- 54 minutes ago
If I had to start over as a data analyst in 2024, this is the exact six-month path I would follow to get hired as fast as possible. The plan starts with learning what a data analyst actually does, then narrowing the goal to a general data analyst role before moving into the core skills that show up most often in job descriptions.
The focus is on SQL, Excel, and Tableau first, because those tools cover a large share of entry-level data analyst jobs and give you the fastest path to interviews. From there, the next step is building projects while you learn so your resume has real portfolio work, not just a short list of skills. The video also covers how to create a simple resume, work with recruiters instead of relying only on job applications, and prepare for both general interviews and technical SQL interviews.
Along the way, it breaks down what to study for free on YouTube, when paid courses can help, and why a realistic job search timeline can still be around six months if you stay focused. It is practical career advice for anyone looking for a data analyst roadmap, beginner SQL and Excel learning, Tableau for analysts, portfolio projects, resume tips, recruiter outreach, and technical interview prep.
Created for viewers searching for how to become a data analyst, data analyst roadmap 2024, SQL Excel Tableau for beginners, entry-level data analyst jobs, and data analytics interview preparation. If you want a step-by-step guide for starting from scratch and building toward a data analyst career, this is built for that search intent.
The focus is on SQL, Excel, and Tableau first, because those tools cover a large share of entry-level data analyst jobs and give you the fastest path to interviews. From there, the next step is building projects while you learn so your resume has real portfolio work, not just a short list of skills. The video also covers how to create a simple resume, work with recruiters instead of relying only on job applications, and prepare for both general interviews and technical SQL interviews.
Along the way, it breaks down what to study for free on YouTube, when paid courses can help, and why a realistic job search timeline can still be around six months if you stay focused. It is practical career advice for anyone looking for a data analyst roadmap, beginner SQL and Excel learning, Tableau for analysts, portfolio projects, resume tips, recruiter outreach, and technical interview prep.
Created for viewers searching for how to become a data analyst, data analyst roadmap 2024, SQL Excel Tableau for beginners, entry-level data analyst jobs, and data analytics interview preparation. If you want a step-by-step guide for starting from scratch and building toward a data analyst career, this is built for that search intent.
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LearningTranscript
00:00What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another video.
00:02Today, we're going to talk about how I would become a data analyst again
00:05if I had to start over from scratch.
00:13I've actually been thinking about this a lot recently
00:15because things have changed since I became a data analyst
00:17six or seven years ago, right?
00:19The job market is different, the tech stacks are different,
00:21and a lot of people ask me every single day,
00:24hey, how do I become a data analyst?
00:26And so I want to give a good perspective of from today,
00:30if I had to completely start over,
00:32exactly how I would do that again.
00:34Now, in this scenario, it's almost like I had amnesia.
00:36I completely forgot everything I know.
00:39The only thing that was left in my memory
00:40is that I really want to be a data analyst.
00:43That's all I have left.
00:44So my sole purpose right now is just to land a job
00:46in data analytics, and I'm starting from scratch.
00:49Nobody knows who I am.
00:50Nobody knows who Alex Freeberg is or Alex the analyst.
00:52I'm just some person, right, who wants to be a data analyst.
00:55And I'm going to tell you how I would do that
00:57as quickly as possible.
00:58So let's start from the very, very, very beginning.
01:01Remember, amnesia Alex doesn't remember anything
01:03except that he wants to become a data analyst.
01:05He doesn't even know what a data analyst does.
01:07So the first thing that I would do,
01:08the very first step is just research
01:10what a data analyst does.
01:12And this part just takes like a couple days, right?
01:15You're just figuring out what they do,
01:17figuring out what kind of things you might be interested in.
01:20And then I would determine
01:21what kind of data analyst do I want to be?
01:22Do I want to focus on healthcare?
01:23Because healthcare uses different tools
01:26than something like financial analyst
01:27or a marketing analyst,
01:28or just a broad general data analyst,
01:30which would learn kind of the tools
01:32that I usually talk about on the channel.
01:34So I would try to figure that out.
01:35And then I would try to research
01:36what skills to learn exactly for that position.
01:38But for this example, for this scenario,
01:40I'm just trying to become a general data analyst
01:42where I can get hired at any company.
01:44So that's the first thing that I would do.
01:46The second thing that I would do
01:47is then start learning the skills
01:49because you cannot become a data analyst
01:51with none of the data analyst skills.
01:52It's just not possible.
01:54Now, I've talked on my channel a lot
01:55about what skills you need to learn.
01:56SQL, Excel, Tableau, Power BI, Python.
01:59Then there's a ton of others.
02:00You could do R, AWS, Azure, Looker,
02:02and a ton of others.
02:04But Amnesia Alex wants to get a job
02:06as quickly as possible.
02:07So I'm not going to recommend
02:09he learns all of those skills.
02:11I'm going to recommend that he only learns three.
02:13That's going to be SQL, Excel, and Tableau.
02:16Now, why do I recommend
02:16those three skills in particular?
02:18That's because those ones are the ones
02:20that have the highest probability
02:21of being in a job description.
02:23So SQL for sure is going to be in like 75%
02:26of job descriptions for data analysts.
02:28Excel should be in probably like 100%.
02:30And then Tableau is just a BI tool.
02:32So if you know Tableau, you know Power BI
02:34or you know Looker for the most part,
02:36like you know like 80% of the other ones.
02:37And so if you learn a BI tool,
02:39you usually know the other ones.
02:41And so just learning a BI tool,
02:42you can switch Tableau for Power BI
02:44or a lot of other tools.
02:45But I recommend Tableau just because
02:47it is a popular tool that a lot of companies use.
02:49And those three skills are going to open up
02:52probably 40% of the jobs
02:54for data analysts out there.
02:55Now, of course, the more skills that you know,
02:57the more jobs that you can apply for, right?
02:59If you keep adding skills to your skill sets,
03:02then of course, you're going to be able to apply
03:04for 50, 60, 75% of the jobs that are out there.
03:07But if I was starting over,
03:08I would just want to give myself
03:09the best chance to land a job really quickly.
03:11And so I would just focus on those three skills
03:13at the beginning.
03:14Now, where would I learn these skills?
03:15I'm pretending Amnesia Alex doesn't remember he's married,
03:18doesn't remember that he has any money in his bank.
03:21He is completely broke.
03:22So if he has absolutely no money,
03:25I would recommend that he goes on YouTube
03:27and learns all the free things
03:29that you can find on YouTube.
03:29It is basically a university,
03:31a YouTube university out there
03:33where you can find anything.
03:35And I myself have an entire channel
03:36dedicated to data analytics.
03:38And you can probably learn 90%
03:40of what you need to learn just on my channel.
03:42But there's tons of other great channels out there
03:44if you want to dive into different things.
03:46Now, if you're not Amnesia Alex
03:47and you do have some money
03:48and you remember who you are
03:50and you do want to dive into some of these skills
03:52a little bit more in depth
03:53than what YouTube has to offer,
03:54there are some platforms that I do recommend.
03:57I've been using Udemy for a long time.
03:59I've also been using Coursera for a long time.
04:00I've even created my own learning platform
04:03for data analytics called Analyst Builder.
04:05On Analyst Builder,
04:06I have all of my own full courses
04:07that go a lot more in depth
04:08than what I have on YouTube.
04:10We also have a questions page
04:11where you can practice for technical interviews.
04:13And we'll get into technical interviews
04:15in just a little bit
04:15when we talk about getting interviews.
04:17So I'll leave links in the description
04:18if you want to check it out.
04:20But learning the skills is super important.
04:21So that is the next step that I would do.
04:23And honestly, I think that I could learn
04:25SQL, Excel, and Tableau within two months.
04:28So that's kind of assuming that I don't have a job.
04:31Amnesia Alex doesn't have any work to do.
04:34He's only dedicating just to those skills.
04:36I think two months is plenty of time
04:38to really know those skills well
04:39enough to land an entry-level job.
04:42Now, if I, as Amnesia Alex,
04:43would start applying for jobs right now,
04:45all my resume would have is Excel, Tableau, and SQL.
04:49That's one of the worst resumes I've ever seen.
04:51So what Amnesia Alex is going to do,
04:53or I am going to do,
04:54is I'm going to build projects and build a portfolio.
04:57When you're learning the skills,
04:58you should be building projects with them
05:00so you really solidify those skills.
05:01So the projects are just kind of complementary
05:03to learning the skills.
05:05And then you can put those projects on your resume.
05:08At least that's what I would do.
05:09So now, instead of just the three skills at the top,
05:11we have three skills
05:12and we have multiple projects underneath it.
05:14I'd probably do two in SQL,
05:15one in Excel,
05:16and maybe one or two in Tableau.
05:18All of these would go into a website
05:20and I have a link in the actual resume,
05:22but then I'd have my actual projects on my resume.
05:25That will really fill out my resume,
05:27make it a lot better.
05:28That can take a week or two weeks,
05:30depending on how quickly you can get those projects done
05:32or how well you know those skills.
05:33But in two weeks, you can have five projects
05:35or an entire portfolio created.
05:37So up till now, it's two and a half months of work
05:40invested in really learning and building projects.
05:43The next thing that I would do is start creating a resume.
05:45And this is gonna be a really simple resume.
05:47It doesn't have to be anything crazy.
05:49I've done lots of videos
05:50on creating the best resume for data analytics.
05:52And really, I would just highlight the things
05:55that are really relevant
05:56and not include things that aren't.
05:58Amnesia Alex has no work experience.
06:00He has no education experience.
06:01So for him, he's really just gonna be putting
06:04the skills and the projects
06:06and maybe a summary section as well.
06:09But it's not gonna be super, super impressive,
06:10but it is gonna have a lot of what they are looking for
06:13in a lot of job descriptions.
06:15So I'm gonna get a really, really, really good resume
06:17because that is gonna get past
06:19a lot of these automated systems
06:20that kind of check the resume first.
06:23And when a hiring manager sees it,
06:25they're gonna see the skills that they're looking for.
06:26They're gonna see projects that are interesting
06:28and relevant to that position.
06:30And so hopefully, I'd be able to land an interview.
06:32The next thing that I would do is work with a recruiter.
06:34And this is one of those things where most people,
06:37when they're first starting out, don't do this.
06:38They just start applying to jobs
06:40and doing the LinkedIn, you know, single click applies.
06:43They don't work and you get really frustrated.
06:46And that's because you're applying to hundreds of jobs
06:47that thousands of other people are applying for.
06:50But recruiters are really great
06:51because they have a connection with the company.
06:53So I would work with a recruiter
06:54or as many recruiters as I possibly could.
06:57Believe it or not, there was a time
06:58where I had no experience.
07:00And this was just, you know, six or seven years ago.
07:02And I was working with six or seven recruiters at a time,
07:05just juggling them, kept messaging them
07:07and asking them and emailing them.
07:09Hey, do you guys have anything?
07:10Messing them on LinkedIn, reaching out to them, cold calling.
07:13You just, you kind of have to put yourself out there.
07:15So if I was starting over, I would do that tactic.
07:18Instead of applying for a thousand jobs
07:19and then working with a recruiter,
07:21I would start out working with a recruiter.
07:23I also have an entire video on how to reach out
07:25to recruiters on LinkedIn,
07:26both by directly messaging them
07:28and then also by finding them
07:29and cold calling and cold emailing them.
07:31So if you're interested in finding out how to do that,
07:33I would check out that video.
07:35Now, after I work with a recruiter,
07:36the very last thing that I have to do
07:37in order to land a job
07:38is to really nail the interview and get a job offer.
07:41That's it.
07:41Interview is usually comprised of two parts.
07:44It's the general interview
07:45and it's the technical interview.
07:47Now, the general interview is one
07:48that you'll get on almost any position.
07:50So they're gonna ask you, tell us about yourself.
07:51Tell us about your work experience.
07:52Tell us why you want this position
07:54and what you know about the company.
07:56These types of things.
07:57So you can just get ready for those
07:58by researching the company,
07:59researching what they do
08:01and getting ready for that interview.
08:02The next part is a technical interview
08:04and you're gonna get this
08:05in probably 75% plus of the interviews that you have
08:09if it is a more technical role.
08:11Typically, it's either in SQL or Python.
08:13Just in general, it's usually SQL.
08:15Like 95% of the technical interviews
08:17that I had over my entire career have been in SQL.
08:20So you really want to nail that technical interview
08:22to show that you know the skill well
08:23and that's why we created Analyst Builder
08:25like I was talking about a little bit ago.
08:27We have that whole section
08:28where it's just practicing for technical interviews
08:31in either Python, MySQL, PostgreSQL,
08:33Microsoft SQL Server.
08:34It is super awesome just for that.
08:37So I'd really want to prepare for my interview.
08:39I just practice, you know, telling about myself,
08:41practice for the technical interviews.
08:43I would nail the interview
08:44and I would set the job position.
08:45Now, that's usually the longest process,
08:48working with a recruiter and landing a job
08:50because all the learning up till then is all self-paced.
08:53You can do that all yourself for free
08:55or for very little money.
08:56And then working with a recruiter
08:58and then actually landing a job,
09:00that can take anywhere from three months
09:02all the way up to a year.
09:04And so in the shortest amount of time possible,
09:06if I really streamlined this,
09:08I really worked hard at learning those skills,
09:10working with a recruiter nonstop,
09:12I like made it my job,
09:13I think it'd be very possible
09:15to do that within six months.
09:16It's a really optimistic timeframe
09:18because six months to completely change your career
09:20is pretty quick,
09:21but I definitely think it's possible
09:23if, you know, I was starting over today,
09:24I definitely think I could do it.
09:26Of course, there are outside factors
09:27like the job market,
09:28if hiring is like really slow
09:30or where I live or things like that.
09:32But in general,
09:34I definitely think I could do it within six months.
09:36Now, to some of you,
09:37that may seem like a really long time,
09:38but to put it in perspective,
09:39you're going to have this job
09:40for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years,
09:43and you're going to learn new skills
09:45and you'll get promotions.
09:46Maybe you could transition into data science
09:48or data engineering
09:49or any other number of jobs
09:50that are related to data analytics.
09:52So that is the exact path
09:54that Amnesia Alex would take
09:55in order to become a data analyst
09:57as quickly as possible.
09:58Now, if I had a little bit more time,
10:00I didn't need a job,
10:01I had more time to spend,
10:02I would definitely be learning
10:04something like a cloud platform
10:05and then I'd be learning some AI as well
10:08to work with those tools.
10:10Now, I didn't mention AI as a must know
10:12because even now,
10:14even today in the end of 2023
10:16or early 2024,
10:18depending on when I post this,
10:20even today,
10:21those tools are not crazy integrated.
10:23You don't have to know them.
10:25Now, in the future,
10:26in two, three, four, five years,
10:28they may become more integrated
10:29into all of our software,
10:31into all the tools that we use.
10:32Then it would become more of a requirement
10:34to know those things.
10:36So that is exactly what I would do.
10:37If you haven't already,
10:38be sure to check out Analyst Builder.
10:40I am incredibly proud of it.
10:41It is one of the best platforms out there
10:42for learning data analytics.
10:44If you like this video,
10:45be sure to like and subscribe below.
10:47I will see you in the next video.
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