Data Analyst

What is a Data Analyst?

A data analyst helps an organisation understand what is actually happening. You pull data out of databases, check whether it means what people think it means, and present it as dashboards and reports that answer specific questions. It is one of the most approachable ways into tech: the tools are learnable quickly, and the skill that matters most — asking the right question — doesn't require a computer science background.

• Dashboards teams check every morning
• Reports that answer a specific business question
• Data quality and validation checks
• Metric definitions shared across a company
• Ad-hoc analyses for decisions in progress

A high-level preview of the areas this journey covers. Your detailed roadmap comes next.

1. 1Spreadsheets, properly
2. 2SQL
3. 3Data cleaning
4. 4Statistics basics
5. 5Data visualisation
6. 6A BI tool such as Power BI or Tableau
7. 7Python basics
8. 8Communicating findings

• You like finding the story inside a spreadsheet
• You enjoy answering practical questions
• You are organised and detail-oriented
• You want a route into tech without heavy programming first
• You like working with people across a business

Worth knowing before you commit. Every path has these.

• Data is often inconsistent or undocumented
• Requests arrive vaguer than they sound
• Repetitive reporting can become tedious
• You may need to defend a finding people dislike
• Growth usually means learning programming eventually