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In this high tech world we live in, data is king. Data analytics are needed even more than they were before. Sound data analysis can become the very key to making effective and efficient business decisions, solve critical problems, and boost a company’s growth into the ether.
With the amount of information bursting in every corner, it’s high time for a data analyst career to thrive. Here is some information regarding what a data analyst does, what the career path looks like, and how much it pays in Singapore.
What is a Data Analyst
A data analyst is someone who possesses the right skills and knowledge to turn a high amount of raw data into actionable information and insight. This information then can be used as the base of a company’s decision-making process, boost their profit, and solve underlying issues.
Not just a number cruncher, a data analyst carefully reviews data and determines how to use the data for the company’s benefit. Data analyst jobs are not exclusive to the technology sector, many industries from business, finance, science, medicine, even the government uses data for their day-to-day decision making.
Here are five types of data analyst across various sectors:
1. Business Analyst
Business analysts use data to create insights and solve problems across the board. From smoothing the company’s business and IT processes, ramping up their organizational structures, to guiding their employee development. It’s the Business Analyst’s task to increase the company’s overall efficiency, and effectiveness based on the data they currently have.
2. Business Intelligence Analyst
Slightly different from a business analyst, a business intelligence analyst focuses their data collection and analysis strictly to the company’s revenue, sales, market intelligence, and consumer engagement indicators. They may also be required to create tools and data models for visualization/monitoring purposes.
3. Medical or Healthcare Analyst
Medical or healthcare analysts use data analytics to improve, identify, and streamline a variety of healthcare outcomes. From simplifying operations, increasing patient care effectiveness, to solving any potential issues that may arise from the current condition.
4. Market Research Analyst
Market research analysts collect consumer and competitor data for evaluation. They are the one investigating market conditions to assess future sales of a company’s product or services. The analysed data will then become critical information for the company to determine what item the customer desires most, who will buy them and at what price.
5. Operations Research Analyst
Operations research analysts work on high-level issues using sophisticated problem-solving approaches such as data mining, statistical analysis, data optimization, mathematical modelling, etc. to provide the best and most effective solution for a company, or organization that needs it.
Data Analyst Job Titles
There are a lot of data analyst job titles out there, depending on the industry and company they’re working at. But in the end their role remains the same: Gathering, cleaning, and translating data into actionable business insights.
Here are several data analyst job titles across sector and industries available today:
- Data Analyst
- Risk Analyst
- Data Modelers
- Data Journalist
- Data Architects
- Systems analyst
- Business Analyst
- Financial Analyst
- Research Analyst
- Weather Analysts
- Marketing Analyst
- Logistics Analysts
- Operations Analyst
- Hospitality Analysts
- Healthcare Analysts
- Database Developers
- Social Media Analysts
- Digital Marketing Analyst
- Database Administrators
- Machine Learning Analyst
- Business Intelligence Analyst
- Insurance Underwriting Analyst
Data Analyst Skills
A data analyst must-have skills are surprisingly not in tool mastery. Yes, you’d have to be able to use SQL to pull data from a database, sound programming skills to analyse the data and good communication skills to report your findings, but above all you must have the following traits: attention to detail, logical thinking, analytical thinking, problem solving abilities, high curiosity about the data, and strong mathematical abilities.
Aside from your knowledge in using a variety of tools such as Python, R, SQL, Excel, Tableau, Power BI, Hadoop, Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics etc. a data analyst must also have the following skills to succeed in their career:
- Data cleaning
- Data preparation
- Data analysis
- Data exploration
- Statistical knowledge
- Creating data visualizations
- Creating dashboard for reports
- Knowledge in Domain
Data Analyst Career Path
If you’re curious about what a data analyst career path looks like, below we list three possible career paths for aspiring data analysts. Data analysts are needed not only in the technology sector, but companies at all sizes require the insight a data analyst provides to improve their business functions.
A good data analyst provides clarity to business queries and can work on an assortment of data-related projects. They may come from a different background, but in general, data analysts should be able to master business tools such as SQL, Tableau, Microsoft Excel, etc.
If you're keen on starting your first step into the data analyst career path, you should obtain the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate first on coursera. Or you can jump into Udemy’s data analysis courses to get started.
Data Analyst Career Path 1
Junior Data Analyst ↗ Data Analyst → (Specialist) Financial/Business/Healthcare/Operations/Marketing/System Data Analyst ↗ Senior (Specialist) Financial/Business/Healthcare/Operations/Marketing/System Data Analyst ↗ Principal Data Analyst → Chief Data Analyst ↗ Director of Data ↗ VP of Data → Data Analytics Consultant (Self-employed or via consultancy firm)
Data Analyst Career Path 2
Junior Data Analyst ↗ Data Analyst Senior Data Analyst ↗ Data Scientist ↗ Senior Data Scientist ↗ Chief Data Analyst ↗ Director of Data ↗ VP of Data → Data Analytics Consultant (Self-employed or via consultancy firm)
Data Analyst Career Path 3
Junior Data Analyst ↗ Data Analyst ↗ Senior Data Analyst ↗ Analytics Manager ↗ Senior Business Analyst ↗ Director of Analytics ↗ VP of Data → Data Analytics Consultant (Self-employed or via consultancy firm)
Read more: What Is a Career Path? Benefits, Types, and Examples
Data Analyst Salary Ranges in Singapore
Data analyst is a fairly lucrative job, in Singapore even the entry-level position offers a higher-than-average salary. A data analyst salary can range from $50k to $80k, and the highest position even offers up to $400k.
Salary payment may vary depending on the company’s policy, organization scale and the employee’s level of education, certification, skills, and years of experience.
Below is the list of data analyst salary ranges in Singapore, from the analytics career path to the general data analyst job. All data are in US$ and taken from various resources.
- Data Analyst: 0 - 4 years of experience, $54k - $80k per year
- Senior Data Analyst: 2 - 4 years of experience, $75k - 118k per year
- Data Analyst IV: 5 - 7 years of experience, $85k - $124k per year
- Principal Data Analyst: 8+ years of experience, $100k - $170k per year
- Chief Data Analyst: 8+ years of experience, $110k - 180k per year
- Director of Data: 8+ years of experience, $124k - $217k per year
- VP of Data: 8+ years of experience, $230k - $421k per year
Conclusion
When it comes to a data analytics career, no one-size-fits all. Each path - depending on the industry, will lead you to a whole new adventure and tons of data to discover. What’s important is that you have the skills and learned all the key tools needed to thrive in the workforce. If you think you have what it takes to become a data analyst, do it! Start from where you are, use the resources you have.
There are lots of free resources that can help you start climbing the data analyst career, all you got to do is start!
If you like this article, read more on similar information on Talentport.
