2. HOW TO BECOME A DATA
ANALYST ? WHATS THE
FIRST STEP TOWARDS
BECOMING A DATA
ANALYST ?
THIS ARTICLE WILL HELP ALL CANDIDATES WHO WISH TO
PURSE A CAREER IN DATA ANALYSIS.
ALL INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE, IS BASED UPON MY
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND IS FOR INFORMATIONAL
PURPOSE ONLY.
THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE IS TO SERVE YOU AS A
GUIDANCE TOWARDS DATA ANALYSIS CAREER PATH.
3. First off, Who is a Data Analyst ? What is Data
Analysis ? Why do companies hire Data
Analysts ?
In simple words, Data Analyst refers to
someone who produces meaningful
results or valuable results from raw
data using various Data Analysis
tools. This results help the Business
identify various informational facts.
4. Continue………………………
I would define a Data Analyst as
someone who asks a question to a
huge data set or database in a
systematic predefined and
standard way and then that
database answers back to your
question.
5. Continue………………………..
According to Wikipedia, data
analysis is the process of looking
at and summarizing data with the
intent to extract useful information
and develop conclusions.
6. Few examples of Data Analysis
would be:
Scenario 1: You work as a Data Analyst for a Bank
in the Accounts department. You receive large
data file (in excel) from your boss, which would
contain all customer's information. Now your
role would be to identify
a.) all customers in Age Group of 20 to 40
b.) Male to Female Ratio
c.) Number of customers who have checking
account only
d.) Total Number of customers etc....
7. Scenario 2:
You work as a Data Analyst for an Insurance
Company. You receive large data file (in SQL
database format) which would contain customer's
information. You are asked to produce the
following details:
a.) Number of customers whose insurance policy
is about to expire on a particular date.
b.) Number of customers who have not paid the
insurance premium since a particular month. etc..
8. Scenario 3:
• You work as a Data Analyst for a local school's
administration department. You are asked to produce
following results:
a.) Total number of students studying in the school
b.) total number of students who passed in a particular
year
c.) Total Number of students who have scored higher
than 95% or have GPA > 3.7%
d.)male to female ratio
e.)total number of students who had gap of more than 1
semester during there academic curriculum.
9. Scenario 4
You work as a Data Analyst for an Online Web Analytics
Company. Your day to day DA responsiblities would be
to identify
a.)Total Number of visitors on a particular website
b.)Total Number of visitors who visited an ecommerce
website and further purchased the product.
10. Scenario 5
You work as a DA for E-Commerce company who
sells chocolates. Your tasks would be to:
a.) Identify which chocolates were sold the most.
b.) How much was the total profit made from a
particular chocolate brand
c.) Total number of customers shopping from
European Region...
d.) Increase the prices of all chocolates by 5% or
by a particular val
11. The above scenarios are some of the basic
examples that you might face as a Data
Analyst. However please note that in Data
Analysis the possibilities are enormous and
depending on your skills and level of
expertise you can product extremely valuable
results which would make huge impact on
the Business.
12. Recommends
There are several tools out there for Data
Analysis, however I would strongly
recommend you to focus on: "Microsoft
Excel" and "SQL Programming".
Microsoft Excel :- Is an application software, part of
Microsoft Office Suite.
SQL Programming :- [Please refer to "SQL Basics"
article
13. • Question: What kind of education is required to
become a Data Analyst ? Which degree should I
pursue ?
Answer: This question depends on your
geographical location. I am unaware of any
custom educational program/degree which is
focused towards "Data Analysis".
However, my article is focused towards those
readers who want to become Data Analyst
irrespective of there educational background.
14. HOW TO GET STARTED ?
• a.)Learn Excel Basics
• b.)Learn Microsoft Excel Commands (Very Important)
• Best way would be to make a list of all Excel commands
and what they do !!
Read it once every morning, thats it !!
• c.)Learn Excel VBA (This is optional for beginners)
• d.)Learn or Get an idea about SQL Basics
• e.)Learn SQL Commands (Focus more on the logic rather
than on the syntax, at least in the beginning)
15. PRACTICE, PRACTICE,
PRACTICE
And still if you get stuck somewhere, then we are here to
help you anytime, just mail us your doubts !!
Once you get hold of this 2, you will definately landup with
an Data Analysis internship.
Most small to mid-sized businesses used Microsoft excel
and SQL for Data Analysis, so it would be easy for you to
get started.
However, large organizations, use more robust tools
which have the capability to handle huge data !!
16. Now you might have got some understanding
about who is a data analyst.
In our next tutorial, we will demonstrate
practical examples which would help you
better understand Data Analysis.
