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Why I’m Leaving Data

The pros and cons of working as a data analyst

Elle Chapeau
Towards Data Science
6 min readDec 3, 2019

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Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

This article isn’t an attempt to lambast but to give some insight into the nature of a career in data. Having worked at a range of company sizes, from startups to public, my views as an analyst, and to some extent data scientist, are purely in the context of B2C technology companies. It’s important to acknowledge that data professionals’ job descriptions vary hugely depending on the organisation. I’ll outline the pros and cons and why I’ve decided to leave this lucrative industry entirely.

Let’s start by giving some context of the job with a day in the life of a product analyst.

Day in the life of a product analyst

9:00 to 9:15- Get in, make a cup of tea, have breakfast at desk

9:15 to 9.30- Check emails, Jira backlog, to-do-list, Slack, calendar

9:30 to 12:30- Carry on with analysis started yesterday. SQL querying, slacking colleagues why TF this table disappeared overnight. Fight those data bushfires, guys.

12:30 to 1:30- Stuff my face

1:30 to 2:30- Translate queried data into a decent looking report. Flex dat python, dat Tableau, dat badonkadonk. No really, your arse starts to hurt from sitting all day.

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Towards Data Science
Towards Data Science

Published in Towards Data Science

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Elle Chapeau
Elle Chapeau

Written by Elle Chapeau

It’s hard being funny. People need to start taking my jokes more seriously.

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