Hi everyone!
Welcome to another 365 Data Science Special!
It’s time to discover one more way to break
into data science!
Yes, you guessed it right– we’ll talk
about becoming the BFF of business performance
– the Business Intelligence analyst!
We’ll take a good look into who the BI analyst
is, what they do, and how much zeroes are
tacked on the end of their salary.
Last but not least, we’ll discuss what skills
and academic background will help you become
one.
And if you yourself are considering a career
as a BI analyst, great choice!
BI analysts are some of the most in-demand
data science professionals across many, many
industries and business fields at the moment.
However, if you lack the academic background
or relevant skills for the job, it’s easy
to get discouraged.
That said, you should know that acquiring
these skills is absolutely possible, even
for complete beginners.
There are plenty of qualification programs
and online certificate data science trainings.
One of these is the 365 Data Science Program,
so, before we move on, we’d like to quickly
tell you about this awesome all-around training.
The program contains the full set of data
science courses you need to develop the entire
set of skills for the job.
It’s completely beginner-friendly, so even
if you don’t have any maths or statistics
knowledge, it will help you first build those
foundations before moving on to more advanced
topics.
Building up your programming skills happens
naturally, with courses on Python, SQL and
R, and plenty of exercises and projects to
really make your knowledge stick.
Once you’re comfortable with programming,
the program teaches you how to create machine
and deep learning models with the latest frameworks
like TensorFlow and TensorFlow 2.
And if you’d like to build a more specialized
skillset, you can do that with courses on
Time Series Analysis, Credit Risk Modeling
and more.
As we mentioned, there are plenty of real-world
exercises and projects and as data science
as a field evolves, so does the training,
with new courses and resources getting added
on almost monthly bases.
So, if you’d like to learn more or enroll
using a 20% discount, there’s a link in
the description you can check out.
Alright – let’s talk about the BI analyst
and everything you need to know about that
career choice.
First things first – becoming a BI analyst
is one of several ways to get yourself on
the data science track, and if that’s what
you’re aiming for, just keep in mind the
other options, too:
• data analyst;
• data architect;
• data engineer;
• and, of course, the data scientist.
We’ll be making videos for each one of these,
so keep an eye out on our channel.
So, who is the BI analyst and what makes them
so special?
BI analysts are fierce business performance
ninjas who possess a blend of business vision,
consultant abilities and profound understanding
of data.
They join forces with senior management to
shape and develop a data strategy.
Analysis of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs),
accurate overview of business performance
and identifying areas that need improvement
are also specialties in the BI analyst’s
domain.
So far, so good.
But what exactly does a BI analyst do?
Well, they focus primarily on analyses and
reporting of past historical data.
Once the relevant data is in the hands of
the BI Analyst (that’s… monthly revenue,
customer, sales volume, etc.), they must quantify
the observations, calculate KPIs, and examine
the measures to extract insights.
Of course, the most important aspect of a
BI analyst’s job is to continually improve
their company’s competitive positioning.
Therefore, they examine their competitors,
data trends, seasonality, and other random
effects to quickly identify issues and best
practices.
On top of that, they create killer graphs
and dashboards to review major decisions and
measure effectiveness.
So, in a word, if you want to have an impact
on the business world, become a BI analyst.
Well, maybe that’s easier said than done.
But let’s see how much a BI analyst makes
per year, maybe that’ll have some inspirational
effect on you.
Well, according to Glassdoor and PayScale,
if you’re new to the profession (with 1
year of experience or less), you can count
on $66,000 average pay.
Once you’ve gained a few years of experience
and you’ve honed your persuasion skills,
your median annual pay can reach $79,000 (plus
$5,185 average bonus).
You want to work across the pond?
That’s alright!
An entry-level BI analyst in the UK can expect
to earn an average total salary of £26,000.
And, by all means, 1-4 years of experience
will grant you a total compensation of £29,000.
So, what are the steps and qualifications
you need to become a BI analyst in the first
place?
Well, if you want to pursue the BI analyst
career path, consider gaining some experience
as a data analyst or a business analyst.
A BI analyst career has a lot to offer but
you definitely need some high-level skills
to get started.
That said, it makes sense to talk about the
education and the skills themselves.
We’ll start with the academic background.
In general, landing a job as a BI analyst
should come relatively easy, if you have a
BA in one (or more) of the following:
• computer science;
• mathematics;
• statistics;
• finance;
• business administration;
• or economics or related field.
But don’t be quick to discourage if your
background is in contemporary dance or Classical
Indian literature, because, as we mentioned
in the beginning, there are plenty of specializations
and all-around online certificate courses
that will give you the knowledge and confidence
required for the job.
And here’s a small tip: if you’re new
to the data science field, an internship in
the financial industry would be a great start.
Not only will this help you understand all
business processes, but you’ll also get
a good idea of what projects a BI analyst
undertakes.
Okay!
From academia to the competitive data science
job market – here are the skills you need
to become a full-fledged BI analyst.
A data science job is all about the skillset,
and the BI analyst path makes no exception.
There’s a plethora of technical, practical,
and soft skills you should work on to fit
the bill.
First, let’s take a look at the technical
side of things!
To become a BI analyst, you’ll have to demonstrate
excellent Excel, SQL and Power BI skills,
along with some serious Tableau Desktop and
Server abilities.
Such competencies are key to developing graphs,
dashboards, reports, and presentations of
project results.
And those are of major importance to a BI
analyst’s job.
What about Python and R?
Highly desirable, so make sure you put them
on your things-to-learn list, too!
All in all, if there’s a tool or technique
that will help you identify, analyze, and
interpret trends or patterns in complex data
sets, just master it!
You’ll thank yourself later.
Okay – what about practical skills.
It’s right here:
• strong planning and organization skills;
• learning concepts quickly, and applying
them to come up with creative solutions;
• analytical skills;
• impeccable attention to detail,
• working independently in a fast-paced
and rapidly changing environment;
• designing rich data visualizations and
dashboards to communicate complex ideas to
business partners and leadership;
• presentation skills;
• persuasion, flexibility, and adaptability.
But, if you want to really stand out, there’s
one more secret ingredient you should add
to your BI analyst qualifications - soft skills.
You’ll need:
• team-player mindset in a high-pressure
environment;
• verbal and written communication skills;
• willingness to assist and coach other
project teams when required.
Combine those with a fast understanding of
other people’s needs and…
You’re moving right on top of any data science
company’s recruitment list!
Alright!
That’s our review of the BI Analyst job.
Hopefully, you got a sense of what to expect
from the position and what you need to aim
for if you want to land a job in the field.
However, some extra career insights are always
desirable.
So, if you feel like you still need additional
career advice and a more detailed analysis
of the career opportunities in data science
– we wrote a very long article about this,
and the link is in the description, if you
want to learn more.
In the meantime, thanks for watching and good
luck on your
data science journey!
