How to Become a Data Analyst From Beginner to Advanced

In this digital era, data analyst is becoming an increasingly popular and the most sought-after career. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Job 2023, the demand for this position will increase by 30-35%. This role is responsible for the processing of company data, so it is not surprising that data analysts are indeed in high demand. 

In addition, the income offered is also promising. Do you want to embark on a career in this field? You can check the following tips and discover what lies ahead in this career once you accumulate a lot of experience.

5 Tips to Become a Data Analyst

There are some tips that will help you to reach success in this field. Here are five tips that you can consider:

1. Learn the required basic knowledge

To begin learning something new, it’s important for you to start with the basics. There are several basic skills you have to master, including data visualization, statistics, Structured Query Language (SQL), programming languages, data analysis, and so on. Very similar to math, right? 

For those without a relevant educational background, there is no need to worry. Because you can acquire this basic knowledge through various boot camp activities and courses.

2. Practice collaboration and communication skills

This position requires you to work closely with various parties, ranging from the operational team, IT team, and other teams involved in data collection. On the other hand, you also need to collaborate with non-technical parties for data visualization processing. 

In addition, one of the data analyst’s main duties is data visualization or presenting data analysis results. The results usually contain quite complex information. During the presentation, you need to communicate it more simply to be easily understood by stakeholders with no relevant backgrounds.

3. Apply the acquired knowledge in real-life cases

If you already have the basics, then you can start practicing it in real-life cases. It will help you get ready to solve any problems in the future when you have fully entered the world of work as a data analyst. But how do you do it? 

You can download the datasets available on some websites. However, it is important to highlight that not all datasets are provided for free. You can get the free ones from several websites, such as GitHub, Kaggle, Data.world, Google Dataset Search, etc. 

4. Build a portfolio as neat and complete as possible

To become a highly potential employee in front of recruiters, a portfolio undoubtedly becomes an important aspect to develop. As a beginner, it does not matter if the content of your portfolio contains simple projects from boot camp. However, make sure that your portfolio is as neat and complete as possible to attract recruiters.  

Such a portfolio will make you stand out among other applicants. Hence, you are most likely to obtain more job opportunities. This shows that you are a creative, professional, and conscientious candidate. These three quality aspects are the most important basic skills to engage deeply in the field of data analysis.  

5. Look for an entry-level position to build experience

If you are a beginner data analyst or a fresh graduate, then the entry-level position fits your specifications. This position gives you the opportunity to gain experience before you climb to a higher level.  

In addition, there will be more opportunities to have hands-on experience to improve your hard skills. At the entry level, there are some types of practices you may learn, including data collection and data cleansing, basic analysis, simple visualization, etc. 

Data Analyst Prospects and Career Paths Now and Beyond

This position is currently favored by many job seekers. The job opportunity is also directly proportional to people’s interests as it is needed by almost all companies. Moreover, in the digital era, there are certainly many opportunities available in various industries for data analyst, for example in the financial industry. Data analyst is usually needed in financial institutions, financial planning, insurance, and financial technology.  

In addition, the career paths of data analyst are highly promising, starting from the entry-level, senior-level, up to the lead/manager-level positions. Even by pursuing this field, you can also take similar career paths, such as Data Engineer, Data Scientist, or even Business Analyst. 

It is not advisable to rule out the position of a data analyst for a better career opportunity. However, it must be in balance with your skill development to compete with others to acquire the work opportunity in this field. Want to know more information about career development? Click here!