Welcome to another special edition of Career Chat. This week we shine a light on our careers in the world of data analytics. We talked about data analytics skills in the last issue, but what might it look like to take these skills center stage in your career?
Well, it can look many different ways. A title like ‘data analyst’ can be quite vague as data analysts work in many industries and business segments. Business analysts, financial analysts, marketing analysts, and healthcare analysts are all examples of people who use data to find solutions – the main difference between them is the type of problem they want to solve.
Because data analysts exist in so many different industries, it can be a good option if you’re considering a career change. Established industry knowledge can improve 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 in responding to customer concerns about delayed and incorrect 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 navigate the data analysis process: identifying your question, collecting information, cleaning the data, conducting your analysis, and interpreting your findings. But these are all skills that can be learned. Angie Rudduck, head of data analytics 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 hands-on learning, expressing the importance of trying, even knowing you might fail, and learning from others. “If you want to get a job, go and stand with the person who is in that role today,” she says. “Learn by watching, then learn more however you can.”
For more tips from Rudduck, read our full interview: 6 questions with the head of Microsoft Data Analytics.
Where to start
To explore the use of data analytics in a business environment, check out Microsoft’s Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate. Here you will 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 ready to take the industry-recognized PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst certification exam and eligible to receive a 50% exam discount voucher.
For an introduction to the data analysis process, get started with Google’s Data Analytics Professional Certification. These courses cover the basics of starting a career in data analytics and guide you through the process of analyzing data using Google Sheets, SQL and R.
To build your data analyst programming skills, try the Python specialization for all University of Michigan. Data analysts use Python to collect, clean, analyze, and visualize data—in other words, you can use Python at every stage of your analysis.
Continue learning about becoming a data analyst
To continue exploring data analyst careers, check out some of our most popular guides:
- How to become a data analyst (with or without a degree)
- 6 Popular Data Analytics Certifications: Your Guide to 2023
- 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 tutorials.
Fire up any lingering data analyst questions in the comments section below and we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction. By the way, see you next week!