The Harsh Reality of Being a Data Analyst

Data Analyst is a great role to be in but it comes with its cons. In this video, we are discussing the unglamorous side of data analyst roles. Did any of the things mentioned resonate with your experience?

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ABOUT ME
I'm Sundas. I'm a self-taught data scientist from a non-tech background, currently at a FAANG company. I have been in the industry for +10 years spread across two big tech companies. On this channel, I share tips for people interested in entering data science with the goal to democratize knowledge and make complicated topics digestible for everyone. All opinions are mine!

PS. Some of the links included are affiliate links and help me keep this channel going. Thanks for the support.

[evergreen]

Not everyone desires to be a data scientist. If you love data analysis and visualization, this is still an excellent career path. I'm making 6 figures in my role as an analyst using just Excel and it's low stress, great hours. I can't complain

[Othique]

I actually appreciate knowing that Data Analyst is used as a transitional role for a lot of people, that means for those of us just starting out, we will EVENTUALLY get in, because the market is constantly turning over. (Gotta find those silver linings)

[Gilbert]

I feel like data analysis might become a skill many employees will be required to have regardless of their field. With the increase in automation, domain knowledge and the ability to use these automation tools might just be what’s needed. Also, python is being integrated in Excel now which is used in nearly every role

[etainapgwynnedd]

As a data analyst, at my company my entire team is so grateful we are NOT considered tech / IT: that team is the first to be 'streamlined' every few years because of their high salaries, so there is constant anxiety on that side of things of "is this the day they think there are too many of us?". Keep the extra money, it doesn't buy peace of mind!

[justerick_]

For those who got a little frustrated of pursuing Data analysis career: Keep in mind even if it's not a tech role eventually with the right skillset and experience it will lead to one (Data Scientist/Architect). When it comes to competitiveness in the market, tell me which career is easy and noncompetitive, go any finance role there are tons of applicants for each position (highly depending on location :). Last but not least pay is still more than average salary in U.S I guess so keep your head up and go for it ))

[ces]

Many think that becoming a Data Analyst is just a matter of learning a bit of SQL, Python, and a viz tool. Hence, the "less prestigious" label. I've been in the fields for some years and I can tell there are infinite "shades" of being a Data Analyst, some are more tool-oriented, some business-oriented, some engineering-oriented. There is no one definition that fits all.
A "complete" data analyst, one that can translate business needs into data insights and ultimately business decisions has more value than any individual tech contributor (including DS). Some companies have realized that and are willing to pay top-notch salaries for the job. The problem is that not many DA have the skills for those jobs, mainly because the large majority of DA perceive the role as a pure tech job while in reality the amount of hard skills needed is at least equal to the amount of soft skills.
Being a DA is not an easy job and people approaching this career should know that to succeed it takes a lot of pain and stepping out of their comfort zone. That's why many people leave this career path at some stage.

[regalternative]

The hardest thing about it not being considered a tech role at my company is that I'm always running into permission and access issues for things that we should've had access to by default if we were considered part of the programming teams or something. My boss is constantly fighting with management trying to explain to them why my role needs permissions to certain systems.

[edmundfreeman]

It is very easy to be a data analyst but very hard to be a good data analyst. 1) The field makes it very easy to make mistakes; the automated checking in software development doesn't apply here 2) A good data analyst needs to have an active engagement with the client, not simply doing what is requested but producing something better.

[anjarhusain]

As a beginner, I loved the video to the end seemingly because of your realisitic approach towards explaining the industry scenario as a whole. However, I'd like to make a request at the same time which is to make a similar video like this only on DATA ENGINEERING / DATA SCIENCE. Would love more insights on the harsh reality concerning these career paths.

Lastly, love from Bangladesh <3💌

[soundmapper]

I was recently promoted to a resource manager, and a couple days in, I realized it's actually a full on data analyst. I'm actually looking forward to it as the position is fairly laid back, has a lot of improvements that can be made, and I'm given quite a broad canvas as to what I can do.

[duruphd]

I think you answered the question on why pay for data analyst is lower than software development: there are plenty of people in the field. BUT I would say to anyone in the field the way you add value is not through analyzing data it is by delivering actionable insights. Directly influencing business decisions is just as powerful as developing products. In fact, consider how to create data products at your company. Lots of options to demonstrate high value!

[davidcorona]

I crossed over from DevOps and I can say that things in the Data World are just as difficult if not more because whatever your role is in the data world it involves more interaction with consumers of data and their requirements as well as the technical know-how on how to deliver it even if that is SQL or using Pandas in Python. With that said, there's also such a thing as data maturity and organizations that are low in data maturity tend to have the highest aspirations, meaning, they want things that can't be delivered within the current technological stack and this why astute people may start off as analyst but have to become data engineers, and DBAs, and still get paid an analyst salary.

[annafidler]

I'm a data analyst and one thing I've found is the sheer number of people who don't have a clue what a data analyst is (especially HR). Outside of the tech and engineering department in an organisation, people think all data analysts do is create a few nice graphs here and there out of thin air. They have no idea about formulas, the maths behind calculations, rates, time series comparisons or anything comprising the graphs. They have no idea about the technical skills it takes to create automated dashboards (in whatever platform) and how shitty of a state most data is in.

[JaredHatesGames]

Wow, I watched this video last night and loved it! Then today I am working on the Google Data Analytics Program on Coursera, and there you are talking about how to deal with imposter syndrome! I loved that too, and it gave me the motivation to continue my networking efforts, even though its not my forte. There is power in how open and honest you are. Thank you for providing so much effort and wisdom to help those of us who are in a similar place to where you started from!

[txreal]

If you like what a DA does and become good at it, the $ will come. Keep in mind:
1. DA not a tech role and pays less $$ compare to others
- AI is changing almost everything as we are talking; even for Data Scientist/DS, Data/Software Engineers/DE/SWE, ...
However, having domain knowledge and strong foundational coding & soft skills helps.
- Depends on the company
2. Move on to other roles such as DS/DE
- Are you willing to constantly learn off the job to keep up with the skills stack?
- Competition is also tough
3. Check out Analytics Engineer

[deino]

I feel like part of the reason why data analysts arent viewed as tech roles is because there are many data analysts roles where all youre doing is working with Excel. Many of the data analyst jobs I got did not require me to use any programming beyond maybe some Power BI stuff. There is a big mismatch between the skills that data analysts learn in data analytics programs and what is actually required to do the job.

[darkstar]

Interesting to learn the differences between the job groupings. Though does make me feel better about my decision to go to school for a Data Science position. Thanks for the free book link, the more resources the better!

[jacehua]

Yup so I transitioned from Data Analyst to Data Scientist and hopefully get to ML engineer soon. But what I also noticed is that people who work too long as a data analyst are stuck there. Especially in a big corp where they make you learn a very specific tech stack that you can't transfer over to other jobs.

[pygeekrfoo]

I’m a former data analyst. I’m very glad I’m now an engineer instead. One thing I would have added to this video is that data analysts are often too much on the business side in terms of interfacing with stakeholders and attending a lot of stupid meetings. That was very noticeable when I moved over to engineering where I don’t really interface with stakeholders or attend many meetings other than stand ups or meeting with other technical teams

[dnice]

You have to have other domain knowledge and couple that with data science/analysis. Knowing how to gather, clean, analyze, display, or synthesize data means nothing if you can’t interpret the data. Data is a raw input, your work as an analyst or scientist is to take that raw material and turn it into an insight. You have to understand the data and what it means to be valuable and paid accordingly.