How to Become a Data Analyst?

If you are good with numbers, data and have a logical and a story telling mind, you can become a Data Analyst and earn five figures+ salary. This article shows you the right path to become a Data Analyst. So lets dive in..

In this article, we cover everything you need to become a Data Analyst from scratch. You can be from any field, no matter whether you have prior experience or not. You can become a Data Analyst! So do read this post and share with others who have interest in it.

Who is a Data Analyst?

A Data Analyst is someone who collects, cleans, and make analysis of data sets to help solve problems. Every Industry needs a data analyst to answer the questions and challenges based on the data they get. This helps organizations work out new strategies and plan of actions to grow not in present times but future as well.

Data Analysis is the need of the hour in fast paced 21st century. Those who continuously work on Data Analysis to understand the demand and supply do well. Data Analysis is the backbone for industries like Finance, Business, Science, Healthcare, Food Industry, and Government to name a few.

Here’s how the process of Data Analysis typically carried out :

• Identify – In this phase, identify the data you want to analyze
• Collect – Gather data to analyze
• Clean – Taking out the irrelevant data
• Analyze – Thorough Analysis
• Interpret – Outcome of the data analysis

The above is an iterative process and is carried out using various tools. The demand of Data Analysts is only growing and it is about time, you start journey to become one.

Read this: 10+ Professional Certificate Programs on Coursera For Better Career

Data Analyst Tools

To become a Data Analyst, you need to learn a few tools that are required. And anyone can learn them, especially when there are so many online websites to learn from. Some of the people reading this article may already be familiar with these skills or tools. So do take a look and start the learning from Day 1

• MS Excel
• Google Sheets
• SQL
• Tableau
• Programing Language: R or Python
• SAS
• Microsoft Power BI
• Jupyter Notebooks

You may not need to learn all of the above tools, but it is always a plus to have them in your arsenal for an edge.

Journey to Become a Data Analyst

The first and foremost thing is to acquire the above skills. And, one can learn them in many ways. Take a look at the following options and you will be good to go.

IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate:

This is a beginner friendly professional certificate that will teach you the skills required to become a data analyst. The best part is, after completion, you get a certificate that can be shared on LinkedIn and on your resume. This certificate program comes from IBM and is hosted by online education leader Coursera.

The rating of this Professional course is 4.7/5 after 18,000+ ratings. And, as of June 2024, there are 236K+ learners enrolled in this 9 courses series.

Check it out in details

Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate:

Another great option that comes from Google. You may want to get this certification which is available through Coursera once again. No prior knowledge required to enroll in this program.

As of last week of June 2024, the rating of this certificate course is 4.8/5 after 136K+ ratings. And, over 2 Million learners have signed up for this certificate program. You may want to take a look at it.

Check it out in details

If you are interested in a bachelors degree, we recommend that you consider a degree that focuses on statistics, math, or computer science. Good thing is, you can do these degrees online as well. It is just a matter of personal liking. Otherwise, the above two resources are more than sufficient for anyone to start the Data Analyst journey.