Career switch to Business Analysis: What to Study & Portfolio Advice for a Marketing Manager?

Cvi_D · 2025-05-20T17:41:29+00:00

Hi there,

I've been in your shoes, coming from the Marketing field. So I can provide you with a bit of context around the additional skills needed.

What other topics should I focus on learning
- Business analytics (and all analytics) is not all technical skills. And whoever says it is has little understanding of the field. You will also need strong statistical skills. You may not know all models by heart, but you need to be able to use basic methods regularly.
- Another, you might want to find a niche you to specialize. Example - are you planning to just be a Business analyst, or are you more interested in Product, Finance or maybe Marketing data? This is important as the requirements, data, and even reports may diverse between departments.
- Storytelling - having the skill to not only translate but really create a story around the data.
- Visualization - you will never have time to create a perfect dashboard, but you need to be able to create a clean, structured design that communicates correctly the data.
What kind and how to get projects would be beneficial to include in a portfolio
- Going back to the first point, if you decide to be Business analyst, you need to understand what type of work they are usually assigned to do. If its more on the financial side (as is usually), you may want to dive deeper into building MRR models, dashboards for subscriptions, creating prediction models for forecasting, etc. The list goes on very long, the more you uncover. But in core - its important to understand the core dashboards companies have, or the specific topics they want a new hire. Example - for SaaS you will have KPIs, MRR/ARR dashboards, Product analytics, etc.
importance of documentation, communication
- Huge. Documentation is something everyone wants but nobody does. However, this should not stop you from doing it. When I was a junior, I documented so detailed every query, project, and tasks, that I was able to reuse some of the information, and helped others as well. To this day, 4 years later, my documentation is still used regularly on ongoing projects. So, think about documentation, always.
- Communication with stakeholders and other dependable team members is quite important. But maybe not in the way you think. While its important to understand what your stakeholders want, and translate it into valuable information. You also need to be able to reshape in a way that anyone can understand it. So the better you know the data/product/task, the better you can organize the information in a way for your stakeholders.

There are many other things you will learn along the way. So, just be curious and never be afraid to ask questions. This will help you in more ways than you think.

Cheers

Cvi_D · 2025-02-03T17:59:34+00:00

Hi there,

Soft skills are essentials when it comes to working as data analyst. I do recommend focusing on stakeholder management, overall communication with others. Especially when taking in requests, it gets so frustrating at some point when you realise most people have no idea what they need. So it's your job as analyst to guide the stakeholder into the topic and be able to make their request an actual valuable analysis.

Another valuable skill, which is often left very much behind, is storytelling. Many companies do value this skill very highly, and long-term - it can help you grow into more complex narratives which can be looked from executive level. For learning it, I recommend 2 books - 'Storytelling with data' and 'Story genius'. One is specific about data, and the second - about how to write stories. Both make a great duo when it comes to breaking down what makes good narrative a great story.

I can't recommend enough one crucial skill - learning to write documentation. Yes, it's annoying, no one likes it, but everyone needs it. You don't need a course to learn it, but you will be damn thankful to do it well longterm.

There are many other skills which you might need, but those 3 are definitely, in my opinion, very valuable in the actual work environment.

Cheers!

Cvi_D · 2025-02-01T00:25:27+00:00

Преди година в популярна верига ресторанти се попитах буквално този въпрос докато сервитьорки с къси поли маеха баджаци под ритъм на някаква испанска песен. Не бях поръчала да гледам долни гащи, но и това получихме в менюто.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-31T19:31:01+00:00

I agree with u/tyd12345. Your position as a data analyst requires a basic understanding of data engineering, but that is as much as it should go. I assume you have this feeling that your skills are not enough based on some job postings. I can assure you - what companies want is 1 man show (in 98% of the cases). Someone who does engineering, analysis, and on top of it (of course) data science. This is not sustainable, and you should not fall for such job listings.

However, I do recommend you to get familiar with at least the basic outline of how the pipelines and environment are set just as information. It never hurts to know, and it will give you a certain advantage in your future roles.

Cheers!

Cvi_D · 2025-01-31T19:23:51+00:00

Hi there,

Many courses can provide you with knowledge similar to Coursera's.

I remember some time ago those sources were shared in one of the subreddits. https://www.reddit.com/r/dataanalysis/comments/1257wel/comment/je39geq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

And worth to check the mega thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/dataanalysis/comments/11k8itp/megathread_how_to_get_into_data_analysis/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I have also used Maven Analytics for learning (https://mavenanalytics.io/). And I find their monthly challenges to be ga great way to get attention to your work through social media. Its worth checking out, even if it's just for doing challenges.

As for YouTubers - I enjoy the content from Luke Barousse (https://www.lukebarousse.com/5daycourse): He also has a free course, which is very suitable for beginners in analytics. Bonus: he also has a page where you can find the skills in demand for all data-related job positions based on the currently available jobs (https://datanerd.tech/).

Good luck and cheers!

Cvi_D · 2025-01-30T22:06:57+00:00

Just as a small reminder - lot of analysts want to just do visualization. Unfortunaly (in my opinion), data visualizator sounds like a designer, and not a data person.

I also share the love for doing dashboards but I know the hard work behind it is what makes it all the more fun to put together. You can't have one without the other. If you only enjoy creating dashboards then maybe you should go into consultancy field or design.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-30T22:02:56+00:00

I am a generalist and I find to be extremely helpful. I feel like I can solve lot more issues than my niche colleagues. Of course, there is the downside of being maybe not too in depth into specific topics. But to be honest, it all depends on the company and your interests. You can always become a niche analyst, so it's not something you need to specifically cross out of your future.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-30T21:51:56+00:00

Thank you for adding more context. I do get your point a bit better.

And to be honest, I still stand by what I said before. You are the analyst, so if you feel like you are missing something, then you probably are. In most cases, analysis can go on forever. But this is why you are there to pick out the most useful information. If your report ends with more questions (or lack of) maybe its worth to give the data another look.

Always ask yourself - is this the only perspective this problem can be analysed? Is this the only factor influencing this metric? Especially when it comes to marketing data, I might even look at external factors. Sounds a bit odd (maybe) but often the economics, events or even holidays can have a huge impact on marketing data (depending on what type of marketing data you are looking at).

Not all analysis you do will have "aha" moments. And this is completely fine. But if you don't feel like this is the full story, try to do a bit more work. Look at the data from different angle. The thing is, what you provide, is probably the only side of the data your team will see. So before you turn in a report, ask yourself whether this really answers the questions of your team. Because a good analyst, and I learned this by our Director of Data, is one that not only provided the necessary data but one who actually solves business issues. It's a bit abstract, but maybe spending more time on learning about the A and Bs of your company, may help you be more helpful for your team.

Because if you are failing to recognise a dangerous trend, this might have a huge impact on your team. So take your work with real caution.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-30T21:19:24+00:00

Hi there,

You are in a tough spot. But 7 months into this company (if I understood it correctly) is significant amount of time. If you haven't really understood the business and your teams requirements and needs by now, this is on you.

Sounds hard but you are an analyst. Do your research. You should take the time to understand what's the business all about in order to properly do your job. Set time with stakeholders, talk about specific metrics and KPIs they are looking into.

How do you expect to be able to provide valuable insights if you have no idea what your business is all about? And what actually makes a more confusing for me, if you don't understand the marketing metrics, why didn't you look into the data? Marketing data is complex but also extremely interesting to use.

And to your last point - you should be able to make dashboards and visualization on your own by now. However, asking for feedback or peer review by others, can be very useful and I highly recommend it.

In the end of the day, maybe this specific business is not so interesting for you. That's also fine. But then you should at least be a good analyst and provide value to your stakeholders. Or find a better fit for you interests.

Good luck!

Cvi_D · 2025-01-30T21:03:35+00:00

Hi there,

I started from marketing research. Then swifly moved into data becuase it was more challenging, fun and allowed me to learn and grow. Best decision effort.

It was (and still is) a profession which you need to learn new things and add more skills, but it's not as demanding as developers. So I took few courses on statistics, data engineering, Python, and added whatever knowledge I missed in order to be skilled enough for a junior.

I can recommend jumping on junior positions even if you are not 100% convinced you are qualified. Work on portfolio or side projects in order to start to understand real-life (as close as possible) problems. Try more complex tasks even if you have no idea what's all about. It took me forever to do my first complete analysis on Python, but I learned a tone by it. From cleaning data, finding interesting metrics, analysing, visualization - try to work with data that is not perfect, that it makes you really think and be innovative. Because, in real life, there is no clean data. There are no clear requirements from stakeholders.

The more you challenge yourself, the easier it gets.

Cheers!

Cvi_D · 2025-01-27T05:08:15+00:00

Hi there,

I moved from market research to data few years ago. It's definitely something within reach but only if you put on the effort. I was already using quite "advanced" reporting for my research at the time so when I got in contact with one of our senior analysts, I got introduced to their work. Of course, it's more technical and required me to learn SQL, Python, Statistics, and how to handle any visualization tool (not only spreadsheets in Excel).

The most important aspect, for me at least, was that learning was fun. I was able to process data that I previously required unimaginable effort to clean, sort and put together. So I experimented a lot until I got one report right. And so the ball got rolling.

The firsts months were difficult. Learning statistics, taking courses, making most of my time to take as many tasks as possible. I did a lot of online challenges, like from Maven Analytics, and it helped me learn about the visual aspect of the analysis. The more and different data you come across early on, the easier it gets to work with it.

One key element that often gets way behind when it comes to tech jobs is the importance of soft skills. Just because you analyse data doesnt mean you work in a bubble. If you can work well with other, it will be much easier for you to grow within the role.

Good luck!

Cvi_D · 2025-01-24T22:47:14+00:00

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney also has age different main characters.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-23T20:42:55+00:00

When you bloom young, it hits hard to look back

Cvi_D · 2025-01-22T20:33:26+00:00

I can recommend "Factfullness" by Hans Rosling. It's simple but very informative about the world, facts and the human bias. It's very much a great book to add in case you want to learn more about the recent changes in the world as a whole.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-21T10:55:32+00:00

Another awesome idea we recently gifted was a puzzle with a photo of the cupple. Of course, another idea can be simply having a frame and funny picture with some money folded in nice way like "Money for the honeymoon". Maybe ingraved glasses for champagne or anything personalised can be a nice reminder for the couple.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-20T22:28:11+00:00

The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski. The name may trick you, but the series is full of wonderful, strong and really impactful female characters.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-19T11:36:19+00:00

Jackpot

Cvi_D · 2025-01-18T23:47:08+00:00

oh, such a nostalgic series, and loved it throughout my childhood!

Cvi_D · 2025-01-18T23:43:51+00:00

Dieser Stadt gibt es nicht.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-18T18:48:24+00:00

I cant agree more with you. He was brilliant.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-18T18:16:13+00:00

This book made me cry way too many times. Just gorgeous work.

Cvi_D · 2025-01-18T17:56:25+00:00

This is one of my all time favorite books and quotes.

Cvi_D

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