Choosing a Career as a Data Analyst

A data analyst is the one who helps to make a better decision for the business. A data analyst brings in information about specific topics and clarifies, analyzes and present it in a comprehensive report. There are many different types of business that use data analyst to help in collecting and analyzing the data.

What work does a data analyst do?

The tasks which have been assigned to a data analyst is to translate numbers, trends, trajectories into digestible and accessible information. On the other hand, businesses collect their data through a medium of inventories, market research, sales figures etc.  A job of a data analyst is to take that data and use it to help companies for making a better decision, and the main goal of every data analyst is to solve issues that cost the company money and help them for expanding the business.

Work Example of a data analyst job:

1. Timing of sales and figuring it out when to hire or reduce the workforce

2. Reducing transportation cost

3. Supposing market shares

4. Fixing the price of new materials for market

Being as a data analyst you are responsible for all the work like manipulating, collecting and analyzing the data by using the standard formulas, systematic techniques and other methods to analyze the relevant information which is then prepared as a report for detailing the results.

How to become a data analyst?

Data Analyst is responsible for understanding the direction and vision that are revealed in massive data sets.  Data analyst positions are often hired by companies to help in informing decision or improving the business practices.

Skills required

To become a data analyst, you should have sharp technical skills with strong industry knowledge.  It is about having a complete understanding of relationships that exist among the organization’s numerous databases and data sources.  The main task they do is to obtain information using complex query statements and advanced database tools and techniques.

Skill for a data analyst:

• Communication skills– The communication skills for being as a data analyst should be good, which helps them to write and speak clearly and also be able to communicate complex ideas into easily understood terms. They present their findings and translate the data into documents and reports, which is easy to understand.
• Analytical skills– Data analyst works with large amounts of data which include facts, figures and numbers analysis.  The main task is to go through the data and analyze it to find the conclusions.
• Math Skills– Data analyst require math skills to process numerical data
• Critical Thinking – Being as a data analyst, you must look over to the numbers, trends, and data in order to formulate outcome.
• Attentive- Data analyst should be attentive in their analysis to come up with the right result.
• Technical Skills– There are many technical and computer programs that a data analyst should be aware of and know about it in order to be proficient.  Some of these include Javascript, Python, SAS, Hadoop etc.

Steps you can follow to build your career as a data analyst:

1. Acquire a bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science or statistics, data analyst course, and moreover, you can also take computer science classes that emphasize the project management and database management.

2. Gain data analyst experience, if you are experienced in the same field try to take as many internships as you can, this will only help you in getting the knowledge and concepts of data analyst which is a boon for your career growth.

3. Progress your career, like considering a master’s degree or certificate program. An advanced degree or certificate will give you an opening for more job opportunities and nowadays every industry is looking for a candidate as a data analyst who should have prior knowledge about the top data analytics tools and technologies. It will be beneficial for your career growth, and also you will be able to gain invaluable real-world experience while earning an advanced degree.

Data analytics job designations and their salary in India

1. Data Analyst Consultant: If you are an IT student, data analytics is an interesting field to choose for your career growth. It is a job designation for data analytics is data analyst consultant, the skills required to be as a data analyst consultant are data analysis, SAS, SQL and Tableau software.

The average salary is 8.8 lakhs per annum. For this job position maximum experience required is of 10 years.

2. Data Analytics Specialist: Data analytics specialist job is one of the top-level jobs in India as well as in International markets. If you are acquired with great knowledge about the data analytics terms and concepts being used, you can have good future growth in it. It depends upon the work experience if you have more than 10 years of experience you can move on to other high-level opportunities.

The average salary of a data analyst specialist in India is approx 3.5 lakhs per annum.

3. Data Analytics Manager: If you are willing to become a data analytics manager, you should be well experienced and also have knowledge of data analytics like Python, R, and Team Management etc.  More you have gained experience more it will benefit your career growth, and to be in the manager position, you should have a minimum of 15 to 20 years experience.

The average salary of a manager position in this field is 14 lakhs per annum in India.

4. Data Analyst: Being as a data analyst depends upon the work experience you have, if you much experience and known by all the technologies and software used in data analytics is a profit for a person. On the other hand, if you are fresher and do not have any relevant experience prior to this field then it is a starting point for you to gain much more information as you can, it will help you for better growth.