Businesses are increasingly seeking professionals who are trained and qualified in analyzing information and data. Over the time, data has become the most important asset for any company. However, mere collection and storage of data does not fulfill the purpose. It is important to analyze the data to get the insights of trends and strategies a company must follow in order to succeed.
The emerging need of proper analysis has given rise to hiring of data analysts. It is increasing worldwide for companies of all sizes medium or small, local or global.
What It Takes to Be a Data Analyst
Like every job profile requires a professional with apt knowledge and experience, a person who wants to make career in this field should also possess the right skill set. Every company states different eligibility criteria according to the roles and responsibilities they wish to be fulfilled. Even though a graduate in statistics is must to get into such a job profile. There are a number of short term and specialized courses which a person can take up in order to attract attention of the companies since these qualifications impart additional knowledge and skills to the person.
Apart from the qualifications, there are certain skills and qualities that a person must possess in order to stand out and perform well.
- Research work is at the core of data analysis. A professional needs to extract vital information from different sources and therefore, he might need to move out of the comfort zone and search all possible data.
- Data mining should be accompanied by mapping and warehousing so that the data is not lost at any point and time which could lead to problems.
- Problem solving is another important part of a profile of data analyst. He must have a quality of foreseeing situations through analysing the patterns of data in different forms.
- It is important for a data analyst to update the data frequently as the trends change frequently. Therefore, he must always indulge in data and should be passionate about the work he does.
- He must have skills to compare data from the market and competition to provide a clear picture and solution for effective future strategies.
- Strong mathematical background is must since data analysis involves lots of formulas and deductions.
- The professional should have apt knowledge of various software which assists in data management. He must be open to learning software that are introduced from time to time as they will help him produce desired results with less effort.
Various Profiles
There are various profiles in a company as far as data analysis is concerned. As the position gets higher, responsibilities increase and also there is a need to manage teams in an efficient way. Thus, a person who begins his career at the entry level has opportunities to grow the various phases and also earn a good salary. The entry level is usually a junior data analyst followed by position of senior data analyst. The next level is of a project manager who is responsible to handle both internal and external activities.
If a person has the right combination of knowledge, skills and experience, he can grow to new heights as the jobs for data analysts are believed to increase in future as companies are hiring people in order to form strong workforce and thus ensure success.