Entry vs Mid vs Senior Level Data Analyst | Alex The Analyst Show | Episode 15

hello i'm your host alex freeburg and this is the alex the analyst show thank you so much for joining me today we are going to be discussing the difference between an entry level a mid-level and a senior level data analyst position now most people are going to start off in an entry-level job or a junior job that's just typically how it goes although some people do skip right to the mid-level jobs um typically that requires a master's degree like you just graduated from a master's program and they might take that as years of experience um sometimes they'll take that as two years of experience giving you a mid-level job so that is not uncommon but i'm going to kind of walk through a few key topics that i think are going to kind of give you a good picture of when you know where you should be um you know are you an entry level should you be a mid-level um you know when do you ask for that raise or when do you look for another job at the next level these are really important things you do not want to stay an entry level or a junior level data analyst forever contrary to what that one job posting in one of my previous videos said if you are a junior data analyst for two years you should not be looking for another junior data analyst position that's what it said on that that job posting i don't know if you guys remember that it i found it extremely funny um so i'm going to start off with kind of my experience as an entry-level data analyst and then kind of walk through these different topics with you um to share those topics you know what exactly does each level do kind of what's the overall difference that's really it's hard to kind of say but then looking at the skill level in sql python tableau with all these kind of main skills as well as additional skills that you'll get that as you get to each level there will be additional skills that you should be picking up um and so that's important to know and then as well as education level so these are some of the things we'll talk about i you know me i will go off on some tangents um and it's just as it flows if i'm thinking of things uh what comes out of my mouth is what you're gonna get you guys know this so let's jump right into it as an entry-level data analyst you are not expected to know a ton and because of that you require quite a bit of oversight um i don't want to say you're going to get micromanaged it depends on the boss i guess but you do need some additional management and that's not every person some people are extremely independent but when you're in those roles they probably just don't trust you a ton to do everything that they've asked you to do right if they ask you to go build this or do this or analyze this they're probably going to check in on you and so that's one of the pretty good indicators that you're in an entry level position or you are in an entry level role is that they are going to be kind of more on top of you checking in that could be a daily check-in or a weekly check-in um and they're just basically saying you know hey how is this going do you need any help and you can you know typically you can kind of get that feel like they're asking and you know making sure that you know what you're doing making sure that you're doing the projects correctly making sure that you know that where the data is and all these things in terms of the skill level your skill level is probably not going to be that advanced right it's an entry-level job so we're starting at the bottom so for sql um you know you know the basics you know how to query data and again that is that is really all you need in an entry-level job you're not going to be doing short procedures you're not going to be creating any automated processes as an entry-level data analyst it's just it is not expected of you if you can do it that is fantastic and who knows maybe you'll get promoted very quickly um but you also may not even be expected to know things like python or r um the programming that kind of the two big programming languages that a data analyst is normally kind of accustomed a lot of people expect them to know those things um but as an entry-level data analyst you may not be expected to know those and so you may be able to get an entry level job just with sql tableau power bi excel those skills um and with your education level you're typically just at a bachelor's degree um there are a lot of times honestly but sometimes where you have a master's degree and you know you still take an entry-level job that happens a lot and so you know with your education you're probably not having you don't have a phd you probably don't have a master's in like computer science or data science or something or analytics or something like that you can typically find a mid-level role like that um but your education you know is not super high right and i can vouch for that um and i still can vouch for that although i've gotten a little higher than an entry-level analyst right now um let's move on to the mid-level the mid-level to me and this is where i am currently at um and i i think i am like right at the peak about to break the cap into the senior level um i know i haven't been in this industry super long but i've made a lot of progress in the time that i have been here and i'm like right on the cusp of getting to that next level um and so i'll talk about that a little bit later so for a mid-level data analyst you are now expected to know some things and they have a little bit higher expectations of what you can do what you should be doing your knowledge on the domain and the data itself to talk a little bit more to that you know as an entry level data analysts they are going to be checking in on you often um and that's just how it is but as a mid-level they may be checking in you once a week um you know i know just on my team everybody on my team in our whole department i mean we do weekly check-ins that's just what we do do i need it for most of the time no but it's really nice to get some you know time to talk to the boss um and and walk them through some of the things i might be going through but you're expected to solve a lot of your own problems so if you're having trouble with an issue you know you should be confident enough to go solve those issues talk to the people you need to be talking to and if you can't do that you go to your boss and and so there is a higher level of expectations in terms of how you actually conduct your business and get your job done you're much more independent you don't need to be doing daily check-ins anymore and if you do that as a mid-level that's kind of like micromanagement territory to me um i've thank goodness i've had good bosses for the most part i've had one bad boss way back when i know i've told you guys about that before but none recently i i've had really good bosses and none of them micromanage me and if i had a boss that micromanaged me at this level where i'm at uh i probably would not stay there long that that would not vibe with me because i am i'm very confident in my abilities now or i'm like i don't need somebody to be checking in on me i i just don't need that i know what i'm doing um so you're going to know what you're doing you're going to need you're going to know a lot more in-depth skills like sql and the mid-level again and i have said this in the past you don't need to know a programming language you don't need to know python you don't need to know r but you will probably earn more money because of it and it will open up a lot more opportunities because of it especially at larger tech companies or fortune 500 companies you know those things will help you get those jobs and so at the mid-level i think i would be recommending people if you haven't already to learn either python excuse me or are in order to either get that job but it's kind of it's starting to be expected at that level to know those things excuse me i was taking a drink of my coffee some people i just found out i don't know why i didn't know this but some people just listen to this they don't watch me so i could be doing random things with my hands and they would never know but sometimes i take long time sipping my coffee and people have to check their phones to make sure that they that it didn't like stop um so i've had people message me and tell me that before they're like hey like i appreciate you drinking coffee it's just i keep thinking that the show's over or it cut off or my earphones got unplugged or something so i'm super sorry about that it it i don't know what to do about that i'm just gonna say i'm sorry um so you're gonna need to know i i do recommend at mid-level after about two years in the industry when you're about to break into that mid-level um job i do recommend picking up most likely python that's my personal recommendation or r whichever one your company or your industry prefers or you prefer so the skill level is going to be higher so for sql um you know you're probably going to start working a little bit you know again it depends on your company but you could be working a lot more with temp tables you should be maybe even doing some automated reports you could be working with stored procedures um you might be qaing a little bit more advanced code doing some window functions uh there's a lot of things beyond the basics that entry love only entry level people know for the most part you're me doing a little bit more advanced things or you should be at that level and you know that's why they have these technical interviews for a lot of these data analyst jobs is because they want to make sure that you're at the level of a mid-level data analyst they don't want to be hiring somebody who just knows the basics um and so you know that's where you should be that's the difference between an entry level and a mid-level skill-wise education-wise you could still be just a bachelor's degree um you know but this definitely when you start hitting mid-level i think a lot of people start thinking you know if i want to get to the next stage i'm going to need to go back and get a master's that's where i'm at right now full disclosure like i'm looking at master's degrees as we speak thinking about when i want to apply um when i want to go because uh although i believe and i'm fairly certain i will make it to the senior level um you know within the next two maybe three years i want to be able to get even further right i want to go into management you know director level roles senior vp ceo like those that's my trajectory that's where i want to go eventually um but you know the education level has to be there and so if i'm sitting at a senior level for five six seven eight years and i still have just a bachelor's degree um you know maybe that's not a bad thing but personally i want to be advancing in my education to not only know the skills but also back it up with a degree that's just my personal opinion um but in terms of what they do you know we're gonna now we're gonna switch over to the senior level um that's just the education for that was the education for mid-level it's just you should be thinking about or maybe even getting a master's at this point if that is an option for you so let's move on to the senior level my my favorite because this is um you know this is the peak for a data analyst you know you can there's some different titles they could be a principal data analyst a lead data analyst or it could be a senior level data analyst those are kind of like i think the main titles for that kind of seniority level so for a senior level data analyst you are going to be expected to be very good at everything that we just discussed you're going to need to be very good at sql and you're going to be needing to know advanced topics everything that i mentioned in the mid-level but just even more right you will will most likely be expected to be creating some type of automated processes automated reporting um you'll definitely be working with well i say definitely but for my industry or my job at least you'll be working a lot with short procedures analyzing the data at a very high level um you know again everything that we discussed except just even more advanced um so with python python for a senior level role or r for senior level role is pretty much required um again it just depends on the company if your company doesn't value that or use it then you may not need that but if you are at a company that does use it and you don't know that skill it'd be very very difficult to rise up to a higher level and if you're at a mid-level and you're trying to get to a senior level role at a different company you know it only benefits you in the long run so back to kind of what the other things we talked about with the other levels in this level you are expected to basically be on your own um you know you come in for the check-ins you'll you'll if you meet with your boss weekly or monthly you do those things but besides that you are handling just about everything by yourself but you don't need a lot of help and in fact you're probably going to start taking on i don't say like mentees but you'll be maybe even mentoring the um incoming data analysts or the mid-level data analysts or they could be i don't know maybe even reporting to you i don't it just depends on your structure but they're going to be looking up to you and for questions and they're going to be coming to you with questions they're going to say you know the data better than anybody can you explain this to me um in the entry-level role nobody's going to be asking you that in the mid-level role some people might be starting to become to you you know hey do you know about this um you know have you heard of this in the senior level role they're like hey i know you know about this can you explain this to me i uh how do i go and access this how do i what do i do for this um that's gonna become a lot more common as a senior analyst and that's because you're a senior level role you're expected to know just about everything as it pertains to the data how it's acquired what it's used for what products it goes into um the the how the data is transformed right these are the things that you have to know because if heads of departments or or you know people you're working with need to know these things you don't want to have to go ask your boss that's kind of defeats the purpose of being a senior level rule you need to be able to answer all these questions on your own for skill level um i talked a little bit about the sequel for the python you know you should be very comfortable in in a programming language i said python but python r should be very comfortable in a programming language and using it often um to be to just be very um skilled in that area that is my personal belief and that based off the research i found that um i might i'll try put up the statistic if if i remember to put it up there um but over 60 of senior level analysts use some type of programming language either python or r which means 40 aren't and so you know they may be using um just other tools that kind of replace those the need for those but 60 brands 60 say that if they are senior level analysts they are using one of those for education level um you know again i think at this level you should be either getting or starting or already have a master's degree in something related to this field whether that's computer science um analytics something like that i think that you should be going towards or already have that level of education um one second i'm just pulling something up real quick so a lot of the stuff i got from a few different articles that i read people who are much smarter than i which doesn't isn't saying much to be honest it's not a high bar um and so i think that just a kind of a takeaway from this i think that looking at your current skill level if you have a master's degree if you have years of experience you should be looking at your current situation and saying what is my next step if you're right out of college your next step is probably an entry-level job if you have been in an entry-level job for three years you should probably actively be looking for a mid-level role or asking for a raise because after that it's like how many more years can you be an entry level data analyst really um so you know just take a look at your situation that is to me those are the biggest differences right there are a lot of other smaller things i didn't include them because honestly i i'm not sure how long i'm gonna run i think i'm already at like 20 minutes that's a long time um that's a long time for the main part and i i really like my other segments of the show which i like to i like to fit in so those are the main differences and so i hope that that's that kind of explains um you know where you should be at each level and kind of your progression as you grow as an analyst that is a progression that i am trying to take um and when i was researching this and looking up all these things and finding these articles which i will try to include in the in the description if you want to look those up excuse me um i feel like i'm trying to follow this pretty closely um although i didn't even know about it until this week i've been trying i have been following this kind of closely um in my personal analyst career so let's move on to the next segment of the show we have three segments coming up my my first one is uh thank you to everyone over at patreon you guys make this show happen i show up every single week uh and and i do this for you guys and everyone else who watches uh you guys are good too i guess but i do this for you guys because you support the show you support me support max who's laying right next to me looks super cute i would pick him up and pull him up here but honestly he's having like he's doing that dream thing where he like runs in his dream i don't want to wake him up he's too cute um you guys make this happen and i i appreciate you i i i love you um and if you want to support the show if you want to feel loved and you want to see more pictures of max which i posted one today uh it's like 70 degrees in in dallas today december 12th of 2020 70 degrees in dallas and i took him out back was playing took a picture for you guys posted it there and if you don't and you know if you don't if you're not a patreon member you didn't get to see that i feel bad for you um so there's a link in the description if you want to support the channel shout out to you guys next segment of the show which is a very good one it is question of the week question of the week comes from muhammad and i'm going to try to pronounce this last name and and i apologize it's going to be incorrect buchacucho and it says hello alex great video as usual thank you i have a question for you are online certificates from edx coursera and udacity worth it and which of those three is better it has more credibility in the real world this is a tough question a really tough question and i personally think it is kind of controversial um and so take whatever i'm saying with a grain of salt i am not an expert when it comes to certifications um i have my own personal thoughts so here's what i think i think that for the most part those certificates really aren't that worth it i think then there's there's and i say that with a grain of salt because i think they're good to put on a linkedin uh or on linkedin i think they're good to put on linkedin i don't think they're something that i would personally be putting on my resume um the difference is is linkedin is more of kind of a social media you're showing people that you're working on things if a recruiter checks it out they're like wow this guy has a udacity nanodegree um doesn't make a huge difference but man if they know what that is that's cool or they they took this course in um coursera they'd spent like 20 40 hours on it that's dedication so it can show that you're learning the skills uh you're actually learning the skills but i don't think the sort of certificates are as valuable as some people might say um and so that's my general rule of thumb for these course websites they are fantastic to learn from i i personally learned so much from them but i'm not putting those certificates or those certifications or whatever you want to call it on my resume i don't even put them on my linkedin account but if i was going to put them anywhere it would only be my linkedin if i was to get from any of those three that you mentioned edx coursera or udacity if i was to get it from any of them um it'd be a toss-up between edx and coursera coursera i just have a lot of experience with and i really like coursera a lot um and so you know i just i just have a bias towards them but edx is like is is very um it's well established people like it it's very educational it's i i believe has like you know really credible authors who who post there and so to me that might be the better one udacity i just i'm not a huge fan of udacity um and i can't i'm not going to get into why this is just a lot of reasons to be honest we are entering um basically the end of the show um and it gives me time to just relax for a little bit made it through the show um you know this is a lot of talking i talk a lot um and you know thank goodness i have a little bit of coffee in me because one it's super late it's almost it's a little past midnight to be honest um and so i need the coffee to keep me awake i also in if you don't know i have many kids and so they they keep me awake and so i get no sleep so i'm running on no sleep i'm talking for like 30 minutes i did another episode before this um the data engineering versus data analyst i shoot all my videos on one day for the week um and then i edit them so my voice i i might just dry as a bone so i'm just super thankful for this coffee to be honest it's getting me through um but now my i'm starting to like i'm starting to be like man all right i made it i did it um so i'm happy to be here um but we're entering a very special time in the show it's the key word that everyone wants that's the only reason people are watching this long the only reason people just listen to me talk about why uh i drink coffee and why i'm tired the only reason people are continuing to listen is one it's actually twofold one they forgot to turn it off um it's in their pocket they don't feel like pulling it out i get it to shut me off the other reason is they're waiting for this keyword and those people who wait for the keyword are a special type of person they they appreciate and they understand um the value in building their career as a data analyst they value um growing their skill sets marketing themselves being professional learning and growing those are the types of people who stick around people who only listen to the main part and left no they're not going to make it but they wouldn't know that they're not going to make it because they didn't stick around but if they did stick around they'd make it you know what i mean the vegetable of the week the vegetable keyword this is gonna be a doozy celery c-e-l-e-r-y one of the worst vegetables it's up there with radishes it is void of all flavor and joy um it's it's is a pointless vegetable to me why do people add it to soups it does not add flavor my wife does it i argue with her almost every single time i'm like babe this does not add any flavor to the soup and i have to pick them out i push them to the side i'm like i'm not eating this i i refuse people try to put peanut butter on it i think again it's you're putting peanut butter on something that tastes literally terrible it doesn't make it taste any more any better and i'm not being healthy because i'm just not eating it put it on something that i want to eat put it on a cracker it's like five calories celery man it's um the bane of existence to almost every kid out there and if you eat if you eat ants on a log which is celery and you put the peanut butter and the raisins like bless your heart i i it's disgusting to me uh not the point the point is i appreciate you watching i really do uh thank you for hanging out with me i will see you in next week's episode of the alex the endless show so i will see you then i'll talk to you at that time next thursday goodbye thanks for joining me you

Channel: Alex The Analyst

Views: 14,464

Rating: 4.9543228 out of 5

Keywords: Data Analyst, How to become a data analyst, Data Analyst job, Data Analyst Career, Data Analytics, entry level vs senior level, entry level data analyst vs mid level data analyst, entry vs mid level, entry level data analyst, entry vs mid vs senior level, entry vs mid vs senior level data analyst, mid level data analyst, senior level data analyst, junior vs mid vs senior analyst, junior vs mid vs senior level data analyst, levels of being a data analyst

Id: ru0Xdvxd37Q

Length: 26min 40sec (1600 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 17 2020