Statistics may be useful but not essential, many of the stats used in the department are fairly simplistic.

Base pay is not brilliant but there is progression, but this may vary by industry.

Echoing what others have said, you can be the best coder or data gatherer, however if you dont know what to do with it once you have it or you dont understand the wider implications you will not be much use. For interviews I would give examples where you have looked beyond the problem to its wider impacts and followed a logical step by step process to get there.
 
Munkeh said:
If possible, try and steer away from MI and reporting roles. You will essentially just become an excel monkey churning out month end reports which few people read and fewer people understand. Better to use your skills to help shape and drive strategy than to simply report on it.
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If it's not being read or understood then your MI isn't particularly well presented. The first step is to get your business to the position where it understands it's activity, then you can identify areas for change. Admittedly, some reporting is 100% reactive but I've never experienced a situation where there isn't the opportunity to add value if you want to.
 
I work as a Senior Intelligence Analyst in mobile telecoms. There is a difference between what I do and what would be considered as a typical 'data analyst'. My team are the people that use business MI to solve business questions.

To that end, although a technical skill set is required, what is also needed is the ability the understand the business strategy, its current operational practices and apply these together with data to find a solution to a given problem.

I could go to the market and find a hundred candidates with the technical ability, but I can guarantee few of these can turn the data into a 'story' to present back to an internal customer.

I got into the role through a grad scheme placement which resulted in an MI position. That's probably where you will find most of the opportunities to begin with. Unfortunately as others have mentioned, you'll find your role will quickly become about creating reports; not the most exciting or challenging situation.


The key to move out of that position is to have an inquisitive mind. Challenge the numbers, dig a bit deeper, learn more about what is happening in the business that will help you explain why the numbers are the way they are!

Hope this helps - any questions fire away.
 
I work in Business Intelligence in data-mining/predictive modelling team.

While technical degrees help, it's not required - I studied music & art (self taught VBA/SQL & have learned SPSS & all the maths statistics I need to do my job).

As others have stated, as long as you are good with data & can think logically - along with strong problem solving skills you should be fine, a creative element also seems to help as you can conceive some pretty innovative solutions.

Understanding data, databases (links), advanced excel (external data linked pivot tables, advanced VBA macros etc) will help you greatly.

SAM81 said:
I work as a Senior Intelligence Analyst in mobile telecoms. There is a difference between what I do and what would be considered as a typical 'data analyst'. My team are the people that use business MI to solve business questions.

To that end, although a technical skill set is required, what is also needed is the ability the understand the business strategy, its current operational practices and apply these together with data to find a solution to a given problem.

I could go to the market and find a hundred candidates with the technical ability, but I can guarantee few of these can turn the data into a 'story' to present back to an internal customer.

I got into the role through a grad scheme placement which resulted in an MI position. That's probably where you will find most of the opportunities to begin with. Unfortunately as others have mentioned, you'll find your role will quickly become about creating reports; not the most exciting or challenging situation.


The key to move out of that position is to have an inquisitive mind. Challenge the numbers, dig a bit deeper, learn more about what is happening in the business that will help you explain why the numbers are the way they are!

Hope this helps - any questions fire away.
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Definitely noticed that, so many people seem to have a block at digging to the next level - seems it can't be educated in either oddly.

Edit - Also, I'd recommend getting into predictive modelling/data mining - the money is very good & the UK seems pretty low on numbers for it (often have to recruit abroad) - also decent pay if you go into contracting (3/400 a day-ish).
 
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Interesting

cymatty said:
...For interviews I would give examples where you have looked beyond the problem to its wider impacts and followed a logical step by step process to get there.
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I would like to know what sort of questions you might ask and what you might look for in answers that stand out, as I'm looking at a applying for a SQL MI/reporting role.
 
fretted said:
I would like to know what sort of questions you might ask and what you might look for in answers that stand out, as I'm looking at a applying for a SQL MI/reporting role.
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Last time I went for an interview I was asked two questions that demonstrate what I mean,

1) How many ambulances would you need to deal with RTA in X city?
2) How would you analyse a new product offering that the company currently does not offer?

For the first they were looking for how you would approach that problem, what you would need to know/ask, contingencies, cost of getting it wrong and obviously the answer.

The second was along a similar vein, what data would you need? what would success look like? What impact would it have on your current offerings? How would it compare to the competition and would that matter?
 
Here's an example dataset for OcUK if they owned a block of flats. Now what would your answer to Gibbo be if he asked how can we make more money on this block?

Do we require more datasets? Can we figure out away to do it without raising the rents? etc. Guys if your in need of an example dataset feel free to have a play with this one as its all make believe and no real software (apart from excel was used).

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/908850/Datasets.xlsx
 
Thank you so much for all the response guys. Will definitely further my excel skills as a first step.

At the moment I work as a sale assistant in a retail shop but do use the data generated from tills, analyses in excel and identify what line sells, target opportunity etc. I do enjoy it but I am hoping to do it as a real job.
 
I do data analysis as 50% of my job role within SAP consultancy.

While I do not want to set the bar on what you should know, based from your OP expectations, I will say this.

When I started I was happy using excel as a spreadsheet tool but it is infact massively powerful. I can write complex multi-nested formulas and masses of modules of VBA (when the formulas dont give enough power) as a result of doing my job.

The reason being a lot of systems will offer excel exports as a standard so getting used to working with this is definitely advantageous. Youll need to be able to manipulate hundreds of thousands of rows of data to the point Excels ~1mil can be cumbersome but you can overcome that.

Be warned too though- once youre able to do it youll find all sorts asking you to "fix" theyre broken, messy, horrible, legacy spreadsheets that have circulated for years with many people having "fiddled" with them
 
I got into the field with good excel skills, but very little else. Everything I have needed since I have been able to learn on the job (VBA and SQL mainly).

But as above, you will be come the go-to guy for any problems with spreadsheets with problems going back a while!
 
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