Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash
With the rising demand for data analysts, you would have definitely heard the job title “data analyst” spoken about. Doesn't it seems like an interesting profession? The idea of working with data and technology has caught your attention, but have you wondered what exactly a data analyst does throughout the day?
In this blog, we will be bringing you through a day in the life of a data analyst. Data analysts usually spend their day sifting through large volumes of data to make it useful to the organisation they work for. Some tasks they do include analysing data systems and creating reports that demonstrate how the data may be used in their business strategy.
Everyday is different for a data analyst largely because of the industry and type of data they are working with. Regardless of which industry, a data analyst will collect and organise data, then utilize it to draw relevant conclusions. They spend most of their day collecting data and putting together their findings into reports to help the company make better decisions. Gathering data, cleaning data, and processing data are the three basic processes involved in data analysis.
To data analysts, gathering data is generally the simplest phase of the process as databases are easily accessible. The next step - cleaning data is a process where a data analyst will go through the data and understand the trends and information, making corrections for those data that should not be included in the analysis. Although this stage can take a long time, it is necessary for data analysts to spend more time on this step so as to grasp the data before processing it. Finally, data analysts will have to utilise their programming skills, combined with a variety of data tools, throughout the data processing stage to examine the work and come up with solutions and improvements for the company.
Hence, in short, throughout a day in the life of a data analyst, creating visualisations, supporting new strategies, monitoring trends and keeping track of the marketing industry and their sales initiatives are basic tasks they will have to do. To do so, many programming tools like Python, Tableau, Excel, SQL etc are being used.
A day in the life of a data analyst becomes increasingly more complicated as they have to apply modeling and predictive analysis techniques to create valuable insights for the company. They often need to explain their discoveries and how this information is able to bring benefits to the company especially to stakeholders who are non-technical. Some say “Data analysts are the bridge between business analysts and data scientists”.
So now that you know what a day in the life of a data analyst looks like, you might be thinking of having such a career. Join us to learn essential data analytical skills and succeed in your career!
Information extracted:
Abi-Nakhoul, N. (2021). A day in the life of a data analyst. Lighthouse Labs. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.lighthouselabs.ca/en/blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-data-analyst.
Robinson, S. (2021, March 25). Day in the life of a data analyst. Medium. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/day-in-the-life-of-a-data-analyst-ef84d2fc4901.
Taylor, T. (2021, September 7). What does a data analyst actually do? (and is it fun?). CareerFoundry. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/data-analytics/whats-it-like-to-actually-be-a-data-analyst/.