Do you know what a data analyst does ? At UNIR we address the keys to this professional profile, what their work consists of and the main requirements.
We live surrounded by data that, although raw may not mean anything, if we analyze it and turn it into knowledge , it can add great value to many companies and organizations. At the end of the day, it’s not about who has more, but about who gets the most out of them.
The data analyst is the professional profile that transforms data into information in order to carry out more complete decision-making . To do this, these professionals perform the following tasks:
1.- In the field of data engineering:
a.- Acquisition:
– Identification of data sets: data is found in multiple sources (eg databases, social networks, etc.).
– Obtaining : data recovery techniques for analysis and processing.
– Consultation of the data obtained (structure).
b.- Preparation:
– Exploration: application of techniques to understand the data through its preliminary analysis and a study of its nature (correlation, trends…).
– Pre-processing: by cleaning these (incoherent, duplicate, invalid values…), transforming them and packaging them into useful/manageable structures for processing.
2.- In the field of computational data science:
a.- Analysis: by selecting the appropriate techniques and building processing models (predictive models, classification, grouping, etc.).
b.- Communication of the results of the data analysis/processing.
c.- Application of the results obtained from the developed model: decision making, etc.
Data Analyst Profile
The profile of the data analyst is one of the most demanded today , due to the incipient process of digital transformation that many companies and organizations that already have a large amount of data, but do not know how to exploit it to obtain benefits of data, have begun to tackle. business.
With the appearance of new professions arising from a technological demand, as is the case of data analysts, the training necessary to fulfill the tasks of this profile can be acquired in various ways. Training in STEM degrees (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) are the best starting point to acquire the basic skills necessary for this profession.
In addition, there are various postgraduate courses and master ‘s degrees to become a specialist in this field, such as the master’s degree in Massive Data Analysis and Visualization / Visual Analytics & Big Data .
Requirements to be a good data analyst
- – Business vision: know the sector and the activity of the company for which you work, and use this knowledge to identify the problems that can be solved by analyzing and processing the data.
- – Analytical and creative skills: methodical, systematic and creative people carry out the work exhaustively, finding solutions to problems or business needs through the analysis and processing of data.
- – Synthesis capacity to observe the data and extract its useful and relevant information.
- – Critical capacity to be able to question the data and thus develop conclusions based on them.
- – Knowledge of computer science, mathematics and statistics: these profiles must be able to analyze databases, build models and make statistical forecasts, etc.
- – Technological base and “Machine Learning”: design of algorithms, management of various programming languages and databases…
- – Knowledge of distributed storage systems.
- – Experience in designing and creating dashboards, especially business intelligence.
- – Ease of communication: explain the results of the work to the managers and directors, generally without technical training, of the company or organization.
Data analyst salary
And, all this, is it well paid? The salaries of data analysts in Spain, according to several studies carried out, usually start at an annual gross of €24,000 , in the case of junior professionals, and even reach €50,000 in the case of senior profiles . In any case, it is a profile with a booming future as it is a professional capable of transforming data into information.
