Skill set required to be a successful Data Analyst

In this blog I will explain you about what skill sets are needed to be a successful data analyst. This will help you to prepare interview or once you joined as data analyst it will help you to became successful.  

1.Microsoft excel:

First skill is Microsoft excel, which is widely used for data entry, Data management, financial analysis, Accounting, Task management, making chart and graph, it is perfect for small data sets, so data analyst must be aware about is formulas, functions, features, macros, pivot table, creating chart and graphs are most used to visualized data.

2.SQL (Structured Query Language):

SQL is used to communicate with a database such as update data on a database or retrieve data from a database. There are three most popular database where we can use SQL to update data on a database or retrieve data from a database. Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL. So having hands on experience on SQL for data extraction, data collection.

3.Data Visualization Tools:

You should be familiar with at least one Data Visualization Tools. There are so many Data Visualization Tools are in market such as Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Qlik Sense, Looker, IBM Cognos Analytics, Sisense, Tableau and Microsoft Power BI are the data visualization tool that can be used by data analysts, scientists, statisticians, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau are mostly used to many data sources to create interactive dashboard and reports. Such dashboard and reports provide us actionable insights from row data.

4.Industry Domain Knowledge:

You should have good knowledge about market or industry. There is multiple industry domain in market such as Banking, Finance Services and Insurance, E-commerce, IT industry, Retails, financial, health care, Industrial Manufacturing, Automotive & Transportation, Online Services and marketing, Telecommunication.  Having computer skill is not enough for successful data analyst. We should have domain knowledge to whom you are working for. We need to understand row data and need to create chart and graph that can help management to future actions.

5.Presentations and communications skills:

As a data analyst we need to work with different departments, stake holders, engineering teams. We need to communicate with manager for data gathering as well as provide them with data insights that helps to predict business movement. So having command over communication skill and presentable will help us to be successful data analyst.

6.Statistical programming language: 

Experience in any statistical programming language will help you most as data analyst. It is not that much necessary, most of the companies do not require this skill set but that will help you more. Python is the most widely used data science programming language now day in most of industries. JavaScript, Scala, R and Julia are most popular programming languages used by data scientists or data analyst.

7.Statistics and Mathematical 

As a data analyst do need to be good with numbers, Statistics is science about data analysis, data collection, interpretation, and presentation on data. Having knowledge in Statistics help to make decisions based on data and make predictions. Essential Mathematical topics for a data analyst include calculus, and discrete mathematics, algebra (basic & linear).