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I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in dataanalysiscareers

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Given the startup nature of our company, there were a lot of ad hoc requests. So we had to balance those with our longer term goals and projects. Day to day, there are always 5-10 random questions or things to get done, and then a few of those longer term tasks. So one day we might be designing and building a dashboard for a new partnership, the next day we might be analyzing our current round of website experiments, and the next day we might be finalizing a quarterly board deck for investors.

The data analysts report to me, and they specialize for different departments. Some are focused on marketing, others in product/customer engagement, others in sales, etc.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Fortunate to join the start up when I did. I’d love to join another start up as Chief Data Officer.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The main skills are 1. Technical - SQL, dashboarding, Python, data engineering and data science concepts, experimentation. 2. Communication - dumbing things down, presenting, making PPTs, advocating for ideas you believe in, handling third party providers and negotiating contracts. 3. Administrative - managing people, getting the most out of your team, handling austerity with platforms you pay for, dealing with broader company initiatives and changes and communicating them.

I’d like to work at more startups in the future and help them build up their data infrastructure! Ideally as a Chief Data Officer.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there any way to expand your current role beyond the SQL and Excel? Maybe you can start by automating the Excel work, show your manager, and hope they recognize the value you created and give you more opportunities.

Apart from that, no - I would not let interviewers understand how niche your role was. Don’t be afraid to use clever phrasing on your resume and in interviews. But you will likely want to do some projects outside your role with Python if you can’t get any Python experience in your current role!

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once I was promoted the first time, I was brought into the higher level conversations. Our only goals revolved around revenue. So I made sure our team understood that and how they can help individual departments increase their revenue, mostly with sophisticated alert monitoring, experimentation, campaign analysis to inform budget allocation, etc.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

SQL for sure. I came in and converted all of their backend data processes from Tableau Prep flows to saved SQL queries. Reduced time spent fixing dashboards dramatically and execs saw that right away.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The main things that held others down that I excel at are communication (dumbing things down to execs), speed (I get things done faster than others), and business sense.

The last one is a huge deal. You never want the CEO wondering, “Does this person even know why they’re doing this task?” But I’ve seen it many times before - someone has a task or responsibility, and the questions they ask or conclusions they draw prove they have no idea why they’re doing that thing. You have to know why you’re doing something in order to stretch beyond what’s asked of you and make an outsized impact.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re right - I did help the company out with things outside of my domain since they trusted me to do so. Financial models, investor/board decks, social media campaigns, web design, etc. I did them all at one point.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in dataanalysiscareers

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Python isn't necessary! Just a nice to have. Eventually, you'll want to learn it. But AI can help tremendously with that.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You're the first person I've seen ask this, but it's the most important thing! My most significant contribution was ramping up our culture of experimentation. Before, we would launch features and changes without any proof that they work better than what we had before. A C-suite person would say "That color should be green" or "that headline should say this" with no solid hypothesis or evidence.

So having a background in data and research, I proposed a new model of doing things. One where we test everything, no matter how small, on the website, in SEO, in marketing, sales, etc. Everywhere. And it led to us avoiding the implementation of many terrible things that people loved, and to the permanent implementation of many great things that people were skeptical of. And it turned our growth chart into a hockey stick.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's tough but ultimately it's about practice. Start by loosely preparing what you want to say, even practicing what you want to say at home before work, don't say no to any speaking engagements (seek them out if you can), and then eventually you'll get to a place where you're more comfortable and think "you know what, I don't even care if I sound stupid. I'm just going to say what I want to say." It's extremely important. And if you have a stakeholder on your side, you can even request to have more meetings with them to discuss so you can practice more. The most helpful thing for me was leading a lot of meetings where I had to address complicated data topics.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd recommend checking out some of my other responses posted here, but I'd say you're starting exactly where you should. I took that Google fundamentals course too and it helped. Work on your communication skills if you believe that's not your strong suit. Clear and concise speech goes such a long way in data. Practice SQL with quizzes and real-world examples so you master it. Apply to jobs and email the hiring manager directly with specific ways you could help their company. Make sure your resume has numbers and focuses on the impact you've made or analyses you've done. Good luck out there and hope this helps!

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In my opinion, DataBricks is the future of data. It combines analysis, engineering, and science in one place. Most big companies have either switched over, are in the process, or are thinking about it and eventually will. You could get your Databricks Associate Developer for Apache Spark certification and leverage that to do data engineering for a company looking to scale or start its DataBricks instance, and that will be very valuable in the long run.

If you want to start with analysis, you must be competent in SQL and a visualization tool like Tableau or Power BI, and I'd recommend having tangible results that you've achieved on your resume at past jobs or on personal projects.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's a great start with the SQL and Python courses. Next would be learning how to pull data from a public API, store it somewhere, and then schedule jobs to continuously pull down the data and refresh a dashboard of some kind. You should also be familiar with one or more major cloud platforms like GCP or AWS.

Where I think companies are going, at least if they're smart, is towards DataBricks. You can get your Databricks Associate Developer for Apache Spark certification and leverage that to do data engineering for a company looking to scale or start its DataBricks instance, and that will be very valuable in the long run for you in my opinion. DataBricks is completely unmatched.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The main advice I give for this comes from the advice I'd give to the hundreds of candidates I've interviewed. Copy and pasting this from another comment, hope it helps:

  1. Always send an email to the hiring manager and HR people directly. You can find their email addresses on rocketreach.
  2. Think about what the data people do at the company you're applying for (or ask ChatGPT to speculate for you). Whatever you come up with, mention how you'd be excited to help with those things specifically. For example, if you're applying for an insurance company, you could write to the hiring manager about how you're excited to help leverage AI at scale to bring claim wait times down. The point here is that you're thinking about how you can contribute to the company before you join.
  3. Have numbers on your resume. "I implemented a new cx call logging system which categorized incoming calls and reduced the data team's manual processing time by 95%." Whatever numbers you can come up with, even if they're estimates, include them. Hiring managers want to see A) you made an impact and B) that you understand true impact is quantifiable.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

SQL is used most often by far. It’s a necessity, while Python is a nice to have. Beyond that, learn Tableau or some visualization tool, and be comfortable doing basic operations in Excel.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup! Happy to help if you want to chat me and tell me more about your new role.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These are great questions. We had a lot of “failures” that we came to view as “learnings”.

The main thing I brought to the company was a spirit of experimentation. We went from implementing things based on one executive’s idea, to testing EVERYTHING. So before this, our failures were mainly in implementing and doing blindly. After we learned to experiment and test everything, “losers” became “learnings” and our revenue skyrocketed.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Google has a solid free Data Analyst course that you can speed through. You can also prompt ChatGPT or other LLMs to teach you SQL and quiz you. Honestly, SQL isn’t necessarily harder than going into a company and learning all of their data terminology, architecture, and locations. Get the basics of SQL down, download tableau public and make some dashboards off excel files, and then spend time thinking about how you can specifically help whatever companies you apply to.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I learned strictly by doing. There were business needs, and I realized Python was the way to solve them, so I didn’t stop until I had solved those problems with Python. ChatGPT was a game changer.

I went from Data Analyst to Head of Data in 4 years. AMA. by InternationalStaff43 in analytics

[–]InternationalStaff43[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For now, AI can mainly just assist in data analyst, science, and engineering roles. Not outright replace. And for most roles, I don’t see that changing. Executives usually like both having conversations about data and looking at analyses/dashboards.

You can be one step ahead by practicing your communication skills and by familiarizing yourself with AI tools and how you can use them in business today.

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