Things I Did on My Path to Data Analytics and What I Learned Along the Way
I started my path to data analytics without a clear goal in mind. I learned about SQL in a TikTok video (not joking) and thought it sounded interesting so I went to Udemy and bought a course. I took it, enjoyed the content, and wanted to keep learning more.
In the following weeks, I went back to Udemy and bought another course, and another, and another… I bought courses in Excel and Tableau and SQL and R and Python.
You get the idea.
I had no real direction or plan in mind; I was buying courses that sounded interesting to me and that was basically my only criteria.
As I moved through my journey, I got more thoughtful and deliberate in my plan but there was definitely a huge learning curve at the outset.
But here’s the good part: I did it so you don’t have to!
Welcome to: Things I Did on My Path to Data Analytics and What I Learned Along the Way… Part 1
What I did: Bought 19 courses on Udemy and finished 2 of them
Rating: 2/10. Wouldn’t recommend.
What I learned: Just because I was taking courses didn’t mean I was making progress.
It’s easy to assume that as the course progress indicator increases, so does your breadth of knowledge. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
If you’re just following along with the courses and not independently practicing the skills you’re learning, chances are you’re just spinning your wheels.
What I should have done: bought courses on an “as-needed” basis.
It can be tempting to buy courses on Udemy because they’re on sale or they look interesting but taking 1 or 2 courses in each tool I wanted to learn (Excel, SQL, and Tableau for me!) and then putting those skills into practice would have been a better choice.
Completing projects, putting skills to the test, and learning where the gaps in my knowledge were would have allowed me to be more strategic in what courses I bought.
My advice:
Don’t buy more than one course (or subscription) at a time and don’t start your next course until you’re done with the one you’re currently working on. The courses I took were valuable but the money I wasted on the other 17, not so much.
What I did: Flitted from one topic to the next without a plan
Rating: 1/10. Wouldn’t recommend.
What I learned: Creating a learning plan should be the first step.
This relates to my first point but I generally took courses when and how I felt like it. That meant I might be working on Excel one day and SQL the next. Not great for moving the information into my long-term memory.
By randomly selecting courses based on my immediate interests or whims (hey, some of those courses had enticing cover photos and titles!) and jumping from one course to another without a logical progression, I undermined the effectiveness of my own learning process.
What I should have done: Built a comprehensive plan that focused on learning one skill at a time and building on those skills progressively.
A carefully designed plan would have allowed me to set clear goals, prioritize the tools in a logical order, and create a structured and systematic approach to learning.
My advice:
There’s no better way to get frustrated and feel like you’re not remembering anything than by having an unclear plan of action.
Figuring out exactly what tools you need to learn to get the job is a great way to focus your attention and determine exactly what course(s) you want to take and in what order. Researching what skills and tools build on others is also useful so you have an understanding of if there are any prerequisites to learning any of the tools you’re interested in.
What I did: Submitted a cover letter when applying to jobs
Rating: 8/10. Would recommend.
What I learned: Even if you don’t want to hear it, coming from a non-traditional background, a cover letter might be key to getting your foot in the door.
One thing I didn’t do was write the typical cover letter, one that goes something like this:
Dear Human In Charge of Hiring,
I came across your job posting on LinkedIn and am very interested in the job opportunity at Your Very Cool Company. After reviewing the job description and requirements, I feel I am strongly suited for this role…
You get the idea. Instead, I decided to do it in a more unique way. I personalized my cover letter based on what I found on the company website. For example, at the company with whom I ended up accepting my first job, I went to their website and found a uniquely formatted list of company values. It gave me the idea to format my cover letter in the same style:
Do I know if that’s what helped me get my interview? No. But did it hurt my chances? Also no. And to be honest, it was way more fun to write.
What I should have done: I wish I had done this with more of my applications.
A sample size of one is pretty small so I can’t say for sure what impact the cover letter had.
My advice:
As someone coming from an entirely unrelated career, I wanted to be able to draw parallels between where I was coming from and where I wanted to go. The cover letter is one of the few places I felt like I could show my real personality and the benefits of hiring me.
Boring cover letters are…boring. Let your personality shine through and show that you put in the time and effort to learn about the company.
What I did: Researched and practiced interview questions
Rating: 10/10. Would recommend.
What I learned: Use resources to your advantage! Behavioral interview questions are timeless and pretty standard, all in all.
There are only so many interview questions in the world and there are countless websites that give you suggestions, strategies, and even templates for how to answer them.
Thinking about potential interview questions and how I would answer them helped me prepare so I didn’t get stuck having to think of an answer on the spot. Here are a few of the questions I thought about prior to my interviews:
- Tell me about yourself. (Spoiler alert: they don’t want your entire life story; focus on things that are relevant to the role you’re interviewing for!)
- How do you deal with pressure or stressful situations?
- Tell me about a challenge or conflict you’ve faced at work, and how you dealt with it.
- What’s a time you disagreed with a decision that was made at work?
- Can you explain why you changed career paths?
What I should have done: Prepared even more!
No one wants to hear an obviously scripted response but practice a STAR answer: Situation, Task, Action, Result.
Here’s an example of a STAR response to “tell me about a challenging situation you’ve faced at work.”
At my previous job, I evaluated students using formal, standardized assessments to see if they qualified for occupational therapy services. Recently, one of the students I evaluated didn’t qualify based on the data (As an aside: see how I threw in that the results were data-driven?). I had to explain to the parent why her child didn’t qualify for my services and she didn’t agree with my findings. I walked her through the assessment, how her child scored compared to peers, and the results I would expect to see at that age/grade level. After speaking to the parent and explaining the process in an easy-to-understand way, she agreed with my findings and accepted the results.
My advice:
Prepare, prepare, prepare. Give yourself a leg-up and soothe your interview nerves by researching often-asked questions and planning how you might answer them.
Think about framing your answers in a way that can relate back to the job you’re applying for. If it’s a job where you need to be collaborative, talk about that time you worked through a conflict with a coworker. If it’s a job with a “busy season,” mention the time you had 6 projects on your plate and were asked to take the lead on the 7th.
What I did: Leveraged my soft skills
Rating: 1,000,000/10. Would recommend.
What I learned: Even though I didn’t have the technical background, I sure as heck had the soft skills needed to be successful as a data analyst.
As a quick rundown, here are some frequently listed soft skills data analysts might need:
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Problem solving
- Critical thinking
- Organization
- Time management
- Attention to detail
These soft skills, or some combination of them, are utilized in almost every profession. Being able to explain how your soft skills apply to the job is what’s most important. And what’s more, sometimes soft skills are harder to develop than technical skills.
Are you particularly resourceful? Talk about how you used that to gather hard-to-find data. Are you great at being adaptable? Relate that to how you would easily handle a scope- or direction-change in a project. Is communication one of your greatest assets? Mention it in regards to how you can easily explain your insights and recommendations to stakeholders.
Make sure that you don’t just focus on the technical aspects of a job description. Pay attention to the soft skills mentioned and make sure you are able to effectively demonstrate how you possess those skills.
What I should have done: Nothing, really.
I’m not perfect by any means but I realized early on that my soft skills were what was going to differentiate me from other candidates. I knew I needed to leverage them and did so effectively.
My advice:
This is your chance to gas yourself up! Don’t be afraid to put your soft skills on display and figure out exactly how you would use them in different settings.
At the end of the day, your learning path is yours alone.
Find what works for you and stick with it, whether that means taking my advice or disregarding it entirely! These are just a few of the things that I found on my own journey.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of Things I Did on My Path to Data Analytics and What I Learned Along the Way because, believe me, there’s loads more.
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Happy learning!
