I want to work with data. Looking for guidance on breaking into industry
November 17, 2022 3:40 PM Subscribe
I’m looking to get into working with data. I'm learning from a Udemy course on Excel. I’m looking for a career roadmap. Should I start out in simple data entry then graduate to data analysis? I’ve looked and data entry jobs vary widely in pay, from $8 per hour to $30. I’ve had a basic data entry job before. What should I be aiming for? I’m in Austin, TX. Are there any agencies? I looked at Matrix but they didn’t have any data entry jobs. How do I communicate with an agency?
The Udemy course is broken up into 3 parts: beginner, intermediate, and master. I breezed through the beginner part but with the intermediate part I was constantly learning new things. I know that vlookup is an important thing to know but that’s part of the master portion, which I will partake in. The things I learned in the intermediate section and which I am confident on how to do are:
-Sorting lists (and using multi-level and custom sort) (also filtering using AutoFilter)
-Creating subtotals in a list
-Creating tables
-Finding and removing duplicates as well as unique instances
-DSUM, DAVERAGE, DMAX, DMIN, DCOUNT (also using OR and AND criteria)
-SUBTOTAL
-Creating Data Validation
-Importing and exporting data from/to text files, Microsoft Access, and databases (and understanding how tab delimited and comma delimited formatting works)
-PivotTables (grouping, formatting, and filtering data within PivotTables, as well as modifying calculations within PivotTables) (Also drilling down into the data in a PivotTable)
-Creating PivotCharts
-Using Slicers
-PowerPivot, Data Models, the Parent-Child and 1-to-Many Relationships between two tables
-Using KPIs
-Freezing Panes
-Printing large sets of data optimally
-3d Formulas
-Consolidating data from multiple worksheets
So I know how to work with all those tools. But now using those tools, what I’m running into is this. You know how you might know exactly how every tool works in Photoshop, but that doesn’t help the fact that you are, at the end of the day, staring at a blank white canvass and you don’t know how to draw? That’s how I feel. I thought it would be a good idea to practice what I’ve learned by creating a data set from scratch and then utilize all the tools on that data set, but I quickly ran into the problem that I don’t know what data to put in.
I created a worksheet that contains listings for the top 50 most popular Pokemon according to an IGN poll. I included their popularity ranking, their name, their type, the date they were introduced to the videogame world, their stat total, and the average, minimum, and maximum monetary listing for their card in the Trading Card Game. I felt content with that and then went to create a PivotTable with the data.
But what I got was a mess. It looked messy, and it didn’t tell me anything. No insights.
With the Photoshop analogy, it’s like drawing an ugly rudimentary pre-schooler drawing without the charm.
That’s when my confidence dropped and I realized that “oh crap”, learning the tools is the absolute beginning and I have an iceberg’s worth of knowledge to learn before I’m ready for any serious job involving data.
Are there any Udemy or other courses that teach that kind of knowledge? I’m not even sure what to call that knowledge, hence why I don’t know what to search for.
What I do know is that I need a job right now. I’m nearly out of money and I don’t have the luxury of learning from home without any income. That’s why I’m thinking doing data entry.
Basically, I feel confident in entering in data as well as giving you a calculation if you tell me what kinds of data to enter and what kind of calculation you want. I don’t feel confident in being thrown a lot of data that may or may not be important (it’s up to me to suss that out) and to be told to just “find something interesting”. I’m not at that freeform stage yet and I’m not even sure how the heck to get there.
I have had a data entry job before, albeit the most basic of basic ones. Just entering in data for a budget: In column A, I put the item, in column B, I put the price, and when I’m done I total up the charges for the past month. That’s not to say that I don’t know how to do so so much more now with all the tools I’ve learned.
From what I’ve seen, I’ve seen jobs that offer around $8 per hour, jobs that offer $12 per hour, and jobs that offer around $30 per hour for data entry. The last one was called something like “Senior Data Entry”. I was just let go from a temporary gardening job that paid $17 per hour, so I’m looking for something around that range.
I’ve also heard that there are job agencies for data entry clerks. I heard Matrix was a good one, but, being in Austin, the only thing I found when I searched on their site was a listing for a Senior Business Analyst. I’m not ready for that yet!
I was confused too. Aren’t job agencies places where you can call up and say, “here are my skills. Can you help me find a job that match my skills?”. Instead, Matrix was just like any other job search site – just a field to type in what kind of job you are looking for and a field to type in what city you are looking for that job in. There was no talking with a person, which is what I was looking for.
Anyway, any guidance and/or answers to my questions would be super appreciated!
P.S. – I still have that master portion of the Excel course to do, and I also got a course aimed at beginners all about SQL which I haven’t started yet. I’ve gotten advice that before I put in a lot of new knowledge, I need to start practicing and memorizing deep in my gut the knowledge I’ve just gotten, otherwise it will be forgotten and replaced by the new knowledge. I don’t quite buy that but I get where the advice is coming from. More importantly, I want to get a foothold on the first rung of the ladder that I can using the knowledge I already have because I feel like it’s enough for the purposes of data entry. And if I need to learn about more advanced stuff due to my work, I can learn it at a time where I can actually utilize it.
P.P.S. – I still need to update my resume and LinkedIn for this new industry (I was going after UX before) and craft a flexible but automated cover letter template so that I can machine-gun shoot out my applications (it’s a numbers game after all, at least that’s what I’ve been told)
P.P.P.S. - Just in case anyone was interested, here's a link to a screenshot of my attempts with the Pokemon data.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L0ulZYZ-lqc-hIv1r5-_3E44goDR0CSq/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102877081904521821529&rtpof=true&sd=true
The Udemy course is broken up into 3 parts: beginner, intermediate, and master. I breezed through the beginner part but with the intermediate part I was constantly learning new things. I know that vlookup is an important thing to know but that’s part of the master portion, which I will partake in. The things I learned in the intermediate section and which I am confident on how to do are:
-Sorting lists (and using multi-level and custom sort) (also filtering using AutoFilter)
-Creating subtotals in a list
-Creating tables
-Finding and removing duplicates as well as unique instances
-DSUM, DAVERAGE, DMAX, DMIN, DCOUNT (also using OR and AND criteria)
-SUBTOTAL
-Creating Data Validation
-Importing and exporting data from/to text files, Microsoft Access, and databases (and understanding how tab delimited and comma delimited formatting works)
-PivotTables (grouping, formatting, and filtering data within PivotTables, as well as modifying calculations within PivotTables) (Also drilling down into the data in a PivotTable)
-Creating PivotCharts
-Using Slicers
-PowerPivot, Data Models, the Parent-Child and 1-to-Many Relationships between two tables
-Using KPIs
-Freezing Panes
-Printing large sets of data optimally
-3d Formulas
-Consolidating data from multiple worksheets
So I know how to work with all those tools. But now using those tools, what I’m running into is this. You know how you might know exactly how every tool works in Photoshop, but that doesn’t help the fact that you are, at the end of the day, staring at a blank white canvass and you don’t know how to draw? That’s how I feel. I thought it would be a good idea to practice what I’ve learned by creating a data set from scratch and then utilize all the tools on that data set, but I quickly ran into the problem that I don’t know what data to put in.
I created a worksheet that contains listings for the top 50 most popular Pokemon according to an IGN poll. I included their popularity ranking, their name, their type, the date they were introduced to the videogame world, their stat total, and the average, minimum, and maximum monetary listing for their card in the Trading Card Game. I felt content with that and then went to create a PivotTable with the data.
But what I got was a mess. It looked messy, and it didn’t tell me anything. No insights.
With the Photoshop analogy, it’s like drawing an ugly rudimentary pre-schooler drawing without the charm.
That’s when my confidence dropped and I realized that “oh crap”, learning the tools is the absolute beginning and I have an iceberg’s worth of knowledge to learn before I’m ready for any serious job involving data.
Are there any Udemy or other courses that teach that kind of knowledge? I’m not even sure what to call that knowledge, hence why I don’t know what to search for.
What I do know is that I need a job right now. I’m nearly out of money and I don’t have the luxury of learning from home without any income. That’s why I’m thinking doing data entry.
Basically, I feel confident in entering in data as well as giving you a calculation if you tell me what kinds of data to enter and what kind of calculation you want. I don’t feel confident in being thrown a lot of data that may or may not be important (it’s up to me to suss that out) and to be told to just “find something interesting”. I’m not at that freeform stage yet and I’m not even sure how the heck to get there.
I have had a data entry job before, albeit the most basic of basic ones. Just entering in data for a budget: In column A, I put the item, in column B, I put the price, and when I’m done I total up the charges for the past month. That’s not to say that I don’t know how to do so so much more now with all the tools I’ve learned.
From what I’ve seen, I’ve seen jobs that offer around $8 per hour, jobs that offer $12 per hour, and jobs that offer around $30 per hour for data entry. The last one was called something like “Senior Data Entry”. I was just let go from a temporary gardening job that paid $17 per hour, so I’m looking for something around that range.
I’ve also heard that there are job agencies for data entry clerks. I heard Matrix was a good one, but, being in Austin, the only thing I found when I searched on their site was a listing for a Senior Business Analyst. I’m not ready for that yet!
I was confused too. Aren’t job agencies places where you can call up and say, “here are my skills. Can you help me find a job that match my skills?”. Instead, Matrix was just like any other job search site – just a field to type in what kind of job you are looking for and a field to type in what city you are looking for that job in. There was no talking with a person, which is what I was looking for.
Anyway, any guidance and/or answers to my questions would be super appreciated!
P.S. – I still have that master portion of the Excel course to do, and I also got a course aimed at beginners all about SQL which I haven’t started yet. I’ve gotten advice that before I put in a lot of new knowledge, I need to start practicing and memorizing deep in my gut the knowledge I’ve just gotten, otherwise it will be forgotten and replaced by the new knowledge. I don’t quite buy that but I get where the advice is coming from. More importantly, I want to get a foothold on the first rung of the ladder that I can using the knowledge I already have because I feel like it’s enough for the purposes of data entry. And if I need to learn about more advanced stuff due to my work, I can learn it at a time where I can actually utilize it.
P.P.S. – I still need to update my resume and LinkedIn for this new industry (I was going after UX before) and craft a flexible but automated cover letter template so that I can machine-gun shoot out my applications (it’s a numbers game after all, at least that’s what I’ve been told)
P.P.P.S. - Just in case anyone was interested, here's a link to a screenshot of my attempts with the Pokemon data.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L0ulZYZ-lqc-hIv1r5-_3E44goDR0CSq/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102877081904521821529&rtpof=true&sd=true
You're in a fantastic position, being located in Austin. I'd try to make friends and set up informational interviews in the tech and startup sectors there. See if you can shadow somebody. Search for Meetup groups, look through Eventbrite, look on Twitter (while it lasts) for people located in Austin who are making themselves available for conversations.
There are a lot of ways to work with data. And lots of platforms people use. So your mingling and questioning will help answer these questions: What kind of company or industry do you want to be in? Would you prefer to do a particular thing with data (eg enter it, analyze it with complex processes as you're describing with the Pokemon, visualize it, tell a story with it, help a business make decisions, etc)? Is there a platform you'd prefer to work in, or which will be more marketable once you've learned it? Which jobs require a graduate degree and which can be done by someone with the right portfolio and experience?
The application "numbers game" has never been true for me. It's been networking, targeting my experience to a role I aspired to, and the kinds of relationship-building I described above.
To give you a few more rabbit holes to build your skills and decide on your niche: look up the books and online content of Stephen Few, Stephanie Evergreen, Alberto Cairo, Nathan Yau, and Edward Tufte. If you want to work with startups, learn Google Sheets as well as Excel.
posted by rockyraccoon at 6:35 PM on November 17, 2022
There are a lot of ways to work with data. And lots of platforms people use. So your mingling and questioning will help answer these questions: What kind of company or industry do you want to be in? Would you prefer to do a particular thing with data (eg enter it, analyze it with complex processes as you're describing with the Pokemon, visualize it, tell a story with it, help a business make decisions, etc)? Is there a platform you'd prefer to work in, or which will be more marketable once you've learned it? Which jobs require a graduate degree and which can be done by someone with the right portfolio and experience?
The application "numbers game" has never been true for me. It's been networking, targeting my experience to a role I aspired to, and the kinds of relationship-building I described above.
To give you a few more rabbit holes to build your skills and decide on your niche: look up the books and online content of Stephen Few, Stephanie Evergreen, Alberto Cairo, Nathan Yau, and Edward Tufte. If you want to work with startups, learn Google Sheets as well as Excel.
posted by rockyraccoon at 6:35 PM on November 17, 2022
- If you need $$$ now, it might be worth looking into one of those seasonal jobs / gig economy.
- There will probably be "less resistance" to finding a new job if you avoid switching industries.
- It sounds like you need to find a different temp agency.
- Consider looking for "work from home jobs." e.g. Data Entry Clerk, and Transcription Jobs.
- Consider using "mail merge" to automate cover letters... but that may or may not be worth the effort.
- Try making different graphs of the data set.
- I don't think you are ready for SQL yet. (And that's okay!)
- In the long run, you might want to look at your local community college for any "professional development" courses or certificates in topics of interest. (Or even check if your local library offers any classes). I bring this up, because it can be really helpful to have someone whose job it is to guide you through the process of thinking about data.
posted by oceano at 6:46 PM on November 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
- There will probably be "less resistance" to finding a new job if you avoid switching industries.
- It sounds like you need to find a different temp agency.
- Consider looking for "work from home jobs." e.g. Data Entry Clerk, and Transcription Jobs.
- Consider using "mail merge" to automate cover letters... but that may or may not be worth the effort.
- Try making different graphs of the data set.
- I don't think you are ready for SQL yet. (And that's okay!)
- In the long run, you might want to look at your local community college for any "professional development" courses or certificates in topics of interest. (Or even check if your local library offers any classes). I bring this up, because it can be really helpful to have someone whose job it is to guide you through the process of thinking about data.
posted by oceano at 6:46 PM on November 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Datasette is a tool for working with data. There's several example data sets to check out: https://datasette.io/examples
It revolves mostly around SQLite and Python, which are both topics to dive into as well for data scientists.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:28 PM on November 17, 2022
It revolves mostly around SQLite and Python, which are both topics to dive into as well for data scientists.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:28 PM on November 17, 2022
OOh it looks like you also have access to Udemy through Austin Public Library.
And APL has a job portal.
posted by oceano at 8:36 PM on November 17, 2022
And APL has a job portal.
posted by oceano at 8:36 PM on November 17, 2022
Have you looked at university jobs in your area? Data entry and cleaning are common to entry-level roles in research of all kinds - university jobs often come with decent pay and benefits, with salaries stated upfront in the job ads. Go to the jobs sites for individual colleges or universities and filter by entry-level or hourly positions.
If you stick with the Pokémon data, could you make it into a more serious portfolio project? Why collect these data? How will the analyses be used, by whom, when? Think about why people collect stock prices, baseball averages, heart rates, etc. If you made up the Pokémon dataset just to have something to work with, is there any other dataset that could actually be fun and useful to you to work with? Budget analysis from your bank data, to better understand your pandemic spending habits - cataloguing your *own* Pokémon cards, or other objects, so that you know what’s in the collection for future trades or sales - a vacation planning dataset, with info on hotel costs, airfares, best time of year, duration of travel, etc.? (These are where working with data gets fun for me, because I begin to see and make strategic choices.). Good luck!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 12:57 AM on November 18, 2022
If you stick with the Pokémon data, could you make it into a more serious portfolio project? Why collect these data? How will the analyses be used, by whom, when? Think about why people collect stock prices, baseball averages, heart rates, etc. If you made up the Pokémon dataset just to have something to work with, is there any other dataset that could actually be fun and useful to you to work with? Budget analysis from your bank data, to better understand your pandemic spending habits - cataloguing your *own* Pokémon cards, or other objects, so that you know what’s in the collection for future trades or sales - a vacation planning dataset, with info on hotel costs, airfares, best time of year, duration of travel, etc.? (These are where working with data gets fun for me, because I begin to see and make strategic choices.). Good luck!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 12:57 AM on November 18, 2022
If you're serious about data as a career, I would suggest learning python or R after you learn the processes in Excel. My current position is converting the Excel and Power Query data analyses from from the last few years into faster and more nimble python/pandas scripts. Big datasets(i.e. larger than a million or so rows) are inoperable in Excel, but still work in python/pandas.
I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, memail me.
posted by schyler523 at 6:33 AM on November 18, 2022
I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, memail me.
posted by schyler523 at 6:33 AM on November 18, 2022
If you want real datasets to play with, you can check out data.gov.
I agree that learning SQL and Python or R (my preference is Python but YMMV) are going to be important tools if you want to get into data analysis.
posted by number9dream at 6:40 AM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
I agree that learning SQL and Python or R (my preference is Python but YMMV) are going to be important tools if you want to get into data analysis.
posted by number9dream at 6:40 AM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think learning SQL, Python, and R is good advice, but I think it's worth highlighting that Excel is ubiquitous. It is definitely the right path, from a pure employability sense, to get a good handle on Excel before moving into other tools. In a business setting, everybody already has Excel on their computers and that is often the default that people want to see, especially (in my experience) the older crowd.
My advice for the co-op students and interns, where I work, is to get good at making dashboards and visualizations, and to structure their analysis around answering specific questions, preferably with a nice chart. It's great to know all the tricks for doing calculations, setting up pivot tables, &c. but at the end of the day the people who are going to look at your results are looking for a visual summary of some sort. More often than not, they won't know nor will care about the details of how you did it, they will judge your work entirely by what the final presentation looks like. Youtube is a great resource for tutorials for different ways of doing this, in Excel, and they could make for a really impressive portfolio.
Also, LinkedIn has skills tests. I don't know how universally they are used, but I've heard that having that checkmark for Excel and other office skills has been a boost for some resumes at my job.
posted by selenized at 7:49 AM on November 18, 2022
My advice for the co-op students and interns, where I work, is to get good at making dashboards and visualizations, and to structure their analysis around answering specific questions, preferably with a nice chart. It's great to know all the tricks for doing calculations, setting up pivot tables, &c. but at the end of the day the people who are going to look at your results are looking for a visual summary of some sort. More often than not, they won't know nor will care about the details of how you did it, they will judge your work entirely by what the final presentation looks like. Youtube is a great resource for tutorials for different ways of doing this, in Excel, and they could make for a really impressive portfolio.
Also, LinkedIn has skills tests. I don't know how universally they are used, but I've heard that having that checkmark for Excel and other office skills has been a boost for some resumes at my job.
posted by selenized at 7:49 AM on November 18, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks to everyone for the responses so far.
What I'm running into is that I'm feeling a bit paralyzed. The energy is there, but I'm not sure where to place it and the result is a feeling of feeling stuck, like the momentum has stopped but I still want to move forward. It feels like being in a straight jacket after having too much coffee.
Right now, I need income. Is there a data job I can go for right now, or should I just go for a grocery store job, save money, and learn on the side? I really don't want to do the second option!
I hear SQL, Python, and R being mentioned as next steps. I've also heard a ton about Salesforce. I have a Udemy course on SQL for beginners, and there is a Salesforce course I have been thinking about saving up to take.
To be honest, I abhor working with resumes, cover letters, sprucing up LinkedIn, and applying for jobs. Don't get me wrong, I'll absolutely do it, but I don't want to start on that path unless it's realistic to shoot for a data job right now.
I did hear from rrrrrrrrrt that working with colleges with data entry in terms of research is one lead. That does sound exciting.
I've also heard the portfolio term a couple times. Having a great portfolio was a huge part of the UX job hunt (I also abhor the building a portfolio process, but again, I'll do what I must. I just don't want to waste energy if it's not worth it.)
I adore learning and following instructions. I am very uncomfortable with free-flow (which is unfortunate because that seems to be what most of life is - free-flow without instructions). But learning Excel from my Udemy course has been a blast (I'll seriously be at the computer in the flow state for 8-9 hours without even noticing time go by). Unfortunately, learning doesn't pay the bills.
For the past couple of years after graduating with my Bachelor's of Science in Psychology, I've been in a dark place of feeling like I am not good enough at anything to have a serious career and that I'm doomed to do low-pay customer service jobs and live with my parents forever.
Getting excited about data and learning Excel has been a sun-is-breaking-through-the-dark-clouds moment for me, and I've been so much happier and excited about life.
But now I'm feeling stuck and I really don't want that momentum to end because it will be so hard to get the engine back on again. I know that I am not a free-flowing trailblazer who creates his own rules. I'm a follower of directions.
I hope this doesn't sound like me complaining, even though it kinda is me venting. Basically I hope I'm not sounding like an unreasonable diva.
posted by ggp88 at 8:35 AM on November 18, 2022
What I'm running into is that I'm feeling a bit paralyzed. The energy is there, but I'm not sure where to place it and the result is a feeling of feeling stuck, like the momentum has stopped but I still want to move forward. It feels like being in a straight jacket after having too much coffee.
Right now, I need income. Is there a data job I can go for right now, or should I just go for a grocery store job, save money, and learn on the side? I really don't want to do the second option!
I hear SQL, Python, and R being mentioned as next steps. I've also heard a ton about Salesforce. I have a Udemy course on SQL for beginners, and there is a Salesforce course I have been thinking about saving up to take.
To be honest, I abhor working with resumes, cover letters, sprucing up LinkedIn, and applying for jobs. Don't get me wrong, I'll absolutely do it, but I don't want to start on that path unless it's realistic to shoot for a data job right now.
I did hear from rrrrrrrrrt that working with colleges with data entry in terms of research is one lead. That does sound exciting.
I've also heard the portfolio term a couple times. Having a great portfolio was a huge part of the UX job hunt (I also abhor the building a portfolio process, but again, I'll do what I must. I just don't want to waste energy if it's not worth it.)
I adore learning and following instructions. I am very uncomfortable with free-flow (which is unfortunate because that seems to be what most of life is - free-flow without instructions). But learning Excel from my Udemy course has been a blast (I'll seriously be at the computer in the flow state for 8-9 hours without even noticing time go by). Unfortunately, learning doesn't pay the bills.
For the past couple of years after graduating with my Bachelor's of Science in Psychology, I've been in a dark place of feeling like I am not good enough at anything to have a serious career and that I'm doomed to do low-pay customer service jobs and live with my parents forever.
Getting excited about data and learning Excel has been a sun-is-breaking-through-the-dark-clouds moment for me, and I've been so much happier and excited about life.
But now I'm feeling stuck and I really don't want that momentum to end because it will be so hard to get the engine back on again. I know that I am not a free-flowing trailblazer who creates his own rules. I'm a follower of directions.
I hope this doesn't sound like me complaining, even though it kinda is me venting. Basically I hope I'm not sounding like an unreasonable diva.
posted by ggp88 at 8:35 AM on November 18, 2022
Sign up with a few general office temp agencies. Local ones tend to be better than national ones like Accenture. If there's a particular company you want to work for, figure out where they get their temps and sign up there, it's a way to get experience with any specific software they use. Most office-y jobs will have you using Excel and doing data entry and there's likely to be demand for temps over the holidays. I've gotten hired on from temping, and it's nice because you know the job you're coming into. It may take a couple weeks to get placed, though.
Do not spend money on courses. Everything you want to learn, you can learn for free online, and taking an online course is not usually a compelling thing that gets people hired. Talk to people doing jobs you're interested in for market research and job leads. I've had surprisingly good luck cold-messaging people on LinkedIn. I love taking courses! I wish they were a direct path to jobs, but don't expect that unless someone tells you that they'll hire you if you take X.
posted by momus_window at 9:00 AM on November 18, 2022
Do not spend money on courses. Everything you want to learn, you can learn for free online, and taking an online course is not usually a compelling thing that gets people hired. Talk to people doing jobs you're interested in for market research and job leads. I've had surprisingly good luck cold-messaging people on LinkedIn. I love taking courses! I wish they were a direct path to jobs, but don't expect that unless someone tells you that they'll hire you if you take X.
posted by momus_window at 9:00 AM on November 18, 2022
So, some specific suggestions:
- Large universities usually have temp pools from which they hire temporary workers. It turns out UT Austin has one, UTemps. Follow their instructions to apply to get included into the UTemps pool.
- Take a look at the course descriptions for the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate on Coursera. Or take a look at the course descriptions in the Data Analysis and Presentation Skills: the PwC Approach Specialization, also on Coursera (PwC, or PricewaterhouseCoopers, is a major consultancy which expects employees to have data analysis skills). Just look at the course descriptions, to get an idea of the skills expected for introductory data analyst jobs. This could also serve as a guide or syllabus of sorts to help you identify what to learn next from free materials available to you (or audit the courses for free in Coursera if you prefer). The skills won't guarantee you getting a data analyst job, as they'll be minimum qualifications, but the course topics should provide some guidance on how tools like R or Python or Excel are used to serve a larger business outcome.
posted by needled at 9:28 AM on November 18, 2022
- Large universities usually have temp pools from which they hire temporary workers. It turns out UT Austin has one, UTemps. Follow their instructions to apply to get included into the UTemps pool.
- Take a look at the course descriptions for the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate on Coursera. Or take a look at the course descriptions in the Data Analysis and Presentation Skills: the PwC Approach Specialization, also on Coursera (PwC, or PricewaterhouseCoopers, is a major consultancy which expects employees to have data analysis skills). Just look at the course descriptions, to get an idea of the skills expected for introductory data analyst jobs. This could also serve as a guide or syllabus of sorts to help you identify what to learn next from free materials available to you (or audit the courses for free in Coursera if you prefer). The skills won't guarantee you getting a data analyst job, as they'll be minimum qualifications, but the course topics should provide some guidance on how tools like R or Python or Excel are used to serve a larger business outcome.
posted by needled at 9:28 AM on November 18, 2022
As for talking in person about your job search, have you approached any of the Workforce Solutions locations in Austin?
posted by needled at 10:02 AM on November 18, 2022
posted by needled at 10:02 AM on November 18, 2022
Response by poster: I just searched for "local office temp agencies" and came across and called Express Employment Professionals. I have an interview set for 9am on Wednesday the 23rd. They only have one opening that fits the criteria of working with data, and it's at a company called Lutron Electronics. The hours are wonky (11pm to 7am) and I'd be doing part data entry in Excel and part lifting heavy boxes (not a problem), but they pay $19.80 an hour. Not sure if the job is part time or full time, but either way, it sounds pretty good!
posted by ggp88 at 10:42 AM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by ggp88 at 10:42 AM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I did this! I had a BA in English and couldn't get a job doing anything I liked. I ended up in customer service making near minimum wage entering orders into a system. I was fortunate that my company used SAP, which is a very in-demand ERP software suite. I moved over to the Master Data department, where I learned a LOT about how data moved through the system and how to troubleshoot various problems. I got hired by a company that paid half of my tuition for grad school, so I got my Masters in Information Systems through an online program. Before I even graduated, I moved to a Financial Analyst position and now I do SQL and create dashboards in PowerBI all day.
Feel free to MeMail me if you have any specific questions, but I'd offer these suggestions:
- Add "Master Data" to your job search keywords. This is essentially data entry, but will probably be used more for larger companies that use big systems. If you want exposure to big data sets this would get you there. There are definitely jobs out there where you can learn a lot and have opportunities to move up.
- If you understand relationships between tables, take a class in PowerBI or Tableau. With this, you can create visuals to make analysis more easy.
- If you like Excel you'll love SQL. If you want to learn R, you'll want to brush up on statistics first or else you'll have no idea what you're doing.
- I found that nobody took me seriously with just a BA in English, even though I had a lot of knowledge. The Masters was my attempt to look better on paper - but I think I could have learned everything in MOOCs or at my local community college.
posted by little king trashmouth at 2:55 PM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Feel free to MeMail me if you have any specific questions, but I'd offer these suggestions:
- Add "Master Data" to your job search keywords. This is essentially data entry, but will probably be used more for larger companies that use big systems. If you want exposure to big data sets this would get you there. There are definitely jobs out there where you can learn a lot and have opportunities to move up.
- If you understand relationships between tables, take a class in PowerBI or Tableau. With this, you can create visuals to make analysis more easy.
- If you like Excel you'll love SQL. If you want to learn R, you'll want to brush up on statistics first or else you'll have no idea what you're doing.
- I found that nobody took me seriously with just a BA in English, even though I had a lot of knowledge. The Masters was my attempt to look better on paper - but I think I could have learned everything in MOOCs or at my local community college.
posted by little king trashmouth at 2:55 PM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'd like to suggest that if you need a job now and are considering taking a grocery store job, do not learn Python, SQL, R, or try to take courses in tools like that.
Those skills take many months (maybe years) of exploration, before you can be functional with them
Excel is foundational for most small businesses; my partner works as the operations & logistics person for a group of three speciality grocery stores, and it's all in excel. My mother does the data work for a school of 200 students and it's all in excel (except for the financial record keeping). Those kinds of businesses don't need more.
Once you have stable income and are getting experience in a relevant role, you're going to learn a lot. The reason you're feeling so stuck with Excel right now is because you need a lot of practice solving real problems; skill and intuition come from doing.
As you start getting the hang of this kind of work, you can start learning things like Python, R, and SQL, and start thinking about your next step, if you'd like. Or decide you have a different and better idea.
One piece of long term advice: you're going to feel bad and struggle. That is part of learning the tools. Definitely try to learn from more experienced coworkers.
I think pragmatically, you should try to get an office job with a small place; it's fine to change jobs, especially early in your career, so it's okay if the first thing you try isn't a fit.
Also! It's great that you're trying things out. Try to find opportunities to use the tools to solve problems you find in your daily life. Tracking a budget in excel is a pragmatic project that can be fun and instructive.
posted by constraint at 11:39 PM on November 18, 2022
Those skills take many months (maybe years) of exploration, before you can be functional with them
Excel is foundational for most small businesses; my partner works as the operations & logistics person for a group of three speciality grocery stores, and it's all in excel. My mother does the data work for a school of 200 students and it's all in excel (except for the financial record keeping). Those kinds of businesses don't need more.
Once you have stable income and are getting experience in a relevant role, you're going to learn a lot. The reason you're feeling so stuck with Excel right now is because you need a lot of practice solving real problems; skill and intuition come from doing.
As you start getting the hang of this kind of work, you can start learning things like Python, R, and SQL, and start thinking about your next step, if you'd like. Or decide you have a different and better idea.
One piece of long term advice: you're going to feel bad and struggle. That is part of learning the tools. Definitely try to learn from more experienced coworkers.
I think pragmatically, you should try to get an office job with a small place; it's fine to change jobs, especially early in your career, so it's okay if the first thing you try isn't a fit.
Also! It's great that you're trying things out. Try to find opportunities to use the tools to solve problems you find in your daily life. Tracking a budget in excel is a pragmatic project that can be fun and instructive.
posted by constraint at 11:39 PM on November 18, 2022
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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L0ulZYZ-lqc-hIv1r5-_3E44goDR0CSq/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102877081904521821529&rtpof=true&sd=true
Also, I've thought about it some more and there actually are some things I can deduce with the info I entered.
1. A ranking of the overall popularity of a given generation based on the popularity ranking of the Pokemon within that generation.
2. The average stat total of a Pokemon from a given generation (and ranking the generations based off of that)
3. A similar ranking as above but based off of the average height of a Pokemon from that generation
4. Same as above but based off of the average weight
5. The average average price for a Pokemon card from a given generation
6. The average minimum price for a Pokemon card from a given generation
7. The average maximum price for a Pokemon card from a given generation
I will update the Excel file to answer these questions. Since what I've shared is on Google Drive, it will update for all of you to see. I can't think of any other questions of merit (I mean, I could get the number of letters of the average Pokemon for each generation and rank the generations based off of that, but that's a bit silly).
I wish I could quality information such as, "what is the strength of the correlation between a Pokemon's ranking in this poll and it's stat total? Or it's rank in the poll and it's average card price? Or it's stat total and it's card price?"
I'm sure there are mathematical formulas to figure out such things, but it's been a long time since my Statistics class in college and I wouldn't know what those formulas are.
Of course, the answers will be wildly misleading since there are currently 905 Pokemon (that's before tomorrow's release of Scarlet and Violet's newest batch of Pokemon which will probably finally tip the count into the quadruple digits), and this list I have only contains 50 Pokemon, which is only 5.52% of the total. But it took me a couple of hours to get all of this information for the 50, so it would take days to get all the rest of the 855 left out Pokemon.
posted by ggp88 at 4:14 PM on November 17, 2022