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Data Analyst Career Entry

The route into a first data analyst job, from spreadsheets, SQL, statistics and a visualisation tool to a three-project portfolio, applications, technical tests and the first 90 days.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Data Analyst Career Entry, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

197

Starter tasks

🧰 Professions & Trades

Data Analyst Career Entry

Breaking into data analysis: spreadsheets, SQL and a visualisation tool, statistics basics, portfolio projects and the first analyst role.

  1. Mapping data analyst roles and job titles
  2. Skills baseline against five target adverts
  3. Choosing a learning route into data analysis
  4. Free analyst toolkit on your own laptop
  5. Choosing your first visualisation tool
  6. Twelve-month plan to a first analyst role
  7. Budget for courses, certificates and software
  8. SQL snippets and analyst notes library
  9. Finding practice datasets you are allowed to use
  10. Data privacy and ethics basics for analysts
  11. Twice-weekly SQL practice sessions
  12. Daily fifteen-minute concept flashcards
  13. Monthly mini-analysis on a fresh dataset
  14. Analyst job application tracker
  15. Portfolio write-up publishing routine
  16. Data community and network upkeep
  17. Quarterly skills rescore against target adverts
  18. Analytics reading queue
  19. Spreadsheet skills analysts use every day
  20. SQL fundamentals from SELECT to joins
  21. Intermediate SQL with window functions and CTEs
  22. Data cleaning and validation checklist
  23. Statistics basics for analysts
  24. Chart choice and dashboard design principles
  25. Learning your chosen visualisation tool
  26. Python or R for analysis decision and basics
  27. Business metrics and asking the right question
  28. Presenting findings to non-technical audiences
  29. Choosing an entry-level data certificate
  30. Portfolio of three end-to-end analyst projects
  31. Analyst CV and professional profile
  32. Turning your current job into data experience
  33. Volunteer data project for a charity or club
  34. Sitting your first data certification exam
  35. SQL and spreadsheet technical test preparation
  36. Take-home case study preparation
  37. Analyst interview loop preparation
  38. First datathon or analytics competition
  39. Evaluating and negotiating an analyst job offer
  40. First 90 days as a junior analyst
  41. School subjects and university route into data
  42. Internships and graduate schemes in analytics
  43. Career change into data analysis
  44. Data analyst careers from the Caribbean
  45. Working remotely or abroad as an analyst
  46. Studying data skills around work and family
  47. Choosing an analyst specialism after the first year
  48. Analysing experiments and split tests
  49. Data modelling and analytics engineering basics
  50. Choosing between senior analyst, data science and engineering

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Mapping data analyst roles and job titles

Data analyst is a label stretched across very different jobs: a reporting analyst refreshes weekly dashboards, a business intelligence analyst maintains data models, a marketing or product analyst answers questions about customers, and some adverts titled analyst are really data entry.

First tasks

  • Save ten entry-level analyst adverts from job boards in your country
  • Save ten more from remote boards or a country you could work in
  • Tally the tools and skills that appear in more than half the adverts
  • Write your first target job title and two reasons at the top of your notes

Skills baseline against five target adverts

Before planning any study it helps to know honestly where you stand. Scoring yourself from zero to three on every skill in five adverts that match your target title, with one piece of evidence behind each score, turns a vague sense of being behind into a short, ordered list of gaps.

First tasks

  • Pick five adverts that match your target title closely
  • List every skill they mention in a skills matrix
  • Score yourself 0 to 3 on each skill and note the evidence
  • Rank your three biggest gaps by how many adverts ask for them

Choosing a learning route into data analysis

People reach first analyst jobs through a degree in statistics, economics or computing, an online professional certificate, a bootcamp, or by growing into the role from operations or finance. The routes differ by thousands in cost and by a year or more in time, so comparing three of them against your money, weekly hours and existing qualifications avoids paying for something you did not need.

First tasks

  • List three routes you could realistically start within six months
  • Put the cost, length and weekly hours of each in one table
  • Message two past students of any paid course on your list
  • Record the route you chose and the date you will start

Make it yours.

Install Data Analyst Career Entry, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.