What does a Data Analyst actually do? (in 2024) Q&A

so what does a data analyst actually do we analyze data what does that actually mean and how much they actually make and should I be doing this what does it take to actually be a data analyst hello my name is Tim J I am a data analyst working in Tech right now I've worked at these companies yes and I've primarily worked as a business intelligence engineer but that can actually go into the data analyst category we'll talk more about what that actually means later in the video but today I'm going to explain to you what it actually means to be a data analyst what are the skill sets that are required to be an analyst and how you can even be one yourself it's actually not super difficult as well a little bit more about myself a lot of my experience comes from firsthand working in Tech but also working as a teaching assistant at the University of Washington I literally ate this stuff for breakfast lunch and dinner I taught it I did it all I worked through all the problem sets I actually used it in my career and now I'm here to teach you guys everything that I know all right but first how did the data analyst role actually begin where where did this come from well so pretty much it all started from the filing cabinet I know this clunky old thing back in the old days before we had phones hard drivve laptops whatever it might be everything was just on pen and paper and because of that everything was slow manual a little mundane so if you think about it the first analyst just had to look at everything pretty much just a sheet of paper by hand by eye and interpret results off of that now it wasn't until 1960s yes 1960s it really hasn't been that long that the first relational database model was born this was first described by a man named Dr Edgar F cot he was a researcher and a computer scientist at IBM yeah this company he discovered that if you build a certain set of tables together you'll increase this crazy concept called learning this is the one key principle that all analysts hold very dear to their heart it's learning it's getting that competitive advantage in front of any other company now that was just the beginning and actually expands further into other database types nosql data warehousing and now cloud-based data Lakes but it all started with the relational database one of the greatest and most powerful ways to actually analyze data so this then led to one of the most important languages in all of data analytics and that's SQL this came in the 1970s right after revelational database model was created so this language was groundbreaking and it actually utilized all of the data in a a way that no one has ever seen before it was quick and it is quick to the state it's one of the most powerful languages in all of analytics to think that you can pull Millions upon billions or rows of data just an instant it's crazy if you actually conceptualize it that's like absurd to think about good coffee I'm getting into pistachio lattes lately highly recommend so now that you know the context what does that actually mean now well let's break it down into three different rules we're going to start with the basic generic data analyst some might call it an associate analyst next is going to be the technical data analyst and then beyond that there's going to be the advanced level and these are the separate pays for each one of these roles so let's talk about the first basic data analyst what does that actually mean so this is where all these stereotypes come from this is what people think we actually just do all day and this is the most generic level of being a data analyst and it's someone who just works in Excel not to rip on Excel I know people get a little sensitive about that but Excel is definitely the very basic form of what an analyst can do that's at the very bottom of the skill set for pay range it's about 60 to 75k at the very entry level but can also expand further if you go to the senior level or if you dive deeper into Financial analytics which does heavily rely on Excel these the models built in then the pay range can increase to around 95 to 105k so this very bottom level if you just know Excel you know the the very Basics and fundamentals of all of that then you can be a data analyst at least in its very basic form next let's talk about the technical data analyst now this is someone who they'll know some basic SQL and they'll know some Excel as well and they'll also know some sort of data visualization software so this could be like powerbi Tableau whatever you want to use and the key here for these type of roles is to do this thing called an ad hoc analysis now it's a very fancy term but it's pretty much a way to actually dive deep into a DAT set in this you are typically building dashboard of some sorts a way to visualize all the data showcase tell a little story right in the purest form it is a basic way to show data in a more nuanced way now in this rule at the very beginning you can start off I would say around a 75 to 80k range but then once you get more advanced when you become a senior analyst in this type of role you go all the way to 95 to even 105k as well for this specific role you need to know SQL though that is what all companies are looking for these days for analysts you need to know it it's going to be a combination of your SQL skills your data Vis skills and also your basic data wrangling which is the manipulation of data so with all these skills combined this is the technical data analyst now for the third role we have the advanced data analyst or in what I like to call it the business intelligence engineer or the business intelligence analyst what whatever the company's calling it right so this is someone who's going to know some pretty Advanced SQL right so build store procedures going deeper into complex joins and subqueries and going into ranking functions like you know all of these skill sets it's your bread and butter so it's no longer just some basic queries with a few joins and a couple Wares no it is literally going to be some of the most advanced sequel that you can know [Music] so after that it's going to require some more data engineering skill sets as well you need to know things like the ETL process probably some pretty extensive knowledge of data warehouses understanding star schema snowflake schema all these Concepts how to manipulate them how to pull the correct amount of data from them you're also going to need to know some pretty basic formats of how to build some data pipelines using some like to use Azure with Azure data Factory or you can go to the ads side and use red shift so whichever cloud service that your company's using you're also going to need to know a lot of python because for this rule it's going to extend further Beyond it's not just going to go into some basic visualizations I want you to actually do some data science work as well and this goes into some deeper Advanced visualization skill sets that you're going to need to know so you're going to need to know how to pull in Python script putting it into a you know powerbi software and actually use all of this data so for this rule because it is so complex and you need to know a lot more than just SQL and XL the roll will often start at about 90 to 95,000 but I've seen at some companies it can get even higher you can start off with even 130k it's crazy but these are the Amazon the you know the big Tech of the world right now for this world in particular it can also expand further into like the senior level roles as well so for the senior level roles I've seen some pays as high as to 200,000 R have the start these are typically bie2 roles or bie3 they're going to be way higher typically they're going to need more from you they might ask for a master's degree as well these are the more complex ones I would say so how do you become a datal analyst well honestly it's quite simple I guess that add Pier form all you need to know is Excel if you just take a couple Excel courses based off of like LinkedIn learning or some other online resources you could dive in right away or if you even just grew up with Excel you could be fine there as well all right editing Tim here uh I really must clarify so I was like listening to myself and thinking about I don't actually recommend this learning just Excel is good but the Market's been so competitive these days I don't think that's actually going to be enough anymore I'm going to correct myself here only learn Excel if you're going to go into Financial analytics if you want to get any other data analytics job I would really recommend going for what I'm about to say next which is going to be the focus on Seagle instead focus on being the technical data analyst more so than just the basic because the basic anist roles if I'm being honest they are far far away just it's like they don't exist anymore in the market sadly so sell won't be enough unless again fin chanels but yeah all right back to the video but if you want to go deeper into some of the advanced sides then yes I would say learning squel and these visualization softwares I I highly recommend going into those there going to be some good courses online as well for those if you're going to break into data analytics I would say big three that you really need to know are going to be SQL number one data visualizations and then Excel and in that order as well from my personal experience someone who's been a technical data analyst I didn't use Excel as much as I thought I would have so definitely the sequel and the visualization sides are in my opinion the most important sides of it of course this is Case by case if you're going to go into Financial analytics definitely Excel number one but in all the other cases I would say SQL Empower bi are all you really need or or t to you need to go back to school for this in my opinion no unless you're trying to become a data scientist that's where it gets a little different cuz you need to know some linear algebra stuff and just have a big stats background I would say that's the only reason why you would need to go back to school for a data degree to be a data scientist those are two different things by the way a data scientist and data analyst if you want to know the differences I can make a video on that too let me know now what does a day-to-day life of a data analyst look like well it's quite simple you live breathe and eat sequel like for breakfast lunch and dinner like I can't express to you how much I used it in my past experiences we would build all these complex cores based off of our different needs and a criteria and there's a software called single server management Studio it's a Windows based software and I would literally be living in that all day just testing queries pulling data seeing which one's going to give me the most optimal and most accurate results right but besides that honestly it's pretty chill you just need to know a couple things and be really good at those couple things and you can be an alist but beyond that what does a great to data analyst look like I would say it involves two important skill sets and the first one is someone who's very business oriented so who's thinking about what is best for the business so many times I swear a lot of data analysts they will just create but they're not actually solving business issues they'll just like create whatever the hell they want and often times that's just not the best scratch that that isn't the best your manager and your company they're going to want results that's actually going to help them day to day so because of this be business oriented don't be the reason why your managers have to stay up all night and fix your dashboard or just everything that you made don't be the reason why you make their lives harder right so because of this to be business oriented you need to be a little more analytical but also you got to put your ux design hat on all right and you got to think about what the other person is going to be needing and wanting you need to empathize with them and see hey like what's going to be critical what is going to be helpful for a manager what is important here what do I need to be showing here that's going to actually be important for the company and for the business the next thing is someone who is also a good communicator of these tangible results the key here is to be someone who is good at presenting so you want to make sure that all all this data that is coming out all these visualizations you're able to speak to them you're able to tell the story behind them often times people just see these charts or these bar graphs or this linear line regression what does it all actually mean you are the Storyteller here you are the person who is going to explain what is happening highlight the trends and honestly you're the person who's going to help make these big company decisions analysts are at the heart of that so you got to tell that story say it with your chest right and make sure you're actually communicating these results effectively now almost done my coffee beyond that let's think about some other things too with being a good communicator also means you are good at designing there's nothing that irks me more that really grinds my gears more than seeing a very poorly designed dashboard it just hurts my heart okay it really hurts my heart and don't get me wrong I've done my fair share of very poorly designed dashboards but at the same time it just it just hurts regardless so for me someone who's going to be an exceptional incredible data analyst is someone who also has those visual design skills as well so should you become a data analyst well like all things it depends it's a lot of living and thinking and breathing tables charts and numbers if you're someone who finds joy in that like I do I would say yeah this career maybe is for you pulling data with Sequel and visualizing everything and if you find any of this interesting to you then yes sure I would definitely recommend it but with my time at University I realized quickly that not everyone thinks like this this is probably one of the more positive things I got out of University and that is the diversity of thought people different major and groups and careers and I quickly realized that just as something like computer science or marketing isn't really for me data analy could not be for you either pick this career if you really know that meshes with the way you are and the way you think more that didn't come out right pretty much if this just clicks be the best I would say yes do it but the only way I would say you can really figure that out is by actually giving it a shot so I'll link below some of the courses I recommend definitely LinkedIn learning is a huge one got some good ones on there and lastly why did I become a data analyst well in all honesty it pays well I'm joking but I'm not joking at the same time having a starting salary at the minimum of around 80 to 90k is absurd like that's crazy being in a tech bubble we might not think that like that's a lot but when you think about the average Joe who's not working in Tech 80k is like something people strive for the fact that like we're getting that right off the bat like starting off is crazy you got to put all these things into perspective right guys also my brain has always been a little bit more analytical it's been more data driven I've noticed that when I always make choices I think about all factors I think about how this might affect other people or the other things going on in the world around me I think in numbers values visuals AB testing just all of it that's just the way my brain naturally thinks so because of that it's just a match made in heaven I was meant to be a data analyst that's the way my brain was equipped to be if you feel the same way about yourself I highly recommend the same thing too oh what would you look at that thanks for enjoying the coffee with me appreciate you yes that being said thank you guys for watching hope you guys got a good takeaways from from this that you understand more of what it means to be a data analyst and what the day-to-day life is and what skill sets you need and even if you want to become one if you guys have any more questions or are curious about other topics feel free to let me know I'm always open to making more videos about this I love talking about data it's fun it's one of my passions right I'll definitely be diving deeper into topics as the weeks goes on but yes don't forget to subscribe and follow me on insta and also follow me on Tik Tok as well I post a lot on all these platforms just to Showcase more of my life in my 20s what I'm doing these days and also just more data topics as well I will see you guys the next one [Music] bye bro also please excuse my pimple I literally I get pimples here all the time because like shaving please please ignore it I'm so shame

Channel: Tim Joo

Views: 23,244

Keywords: data analyst, data analytics, data science, data analyst job, how to become a data analyst, data analyst career, data analytics career, what do data analysts do, data analyst salary

Id: eyhrJ5Ep7Ao

Length: 14min 26sec (866 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2024