Regardless of your industry or role, fluency in the language of data analytics will allow you to contribute to data driven decision making.
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Data Analyst
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Written byBrennan Whitfield
UPDATED BY
Brennan Whitfield | Dec. 06, 2022
What Is a Data Analyst? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.
Data analysts solve measurable business problems with the help of computer programming and data analytics practices. Here’s what to know about a data analyst’s needed skills, salary and how to become one.
What Is a Data Analyst?
Data analysts conduct statistical analysis on structured data to uncover relevant business conclusions. They primarily focus on converting tangible, readily available data into actionable insights and answers.
What Do Data Analysts Do?
Data analysts acquire and organize cleaned data to search for applicable patterns and trends. They utilize data analysis techniques, programming languages and data visualization tools to conduct analysis and display their findings. Unlike data scientists, data analysts usually don’t work with raw data or machine learning models and don’t conduct largely hypothetical analysis.
Data Analyst Responsibilities
- Gather, reorganize and clean data as necessary from primary and secondary sources.
- Analyze and interpret patterns and trends in structured data sets.
- Extract actionable business insights and present findings to other professionals.
- Communicate with various parties to identify data information needs.
Day-to-Day Responsibilities of Data Analysts
- Use analytics platforms like KNIME to aggregate and clean collected data.
- Use programming languages like Python to manage data structures and conduct data mining operations.
- Create conclusion charts and graphs with visualization tools like Tableau.
- Collaborate with software developers to optimize data collection and analysis systems.
Data Analysts Within a Company
Data analysts are usually part of a data science team within a company. They frequently collaborate with business intelligence analysts, data engineers, data scientists and software developers to accomplish their work.
Importance of Data Analysts
The insights that data analysts uncover through their work can be used to alleviate workflow roadblocks or to eventually make impactful business decisions. Specific business problems or optimization issues that relate to data may take longer to solve without data analysts.
What Skills Are Needed to Be a Data Analyst?
Qualifications to Be a Data Analyst
- Internship and/or on-the-job training experience in data science or data analytics.
- Ability to organize, clean and interpret large sets of data.
- Ability to conduct statistical and regression analysis to track and identify trends.
- Proficiency in Python or R for data analysis purposes.
Data Analyst Prerequisites
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, statistics or a similar field.
Data Analyst Hard Skills
- Expertise in data analysis, cleaning and preparation.
- Knowledge of big data tools and databases.
- Knowledge of cloud computing technologies.
- Experience with data analysis tools and techniques.
- Experience with data visualization tools.
- Knowledge of machine learning technologies.
- Expertise in programming languages (Java, Python, R, Scala, SQL)
- Experience with statistics, mathematics and related analysis.
Data Analyst Soft Skills
- Collaboration.
- Critical thinking skills.
- Problem-solving skills.
- Verbal and written communication skills.
Tools and Programs Data Analysts Use
- Google Sheets
- Java
- Jupyter Notebook
- KNIME
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Power BI
- NoSQL
- Python
- R
- SAS
- Scala
- SQL
- Tableau
How to Become a Data Analyst
Data Analyst Education and Experience
Data analyst candidates are often expected to have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, statistics or a similar field.
Candidates will often need to obtain applicable data science or analytics experience through an internship, on-the-job training and/or work experience. Knowledge in the areas of data analysis and tools, data visualization, programming languages (Java, Python, R, Scala, SQL), statistics, big data and effective communication are also recommended.
Data Analyst Certificates and Courses
- 21 Python Data Science Courses and Bootcamps to Know
- Data Analytics Accelerator
- Data Analytics Bootcamp
- Intro to Data Analytics Webinar
- Learning Python for Data Analysis and Visualization
Data Analyst Career Path
After gaining experience as a data analyst, professionals can move into a data scientist, data analytics consultant or specialist role like marketing analyst, operations analyst or systems analyst. From here, professionals may progress into management and leadership roles like senior data analyst, analytics manager, director of analytics or chief data officer.
Data Analyst Salary and Job Outlook
Data analysts jobs, falling under the category of operations research analyst jobs by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, are projected to grow 23 percent by 2031.
The full compensation package for a data analyst depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average data analyst salary.
Courses
Expand Your Data Analyst Career Opportunities
Invest in your skillset by taking expert-led data science courses from Udemy.
Certifications
Data Analyst Certifications + Programs
Give your resume a boost with in-demand data science certifications available from Udacity.
Whether you have coded before or are brand new to the world of programming, this course will put you on the fast track to building confidence with this intuitive, object- oriented language. Learn programming fundamentals and build a custom application. Graduate with the ability to start applying Python within high-growth fields like analytics, data science, and web development.
What you'll accomplish
This is a beginner-friendly program with no prerequisites, although some students may have coded previously. First-time programmers will have access to pre-course preparatory lessons and additional resources to boost their confidence with key concepts and set up their development environments. Throughout this expert-designed program, you’ll:
- Learn object-oriented programming fundamentals and Python basics that get you coding from day one.
- Build a Python program and add on increased complexity throughout the course.
- Troubleshoot Python code and practice common debugging techniques.
- Push your skills to the next level by adding scripting, modules, and APIs to your Python toolkit.
- Explore introductory data science and web development as potential career directions for Python programmers.
- Demonstrate your Python skills by creating apps that pull in data with Pandas or integrate functionality from APIs with Flask.
Why General Assembly
Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation. General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.
Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team
Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly
General Assembly
General Assembly’s Data Analytics Immersive is designed for you to harness Excel, SQL, and Tableau to tell compelling stories with a data driven strategy. This program was created for analysts, digital marketers, sales managers, product managers, and data novices looking to learn the essentials of data analysis.
What you'll accomplish
You will learn to use industry tools, Excel, and SQL to analyze large real world data sets and create data dashboards and visualizations to share your findings. The Data Analytics Accelerator culminates in a.
Throughout this expert-designed program, you’ll:
- Use Excel, SQL, and Tableau to collect, clean, and analyze large data sets.
- Present data-driven insights to key stakeholders using data visualization and dashboards.
- Tell compelling stories with your data.
- Graduate with a professional portfolio of projects that includes a capstone project applying rigorous data analysis techniques to solve a real-world problem
Why General Assembly
Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation. General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.
Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team
Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly
General Assembly
General Assembly’s Data Analytics Immersive is a transformative course designed for you to get the necessary skills for a data analyst role in three months.
The Data Analytics bootcamp is led by instructors who are expert practitioners in their field, supported by career coaches that work with you since day one and enhanced by a career services team that is constantly in talks with employers about their tech hiring needs.
What you'll accomplish
As a graduate, you’ll have a portfolio of projects that show your knowledge of data analytics skills, as well as experience with visualization tools and frameworks that employers demand. Throughout this expert-designed program, you’ll:
- Acquire, analyze, and visualize data sets in real time.
- Master industry-standard tools like SQL, Excel, Tableau, PowerBI, and Python.
- Turn data into stories that can influence and inform important decisions.
- Ask the right questions and answer them with data-informed insights.
- Demonstrate what you’ve learned with a solid professional portfolio.
Why General Assembly
Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation. General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.
Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team
Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembl
General Assembly
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