Do you also want to know how to become a Data Analyst?
Does Data Analytics excite you?
If yes, keep reading.
Data Analysts will be one of the highest-paid jobs in demand in 2020, according to a recent report published by the World Economic Forum.
The same tone is echoed in the LinkedIn Workforce Report which states that, in the USA, demand for data analyst professional figures has grown by six-fold as compared to five years ago.
The report also mentions that data analysts will continue to be the most sought-after profiles over the next five years.
Another report by IBM claims that the annual demand for data scientists, data developers, and data engineers will lead to 700,000 new opportunities by 2020.
Further, we’ll see that there is a universal demand for data analysts.
According to an analysis conducted on a sample of about 550 Italian small and medium-sized businesses by the Tag Innovation School, 50% of SMEs have plans of hiring a data analyst in the next three years.
Our discussion on how to become a data analyst will cover the different aspects of a data analyst career, the learning path, growth prospects, and opportunities for aspiring Data Analytics professionals.
We would also answer about becoming a data analyst in India and guide you in your career path.
But first, let us understand what data analytics is. This is particularly important for a newbie in this field who wants to know how to become a certified data analyst.
How to Become a Data Analyst?
What is Data Analytics: Definition
Data Analytics may be explained as the process of examining data sets in order to draw conclusions about the information they contain, increasingly with the aid of specialized systems and software.
Data analytics technologies and techniques are widely used in commercial industries to enable organizations to make more-informed business decisions and by scientists and researchers to verify or disprove scientific models, theories and hypotheses.
Data Analytics refers to an assortment of applications, from basic business intelligence (BI), reporting and online analytical processing (OLAP) to various forms of advanced analytics.
Similar in nature to business analytics, Data Analytics is a broad term for approaches to analyzing data — with the difference that the latter is oriented to business uses, while learning data analytics has a broader focus.
The expansive view of the term isn’t universal, though: In some cases, people use data analytics specifically to mean advanced analytics, treating BI as a separate category.
What is Data Analytics by Data Analysis?
Data Analytics can also be separated into quantitative data analysis and qualitative data analysis. The former involves the analysis of numerical data with quantifiable variables that can be compared or measured statistically.
The qualitative approach is more interpretive — it focuses on understanding the content of non-numerical data like text, images, audio, and video, including common phrases, themes, and points of view.
Difference between Data Scientist and Data Analyst
A discussion on how to become a data analyst is incomplete without a comparison between Data Analyst and Data Scientist.
Data Scientist and Data Analyst are quite similar professions. However, there are some areas of difference.
Data Scientist and Data Analyst: By definition
Data Scientist analyzes data from a business point of view and is in charge of making predictions to help businesses make accurate decisions.
Data Scientists come with a solid foundation of computer applications, modelling, statistics, and math.
Data Analyst, on the other hand, is responsible for collecting, organizing data and obtaining statistical information out of accumulated data.
Data Analysts are also responsible to present the data in the form of charts, graphs, and tables and use the same to build relational databases for organizations.
Both Data Scientist and Data Analyst are expected to write queries, work with engineering teams to source the right data, perform data munging (getting data into the right format, convenient for analysis/interpretation) and derive information from data.
However, in most cases, a Data Analyst is not expected to build statistical models or be hands-on in machine learning and advanced programming.
Instead, a Data Analyst typically works on simpler structured SQL or similar databases or with other BI tools/packages.
Data Analyst Data Scientist: By Skill Sets
To be a Data Analyst, one should have a strong background in statistics and be able to convert data from a raw form to a different format (data munging).
A Data Scientist collects, processes and applies statistical algorithms to structured data.
Primary responsibilities include data collection and processing, programming, machine learning, data munging, data visualization, applying statistical analysis
Data Analyst and Data Scientist: By Tools Knowledge
A Data Analyst must have a good knowledge of languages like R, Python, SQL, NoSQL, HTML, JavaScript, and C/C++.
A Data Scientist’s responsibilities include data cleansing and processing, predictive modelling, machine learning, identifying questions, running queries, applying statistical analysis, correlating disparate data, storytelling, and visualization
Know more about the similarities and differences between these two roles and which job pays more and why. See the following video:
Data Analyst Salary
The average yearly salary of a data analyst is among the very highest in the industry, with figures ranging from €30,000 to €50,000 for junior profiles, through to €99,000 for senior ones.
Moreover, in a field that has reached almost complete equality with men, many data analysts are women (41% against 59%).
An entry-level data analyst with basic technical tools usually draws about $54,000 per year. According to a report on PayScale, the highest paying data analyst jobs were in San Francisco.
The median pay for a data analyst is about $71,221. In New York, the median pay is $62,707.
Data Analyst Salary in India
A recent salary report published by PayScale shows that the top respondents for the job title Data Analyst are from the companies Accenture, Tata Consultancy Services Limited and EY (Ernst & Young).
Of these data analyst salary is highest at HSBC where the average pay is Rs 650,000.
Other companies that offer high salaries for this role include Accenture and Tata Consultancy Services Limited, earning around Rs 471,384 and Rs 464,577, respectively.
GlobalLogic pays the lowest at around Rs 188,447. Genpact and EY (Ernst & Young) also pay on the lower end of the scale, paying Rs 325,000 and Rs 418,511, respectively.
The same report states that an entry-level Data Analyst with less than 1-year experience can expect an average total compensation of Rs 312,435 based on its survey of about 1,339 salaries.
An early career Data Analyst with 1-4 years of experience earns an average total compensation of Rs 396,128 based on 2,521 salaries.
A mid-career Data Analyst with 5-9 years of experience earns an average total compensation of Rs 603,120 based on 702 salaries.
An experienced Data Analyst with 10-19 years of experience earns an average total compensation of Rs 900,000 based on 131 salaries.
Becoming Data Analyst in India
According to a recent report by TeamLease Services – a staffing arrangements company – by 2020, India will confront a demand-supply hole of 2,00,000 analytic data experts.
The supply is short even in the US job market with just 40 out of 100 positions for data researchers being filled.
To meet the demands, companies are looking forward to future-ready projects that require graduates in statistics, mathematics, and data storage skills.
Thus, the National Association of Software and Services Company (NASSCOM) have proposed educational programs up-gradation to incorporate Big Data and data analytics in engineering schools.
Also, a Center of Excellence was started to help drive look into the analytics space and reinforce the ecosystem.
Interested in a career in data analytics? Did my discussion on how to become a data analyst answer your question of “how to become a data analyst in India”, I must say that a strong command over statistics and research methodology is preferred.
Also, you must have a keen interest in the consumer of statistical analysis. I would advise you to look up for topics or issues of interest and read whatever analytical works you can find.
Sports are a natural avenue for learning about data analysis because they are so data-oriented. Player performance is measured, and then dissected and debated.
In order to become a data analyst in India, you must be career-oriented, focussed, and tech-savvy. Limiting yourself to your course syllabi might fetch you good grades, but to be a successful data analyst in India, you must be a good observer.
Take field trips, read discussions on real-life challenges of data analysis, know about the different scenarios to understand data processing challenges. Talk to experienced data analysts for a better understanding of your job role.
A good number of certified courses in data analytics are also available.
Enroll in any of the top-rated data analytics courses to gain expertise in Machine Learning Algorithms like K-Means Clustering, Decision Trees, Random Forest, and Naive Bayes using R. Data Science Training encompass a conceptual understanding of Statistics, Time Series, Text Mining and an introduction to Deep Learning.
By doing a data analytics course you will get the opportunity to implement real-life use-cases on Media, Healthcare, Social Media, Aviation and HR.
How to Become a Certified Data Analyst
If your question is what is data analytics & how to become a data analyst, my answer would be:
Solid foundation in data management, machine learning, and natural language processing solutions and leadership skills are some of the essential requirements for a career in Data Analytics.
You may start as a Data Analyst, go on to become a Data Scientist with some years of experience, and eventually a data evangelist. Data Science offers lucrative career options. There is enough scope for growth and expansion.
You might be a programmer, a mathematics graduate, or simply a bachelor of Computer Science.
Taking up a good Data Science or Data Analytics course teaches you the key Data Science skills and prepares you for the Data Scientist, Data Scientist role (that you aspire for) in the near future. Do not forget to include all your skills in your data analyst resume.
You may also enroll in a Data Analytics Course for more lucrative career options in Data Science & know how to become a certified data analyst. Industry-relevant curriculums, pragmatic market-ready approach, hands-on Capstone Project are some of the best reasons for choosing Digital Vidya.
