Suppose you are the sales manager of a multinational company and your manager - the Global Sales head asks you to navigate through the ongoing challenges faced by the sales team of a given demographic.
You are given a problem and now you need to use facts to test a hypothesis, that’s where data analytics comes into the picture.
A data analyst is expected to define the information to be collected, analyse it, and thereafter create and confirm the hypothesis and present it to the stakeholders through storytelling to inform crucial decisions.
What is Data Analysis?
The above example basically summarises what exactly your job is all about.
You are expected to extract meaningful insights from raw data to inform business decisions.
And this process needs you to execute 5 tasks -
- Identify the required data
- Collect it
- Prepare it for ready-to-analyze
- Analyze it
- Explain the conclusions derived from the analysis
Your normal day as a Data Analyst would like –
Gather data: Collect the required information like surveys, website traffic data or procure datasets from data specialists.
Clean the data: There may be duplicates, errors or blank responses in the collected bulk data. You need to ensure the quality is ready for analysis in the form of a clean spreadsheet so that the scope of misinterpretation is minimized.
Model Data: In this step, you need to design the structure of a database. You get to choose what type of data to store and establish how data categories are related to each other.
Interpret Data: Find patterns or trends in data that will help you find the answers to the question at hand.
Present: Letting the stakeholders know about the key findings which they need to keep in mind before launching a new product or formulating their business policies. You are expected to communicate to them through presentations and charts.
Skills expected at the workplace
Like any other field, Data Analytics also expect an individual to be open to learning and comfortable with the following traits to show at work.
Parting thoughts
Formal education provides you with an edge over your counterparts in all possible aspects of being highlighted to the recruiters and operational heads.
A very few universities in the world utilise the right pedagogy to impart the essential data analytics skills and expose them to the industry-recognised data analytics tools.
A qualified data analyst must realise what would set him apart and justify his existence by foreseeing what could go wrong before it actually does.
Edology, in association with IIT Kanpur, is one of those fast-growing platforms in India to offer Advanced Certification in Data Analytics with the most sought-after curriculum and industry exposure without needing you to burn your wallets for quality education and a global career.
- Problem-solving: You must be able to process a given question and accordingly find an answer to solve a given problem. They should be able to discover patterns or trends that might indicate the gap needed to be bridged by your company. Here is where you’ll need critical thinking at your disposal to recognise the challenge areas to be focussed on.
- Communication: Being in the position to inform business decisions, it will be very likely for you to interact with business leaders and colleagues on a regular basis and talk to them in the language that businessmen are comfortable in.
- Industry-knowledge: Being aware of the industry you’re part of is an inevitable expectation from you as the data analyst for a given function. If you’re seeking to work in a given sector or industry, you must be aware of the basic information like products, customer’s pain points and expectations and emerging trends.
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