Hi everyone. I’m currently working as an analyst/strategist with 3 years of experience in the tech industry. Skills: Data analytics (sales, product), business intelligence, some sales and product strategy and sense — Excel, sql, some Python, dashboards on Power BI etc. I’m unsure where to head next. I want to maximize TC but also enjoy what I’m doing. I have dabbled in data science - but the sheer rigor of the interviews for DS has made feel my skills are bottom of the barrel. In terms of coding, I’m okay with Python but seeing my friends who transitioned from analytics to data engineering - makes me feel I’ll never be good enough in coding. Yet they make it sound so simple. I interviewed for some product analytics roles in the past where emphasis was more on the business strategy than the analytics piece - and even though they liked my skill set I was rejected for being “not business savvy enough”. It’s like I’m neither too technical to go into DS/DE nor too MBA enough to rise up the product strategy/PM ladder. Any advice from someone who has cracked this dilemma?
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How do you like analytics at SAP? What’s the TC like?
It’s okay, nothing too fancy. TC is low, $130k
Pick your ideal next role, look up a bunch of job reqs, look up common skills/technology and up skill those areas. Sounds like you need to dive deeper to really see if it resonates with you
I started off as an analyst and realized that either the skill set as an analyst was too limiting or that the work seemed so mundane after a while, even when I moved to a different company. So, I left my first job after being there for less than a year back in 2014 because I felt like the company was moving so slowly and because I wanted to be a ds. The second company wasn’t a ds role, but allowed me acquire the skills I needed to level up as an analyst and eventually become a ds. After a few years there, I realized I really wanted to go all in as a ds, so I used my company’s career development fund to start taking classes to up-level my skills and I also started learning and honing my skills on the side. I eventually took the leap and started applying for ds roles only and studied for a good six months before landing something I wanted. So, I would say that discipline and persistence are key if you’d like to go into ds. I don’t think it’s impossible, but it will require you to be disciplined about it and you must be willing to put in the work and continue on, despite being rejected many times (that happened to me)! For now, I think you should think through what you actually want to do (e.g., What do you enjoy doing and what makes you happy? Where do you want to be / where do you see yourself?) and assess where the skill gap is so that you can fill in those gaps to prepare you for the next role / level. You should also consider how much time you’re willing to invest and rejection you’re willing endure, that’ll also determine what the next logical next step is for you. I truly think the sky is the limit as long as you have the discipline, determination, and persistence to continue on in your journey. Based on what you’ve mentioned, I think you have several pathways: 1. Stay as an analyst, but interview at a different company that will offer you a higher TC 2. DS (For DS, you should think through what kind of DS you’d like yo be and filter out roles that do not align with the kind of DS you’d like to be) 3. MLE (Machine Learning Engineer may require you to study even harder than DS since it is much more competitive and more technical than DS roles) 4. Analytics Engineer (Mostly focuses on building out data pipelines and data usage for the analytics team to leverage) 5. PM 6. Strategist
Helpful!! Thanks
Good summary, highest ROI for least effort from list options is prob Analytics Engineer IMO but it's a newish role and not that many roles open compared to others. But once there you can pivot up the stack technically to Data Eng or kinda sideways into a DS like function, either should be a TC bump.
Been there, jack of all trades but master of none, struggling the foundation for my T shaped knowledge...and I never figured it out. I'd continue looking at Sr. analyst roles where any dev skills you have will be an asset. Analytics Engineer is a newer term. I think the key there will be to know one particular BI tool really well so you'd have to commit on some level for that as well.
What kinda tc can you expect in a HCOL as a sr analyst (3-4 yoe) ?
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