Every business has to have a skilled data analyst to help them uncover the right conclusions.
Data analytics is one of the emerging strategic practices that companies utilize for their business growth and development. This process has a wide range of advantages and is applicable to different types of industries.
In fact, data analytics is now being used in the healthcare, retail, finance, tourism, and other sectors. However, in order for this process to be effective, you need to have a well skilled data analyst who has all the right skills and experience.
What is a data analytics professional?
A data analyst is the one responsible for successful data analytics outcomes. Data analysts in general, retrieve and gather specific information from different sources.
Organize all data collected and use it to analyse and come up with meaningful conclusions to help businesses make informed decisions and grow.
Why businesses need an excellent data analytics professional
Every business has to have a skilled data analyst to help them uncover the right conclusions. An excellent data analyst will help you solve certain problems in your company, guide you to make the right decisions, or even help you discover new opportunities.
Choosing the right data analyst will help you have a better understanding of your business. Data analytics allows you to have a better grasp of the past, present and the future of your organization.
Responsibilities of a data analytics professional
Data analysts roles and responsibilities may vary depending on your type of industry and objectives. A typical day for a data analyst goes beyond answering certain questions and making solutions.
Part of the main responsibilities of this profession is data collection and working with other people from across different departments within your organization.
More so, part of their main role is to determine specific patterns based on the sets of data and produce insightful reports to be presented to the management.
Skills data analytics professionals need to master
To help you hire the best candidate for your data analytics projects, here are the specific skills you need to set as a requirement:
Programming
Programming skills especially with SQL, R and Python is a standard requirement to become a data analyst. These are the leading statistical programming languages that are commonly used for predictive analytics and advanced analysis.
Machine learning
Machine learning is one of the main components that builds up a data analyst’s toolkit. But while not every data analyst makes use of machine learning, this skill serves as a competitive edge among other professionals.
Critical thinking
An efficient data analyst should always be able to produce information that is often unclear. Further, in order to come up with the correct answers and conclusions, data analysts should also need to figure out the right questions to ask.
Statistical knowledge
A good data analyst must have a strong foundation with regards to their statistical knowledge. This will help them have a good understanding about the kinds of data they are working with.
Above all, it will serve as their guide to ensure that what they have analyzed is valid and avoid logical errors.
Visualization
Part of the responsibilities of a data analyst is to create compelling visuals that can be easily understood. Data visualization can be in a form of plots or charts that represents the data sets and its findings.
Data analysts these days have become of high demand. Other businesses would require a data science certification in hiring data analysts. However, there is no required degree to qualify for this type of job.
