What is Data Analytics, and how can you become a data analyst?

Data analytics is the science of analyzing raw data to conclude that information.

The primary aim of data analytics is to apply statistical analysis and technologies to data to find trends and solve problems, which means some familiarity with descriptive statistical concepts.

Often, Data analytics is confused with Data analysis, but they aren’t the same thing.

So what is Data Analysis?

Data analysis is a subset of data analytics concerned with examining, cleansing, transforming, and modelling data to derive conclusions.

Business Analytics is another subset of Data Analytics. It uses data analytics techniques, including data mining, statistical analysis, and predictive modelling, to drive better business decisions

A person using Data analytics techniques to help an organisation’s stakeholders understand their data and make a data-driven decision is a Data Analyst.

Data analyst tasks and responsibilities

The role includes plenty of time spent with data and communicating findings to the right stakeholder.

Some of the day-to-day tasks of a data analyst include

• Gather data: Sometimes, data isn’t readily available; one of the jobs of a data analyst is collecting data. Collecting information include conducting surveys, tracking, or buying datasets from data collection specialists.
• Cleaning data is an essential part of an analyst job because: Raw data might contain duplicates, errors, or outliers. Cleaning the data maintains the data quality in a spreadsheet or a programming language so that your interpretations won’t be poor or skewed.
• Model data: Some data in the database may not be relevant for the current analysis; an analyst is the design of the structure of the database, choosing what data needs to be collected and stored
• Interpret data: Interpreting data involves finding patterns or trends in data that will help answer the question at hand.
• Present: An analyst communicates findings through visualizations like charts and graphs, writing reports, and presenting information to interested parties.

How can anyone become a Data Analyst?

1. Well, earning a bachelor’s degree in a field emphasizing statistical and analytical skills, such as math or computer science, is essential. Although some senior-level jobs require a master’s degree.

2. Having some analytical skills

· Critical thinking

· Ability to present findings to the correct stakeholders

· Data visualization skills using tools like power bi or tableau.

· Knowing how to perform analytics using spreadsheet packages like excel and google sheets

· Using structured query language to handle large datasets that are too large for excel

· Knowing R or python, or both is a bonus.

Are all skills a data analyst should possess

3. As a beginner, self-development through completing projects or joining competitions is a great way to master skills related to data analytics.

If you wonder where to find data set for projects, consider looking into The World Health organization’s website, UNICEF, data.gov or Kaggle.

Certifications help, too, especially for people transitioning into the data-related field.

Some certifications to consider are

· The Google data analytics professional certification

· The IBM data analytics professional certification

both certification course are delivered through coursera.org.