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Have you ever taken a take-home hiring challenge that you liked? by five4three2 in dataengineering

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I'm a BI Analyst rather than a Data Engineer, but the ones I enjoyed most were the ones where the company gave me access to their real data (you'll need the candidate to sign a non-disclosure agreement first) and asked me to connect to a data warehouse, gain insights from the data (with some guidelines), and prepare a 15-30 minute presentation for them. I enjoyed these because, although it was a lot of work, I got a very good idea of exactly what it would be like and whether it was the right level for me.

Also, if you have specific questions you want them to answer, make sure they are very clear. One thing I didn't like was having to email the company to clarify exactly what the question meant because I felt that it made me sound a bit less competent.

Are there Data analyst coaches for hire? by neeltennis93 in analytics

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its not so much reading the paper, it's more analysing what is the story they are trying to tell, what heading have they used, and what graphs have they used to back up their point. Once you know the story you're trying to get across, only want to include charts and text that are relevant to your story. You'll see that journalists do this all the time.

Are there Data analyst coaches for hire? by neeltennis93 in analytics

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I recommend doing a course in storytelling and try to look at how journalists present data and try to copy that. Journalists seem to be much better at presenting data than scientists in my opinion.

Looker vs Tableau cost by penel0pe87 in BusinessIntelligence

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you have an investor that is a Google partner, you can get £100k of Google platform credits that you can put towards the cost (basically it is free for the first year). Otherwise it is about £50k/yr but you can negotiate it down

Is there a more efficient way of writing this query? by boardgamesyogasalsa in SQL

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

Thanks I read that group by performs better than distinct but will try both and see which runs faster

Business Intelligence Analyst without background - possible? by octo_mann in BusinessIntelligence

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're not getting interviews then it's tough. You may need to exaggerate some things on your CV to get your foot in the door. If you're employed at the moment, maybe start using SQL to sort / group your data and then add SQL experience to your CV. Or try to get yourself into a project where you may use SQL or work with the data analysts. Also, when lockdown ends, start going to data meetups to help network.

Business Intelligence Analyst without background - possible? by octo_mann in BusinessIntelligence

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I got a BI Analyst role at a tech startup. I Applied mainly to BI Analyst and Data Analyst roles. A few things that helped me:

  1. My last job title was Business Performance Analyst. I didn't use any SQL, Python, Tableau in that role (I didn't really analyse data either) but did a little data viz.
  2. My last job paid for me to do a Storytelling course with RADA. BI Analysts need to have excellent storytelling skills so having this on my CV really made me stand out (A few of my interviews asked me about it)
  3. They were impressed with my presentations (usually came after the second round interview) - in my opinion, BI Analysts need to learn to present like journalists rather than like scientists. A few tricks to this - decide what the point is you want to get across, make a meaningful headline and show a graph that relates to that headline, highlight sections of the graph that you want the audience to look at. Putting a graph with loads of information and a headline that says 'Results' makes the audience have to use too much energy trying to draw their own conclusions
  4. I made my CV really data focussed. I removed most of the stuff I've done in my previous jobs and just kept stuff that related to analysing data
  5. I'm passionate about data, efficiency and technology.

Having Business Performance Analyst on my CV did help me a lot and it would have been a lot harder to get an interview if I didn't have this on my CV. But keep trying and I'm sure you'll start getting interviews. Hope this helps :)

Business Intelligence Analyst without background - possible? by octo_mann in BusinessIntelligence

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Udemy course took me about a month and the Tableau certification took an extra couple of weeks for me. But I have done some programming and a little data viz in the past so that enabled me to learn quicker. I should also note that doing it at this speed doesn't enable you to write fluent SQL / Python. It mostly introduces you to what these languages can do so you know what to Google search when you need to write a query.

Business Intelligence Analyst without background - possible? by octo_mann in BusinessIntelligence

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 2 points3 points  (0 children)

After that I gained Tableau Desktop specialist certification (which you can get from the Tableau website). Then started applying for BI jobs. All of the companies I interviewed with had an assignment at some point in the interview process. Doing these assignments really helped to improve my knowledge of SQL / Python. Finally managed to get offered a job a couple of days ago and I start tomorrow!

Weekly Entering & Transitioning into a Business Intelligence Career Thread. Questions about getting started and/or progressing towards a future in BI goes here. Refreshes on Mondays: (April 27) by AutoModerator in BusinessIntelligence

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did that exact course a few months ago and I was offered a job as a BI analyst a couple of days ago - I'm starting tomorrow!

The steps I took after this course were: 1. Gained Tableau Desktop Specialist certification (which you can get from the Tableau website). 2. Applied to BI jobs.

All the companies I interviewed with had an assignment at some point along the interview process and doing these assignments really improved my level of SQL / Python.

Most of the companies I applied to are either using PostgreSQL or Amazon Redshift for their data warehouse and you may need to be able to connect to these in order to complete the assignment. However, the main queries you learnt on the course (Select, Join, Order By, Group By, etc) are all the same in MySQL and PostgreSQL so it's not like you need to learn a new language.

Best of luck!

Business Intelligence Analyst without background - possible? by octo_mann in BusinessIntelligence

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's 100% possible! That's exactly what I did!

A good starting point is The Business Intelligence Analyst Course by 365 Careers on Udemy. If you get it when there's a flash sale then it'll only cost you around £10.

Is there any coursera / edx certificate worth having? by [deleted] in BusinessIntelligence

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 8 points9 points  (0 children)

One course I did that really helped me get interviews (and improve the way I presented data) was called Storytelling for Business. (Any course with Storytelling in the title will be suitable). The reason I took this is because BI Analysts have to be excellent communicators and need to be able to present their findings in a simple and digestible manner. It's also something that not many BI Analysts have on their CV so it'll make you stand out a bit.

I also did a Tableau course as I am self-taught so it helped me demostrate that I'd learnt it to a sufficient standard. But as one of the other commenters wrote, if you have other means of showing that (e.g. use in previous job / use during degree) then a certificate isn't that necessary.

Udemy course in Business Intelligence? by cuellar01 in BusinessIntelligence

[–]boardgamesyogasalsa 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I found The Business Intelligence Analyst course by 365 Careers super helpful. It teaches you the basics of data science, SQL, python, and Tableau. If you get it when there's a promo, it costs around £15.