Skills for an entry level data analyst in bay area?
Disclaimer: This is a long post and I'm genuinely seeking career advice. Quick Intro - I'm originally a mechanical engineer who switched fields to venture into data analytics as opportunities became hard to come by in Mech. Lately, I have been working for a consulting firm in India as a data analyst since 6 months. Currently, I'm moving back to the bay area as my wife secured a job at an EV firm over there. Background - I have a masters degree in mechanical engineering specializing in robotics and control systems and worked in the industry for 2 years. Was working for a big automotive firm as their powertrain design and release engineer. Got laid off (pandemic layoff) in 2020 when shit hit the roof. Since then, I've gone on a sabbatical to spend time with my parents. They contracted COVID and I just wanted to be by their side. Post their recovery, I decided to switch fields and started learning SQL, python, excel and statistics. Upon realizing that the applications for entry level data science positions has oversaturated, I went for the low hanging fruit and joined a business consulting firm as a data analyst. The firm mainly caters small cap, series C clients who are in the e-commerce space. I have worked with 3 different clients till date. Now my daily activities are: - managing their ETL pipelines using tools like Daton, Fivetran etc - generating KPIs and analytical insights which help different stakeholders make sense of their data (using SQL) - visualizing these KPIs in different dashboards (Executive Summary, Financial and Marketing Reports etc) Though I did learn the concepts of predictive analytics, most of the clients I've worked with only had descriptive requirements where I had to derive insights from their historical data. Current Scenario - Since me and my wife are moving back to SF Bay area, I want to understand the current job market in the field of data analytics. 1) Am I missing any essential skills for an entry level data analyst? If so what? 2) Are there entry level opportunities with visa sponsorship? (because I will need it) 3) Is there a job aggregator which is sought after? (LinkedIn and Indeed keep showing 3+ years experience positions even though I search for entry level) 4) Is python necessary for data analyst positions? If so, how competent do they expect me to be with it? 5) Top companies hiring entry level data analysts? 6) Off topic - What is the bar for nabbing data scientist positions? Any help with mock interviews, referrals would be appreciated. Thanks a lot. #data #dataanalyst #dataanalytics #datascience #bayarea #sanfrancisco #uber #faang #lyft #stripe #robinhood #paypal #nvidia #tesla #rivianautomotive #startups #deloitte #accenturefeedback #accenture #pwc #mckinsey #bain #bcggamma
Without working with you personally, what seems to be lacking in your experience/most eng-turned-analysts I’ve worked with is business sense. It’s great that you’ve made dashboards with descriptive analytics; have you recommended new metrics or changes to how things were measured? Have you influenced a process change or escalated something from the numbers you found? Measuring is the small part of the job, what to do with it is the hard part!
Firstly, thank you for your response. The current company I work with employs a two phase methodology with their clients. Phase 1 - Provides clients with insights and snapshots about their historical data. This involves a lot of cleaning data, auditing their data capture practices and providing them with a dashboards that updates daily. Phase 2 - Identify patterns and trends in metrics like customer acquisition cost, lifetime value across different cohorts, regions etc and provide recommendations. This is a very generic way of explaining our work. TL;DR Yes, about 40% of my job deals with trying to find and model the underlying influential factors for KPIs.
Dm for Clearcover referral
Thank you for your response. DM’ed you.
Disclaimer: I've not worked in the bay area. Just wondering, do you only want to get into FAANG / tech in the bay area? From your current experience it seems you have extensive knowledge in data science consulting roles. So you can also look at those in the Bay? Deloitte, Accenture, PwC, BCG GAMMA, Bain AAG, McK digital, etc. come to mind as potential employers.
Hello, Thank you for your response. I’m not interested in narrowing my opportunities to a select few companies/domains. I don’t have that luxury. I’ve added all the companies you’ve mentioned. At this point, I don’t even have a good idea of where (which companies) to look for open positions.