5 answers
Jenny
Student
10
Questions
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What are somethings I could do over the summer in order to get closer to the goal of becoming a Data Analyst? Are there any summer programs available that could help me with it?
I want to become a data analyst, but I am not sure where I could start. I want to do something over the summer in order to get more familiar with everything.
#dataanalyst #technology
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5 answers
Jeff Swanson
1
Answer
Updated
Jeff’s Answer
Just for context, my primary job is not specifically data analytics but it is a skill I need and use often within my job as a program/project manager. Additionally, I've worked with a few data analytics masters (one even worked on analytics for the NASA Mars Rover as her college internship! ...smart). Here's a few thoughts:
(1) Get to know the SQL which is a query language used in data mining. SQL seems a little like computer programming code or HTML or the like but it not really that complicated. At its root, SQL is a way to mine a database you would be working within (Teradata, MS) to tell the database; what data you want, from what location within that data you want the info from and under what rules or circumstance you want the data. Example: I want to know how many 'X' widgets were sold, from the Widgety table from December 10th through 25th. Ultimately, it's that easy. But there is the SQL language to extract that and learning it is very useful as it's likely to be at the core of data analysis. The more you learn how to do so, the more valuable it will be. The better you are at data extraction you are and getting targeted data results, the less spent on crunching data.
(2) Data Analytics seems very much a hard, science-like discipline but it's just as much art. Once you've got raw numbers extracted, what do you do? Ultimately, you're analyzing based on a hypothesis of some sort. That you expect to get the answer to 'question X'. There is no class that can teach you to actually analyze, other than just practice. Getting comfortable with managing large amounts data and fields and how to fashion that in to a conclusion and a conclusion that supports, refutes or provides direction to that base hypothesis....
(3) Get really, really good at Microsoft Excel. Really good. Excel, and similar tools, are your analysis bread and butter. It's how you take raw data from a raw state to a hypothesis supporting story ('My results indicate X...'). This means that you want to learn more than simply how to make pivot tables and nice visual graphs. Learns those, they are crucial interpretive tools to tell that story to the data's consumer. Learn how to build Excel formulas beyond the SUM function. Learn Data Validation tools (Text to Column too). Ultimately the ability to manipulate a lot of data is dependent on how well you understand the tools you use.
(4) Understand project management. Although data analytics supports more that projects, often times you'll find that good data mining either is supporting a change/project or simply by having good daily reporting on some 'thing' that a company keeps track of, the data suggests that some sort of fix is needed or issue exists.
What does this mean to you and your summer:
- Find a class or online program to learn SQL. The truth is, once you realize it's simply; what I want, where I want it from and under what circumstances, building a basic SQL query is pretty easy . Get your starting point by learning basic SQL and build out from there.
- You can take classes for Excel but if you are a good 'self-learner', mess with large data sets in Excel and mess with all the tools. The problem is how to get a bulk amount of data. Not as hard as you think. The federal government has pages wherein you can extract datasets. Try BLS.gov. You can run reports that will make Excel output and you'll have bulk data within an Excel sheet to mess with.
Those are the key items to get going. The hard part is that; since you don't work at a company, you're somewhat playing around with these things in the abstract but there are courses and tools that get you a little baseline head start.
Truthfully, I learned all my data analytics from observing skills of others but mostly because I had the need to 'figure something out' and went about getting that data answer myself. Courses do give you a nice jump start but really working with data, you learn where the rubber meets the road.
Good luck!!
(1) Get to know the SQL which is a query language used in data mining. SQL seems a little like computer programming code or HTML or the like but it not really that complicated. At its root, SQL is a way to mine a database you would be working within (Teradata, MS) to tell the database; what data you want, from what location within that data you want the info from and under what rules or circumstance you want the data. Example: I want to know how many 'X' widgets were sold, from the Widgety table from December 10th through 25th. Ultimately, it's that easy. But there is the SQL language to extract that and learning it is very useful as it's likely to be at the core of data analysis. The more you learn how to do so, the more valuable it will be. The better you are at data extraction you are and getting targeted data results, the less spent on crunching data.
(2) Data Analytics seems very much a hard, science-like discipline but it's just as much art. Once you've got raw numbers extracted, what do you do? Ultimately, you're analyzing based on a hypothesis of some sort. That you expect to get the answer to 'question X'. There is no class that can teach you to actually analyze, other than just practice. Getting comfortable with managing large amounts data and fields and how to fashion that in to a conclusion and a conclusion that supports, refutes or provides direction to that base hypothesis....
(3) Get really, really good at Microsoft Excel. Really good. Excel, and similar tools, are your analysis bread and butter. It's how you take raw data from a raw state to a hypothesis supporting story ('My results indicate X...'). This means that you want to learn more than simply how to make pivot tables and nice visual graphs. Learns those, they are crucial interpretive tools to tell that story to the data's consumer. Learn how to build Excel formulas beyond the SUM function. Learn Data Validation tools (Text to Column too). Ultimately the ability to manipulate a lot of data is dependent on how well you understand the tools you use.
(4) Understand project management. Although data analytics supports more that projects, often times you'll find that good data mining either is supporting a change/project or simply by having good daily reporting on some 'thing' that a company keeps track of, the data suggests that some sort of fix is needed or issue exists.
What does this mean to you and your summer:
- Find a class or online program to learn SQL. The truth is, once you realize it's simply; what I want, where I want it from and under what circumstances, building a basic SQL query is pretty easy . Get your starting point by learning basic SQL and build out from there.
- You can take classes for Excel but if you are a good 'self-learner', mess with large data sets in Excel and mess with all the tools. The problem is how to get a bulk amount of data. Not as hard as you think. The federal government has pages wherein you can extract datasets. Try BLS.gov. You can run reports that will make Excel output and you'll have bulk data within an Excel sheet to mess with.
Those are the key items to get going. The hard part is that; since you don't work at a company, you're somewhat playing around with these things in the abstract but there are courses and tools that get you a little baseline head start.
Truthfully, I learned all my data analytics from observing skills of others but mostly because I had the need to 'figure something out' and went about getting that data answer myself. Courses do give you a nice jump start but really working with data, you learn where the rubber meets the road.
Good luck!!
I see, thank you very much! I'll look more into SQL.
Jenny
Shruti Bangad
Data Engineer
30
Answers
Mountain View, California
Updated
Shruti’s Answer
I think the answers above are spot on!
Just want to add:
Find out skills needed to become a data analyst and start finding ways you can acquire that skill.
There is a lot of learning material available out there. Make sure you are using only reliable resources rather than a random YouTube videos posted by someone. Although that video may have all the correct content but it may not be wholesome and it may mislead you to think that you have completely acquired a particular skill and know everything about it.
Reach out to data analysts on LinkedIn and tell them that you want to talk to them and seek advice the start your career as a Data Analyst. More often than not people are willing to help.
Just want to add:
Find out skills needed to become a data analyst and start finding ways you can acquire that skill.
There is a lot of learning material available out there. Make sure you are using only reliable resources rather than a random YouTube videos posted by someone. Although that video may have all the correct content but it may not be wholesome and it may mislead you to think that you have completely acquired a particular skill and know everything about it.
Reach out to data analysts on LinkedIn and tell them that you want to talk to them and seek advice the start your career as a Data Analyst. More often than not people are willing to help.
Lingjia Zhang
Business Analyst
1
Answer
Austin, Texas
Updated
Lingjia’s Answer
People are providing excellent answers to the questions!
I would like to share some tools or courses I have took in the past, and I truly believe they have helped me to improve my coding skills about data analysis.
- Datacamp.com
This is a great website to get start with SQL or Python. It contains a lot of courses or paths, and each course would be divided to 10 mins long videos with exercises. I really think it's a great way to learn by doing some exercises after watching videos. The overall duration for each course would be around 4hrs. Based on my experience, you could finish 1 course per week by only spending 30-40 mins each day.
- towardsdatascience.com/
It's a medium publication sharing data science concepts, ideas and code. I would regularly read their articles. Talented and smart people would post some useful and practical code on the platform, and they would also explain the ideas and concepts behind it in details.
Good luck!!
I would like to share some tools or courses I have took in the past, and I truly believe they have helped me to improve my coding skills about data analysis.
- Datacamp.com
This is a great website to get start with SQL or Python. It contains a lot of courses or paths, and each course would be divided to 10 mins long videos with exercises. I really think it's a great way to learn by doing some exercises after watching videos. The overall duration for each course would be around 4hrs. Based on my experience, you could finish 1 course per week by only spending 30-40 mins each day.
- towardsdatascience.com/
It's a medium publication sharing data science concepts, ideas and code. I would regularly read their articles. Talented and smart people would post some useful and practical code on the platform, and they would also explain the ideas and concepts behind it in details.
Good luck!!
Sarah Williams
Electrical Engineer
53
Answers
Jacksonville, Florida
Updated
Sarah’s Answer
Without knowing much about your location specifically, I can't speak to specific programs, but here are some ideas of where to look:
- FIRST Robotics is a great program that uses robotics to teach engineering and science principles in a team environment.
- SWEnext is the high school arm of the Society of Women Engineers. They have local clubs and online resources related to engineering.
- Girls Who Code has clubs to learn programming.
- This sounds off the wall but you may also consider Toastmasters! A key skill in data science is being able to tell the story behind the data. Toastmasters is a great environment to learn key communication and storytelling skills.
- FIRST Robotics is a great program that uses robotics to teach engineering and science principles in a team environment.
- SWEnext is the high school arm of the Society of Women Engineers. They have local clubs and online resources related to engineering.
- Girls Who Code has clubs to learn programming.
- This sounds off the wall but you may also consider Toastmasters! A key skill in data science is being able to tell the story behind the data. Toastmasters is a great environment to learn key communication and storytelling skills.
I am really grateful you took the time to answer this question.
Jenny
Nicholas Paolillo
Sr Director, Technical Program Management
3
Answers
Holliston, Massachusetts
Updated
Nicholas’s Answer
Hello - I would start with googling for some on-line classes in Data Analytics
Here is a link for FREE course in LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/subscription/topics/analytics?src=go-pa&veh=sem_src.go-pa_c.LLS-C_NAMER_US_T1_EN-US_SEM_SEM_GoogleAds_NA_All_NA_NA_Core_NA_Mkt-Analytics-MKAG_Nonbrand_Broad_pkw.analytics%20online%20course_pmt.b_pcrid.562417734180_pdv.c_plc._trgid.aud-1028350887049:kwd-5236373448_net.g_learning&trk=sem_src.go-pa_c.LLS-C_NAMER_US_T1_EN-US_SEM_SEM_GoogleAds_NA_All_NA_NA_Core_NA_Mkt-Analytics-MKAG_Nonbrand_Broad_pkw.analytics%20online%20course_pmt.b_pcrid.562417734180_pdv.c_plc._trgid.aud-1028350887049:kwd-5236373448_net.g_learning&mcid=6868631666454224972&cname=LLS-C_NAMER_US_T1_EN-US_SEM_SEM_GoogleAds_NA_All_NA_NA_Core_NA_Mkt-Analytics-MKAG_Nonbrand_Broad&camid=15296308065&asid=131553434042&targetid=aud-1028350887049:kwd-5236373448&crid=562417734180&placement=&dev=c&ends=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvKax4pHu9QIVia_ICh1xeALYEAAYASAAEgLMPfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
You can also look for interesting and relevant material @ MIT - they offer 2000 FREE on-line courses - see link below
https://openlearning.mit.edu/news/mit-offers-over-2000-free-online-courses-here-are-13-best-ones
Last - google around for internships - maybe even, work for free to gain experiance
Best
Nick
Here is a link for FREE course in LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/subscription/topics/analytics?src=go-pa&veh=sem_src.go-pa_c.LLS-C_NAMER_US_T1_EN-US_SEM_SEM_GoogleAds_NA_All_NA_NA_Core_NA_Mkt-Analytics-MKAG_Nonbrand_Broad_pkw.analytics%20online%20course_pmt.b_pcrid.562417734180_pdv.c_plc._trgid.aud-1028350887049:kwd-5236373448_net.g_learning&trk=sem_src.go-pa_c.LLS-C_NAMER_US_T1_EN-US_SEM_SEM_GoogleAds_NA_All_NA_NA_Core_NA_Mkt-Analytics-MKAG_Nonbrand_Broad_pkw.analytics%20online%20course_pmt.b_pcrid.562417734180_pdv.c_plc._trgid.aud-1028350887049:kwd-5236373448_net.g_learning&mcid=6868631666454224972&cname=LLS-C_NAMER_US_T1_EN-US_SEM_SEM_GoogleAds_NA_All_NA_NA_Core_NA_Mkt-Analytics-MKAG_Nonbrand_Broad&camid=15296308065&asid=131553434042&targetid=aud-1028350887049:kwd-5236373448&crid=562417734180&placement=&dev=c&ends=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvKax4pHu9QIVia_ICh1xeALYEAAYASAAEgLMPfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
You can also look for interesting and relevant material @ MIT - they offer 2000 FREE on-line courses - see link below
https://openlearning.mit.edu/news/mit-offers-over-2000-free-online-courses-here-are-13-best-ones
Last - google around for internships - maybe even, work for free to gain experiance
Best
Nick
Thank you for the suggestions!
Jenny