Grocery Analytics, SQL and a Round of Golf
Day in the Life of a Financial Services Data Analyst
Long gone are the days when data analysts coded away in isolation.
At Earnest Research, data analysts are responsible for covering over 500 consumer facing companies across retail, e-commerce, media, restaurants and more. Analysts must collaborate across teams to test theories and create dynamic insights for both corporate and financial services clients that use Earnest’s data products.
Michael Maloof is Earnest’s resident Grocer and Payments Platform analyst — meaning he has a pulse on everything from German discounter Lidl’s US market share growth to the impact of new P2P platforms on Venmo.
Read on to learn about Michael’s typical work day. (If this sounds like your dream job, check out our open roles here.)
7:15 am: Wake up, grab a snack, and check my email for breaking news on the companies I cover. A lot can happen overnight.
8:00 am: Walk to the gym near the Earnest office in the Flatiron District. I like to start the day with a class from my favorite spin or yoga instructor.
9:30 am: Make a yogurt parfait and pour a glass of cold pressed coffee from the Earnest tap before I fire up the computer to look through the day’s data, both in SQL and Tableau. We are constantly refreshing our tables to provide clients with the most accurate insights possible. This means our row level data has to meet very high quality standards.
10:00 am: Head into the data analyst weekly team meeting. We sit down once a week to discuss our current projects, hear about that week’s priorities, and generally discuss what is going on at Earnest.
11:00 am: Take a client call with an Earnest account manager for a company I cover. It’s my job to give our data real world context in order to deliver the most relevant insights for clients. I connect with clients several times a week to explain our view on the data and what it means for our clients — there can be a lot of noise if you don’t know where to look!
12:30 pm: Walk over to a nearby lunch spot with some colleagues. There is no shortage of great food around Madison Square Park. Today it’s the plantains and green sauce at Sophie’s Cuban.
1:30 pm: Join a cross function meeting to discuss an upcoming research piece that will make its way into marketing collateral. The topic is customer lifetime values and change in spend by cohort at meal kits vs traditional grocers.
3:30 pm: Pour some coffee, move my desk to standing mode, and jump back into SQL. This week I am working on initiating coverage of a new grocery company. During the initiation process this means using SQL to identify transactions attributable to the company, checking Tableau to verify the rolled-up data tracks reported sales trends and business changes, and scouring the news and public filings for additional color to add to my understanding of the company.
6:30 pm: Turn on the office golf simulator and grab a beer from the fridge. I like to unwind at the end of the day by hitting a few balls with colleagues — Earnest has some impressive golfers!
7:30 pm: Grab the next subway headed downtown (the 6 stops on our block) and meet some friends for dinner and drinks in Soho. New York is a pretty great place to be hungry.
If you want to learn more about joining the Data Analyst team at Earnest, check out our open positions here.
