IU #025: Where Your Friends Are Going Wrong In Their Data Careers

Do you ever wonder where you’re going wrong in your career?

Do you ever wonder how everyone else is getting on?

In this newsletter, you’ll learn the answers to both those questions.

Last week, I created a short questionnaire and 430 completed it. Thanks!

This meant, I could give you all personalised career advice.

It also meant I can see at a macro level what people are doing right and wrong.

If you would like some personalised career advice, simply answer these short questions and I will help you.

(I’ll leave a link at the end too in case you want to read this wonderful newsletter first).

Today, we’re going to dive into your responses.

You’ll get 3 benefits from this:

1. You’ll see where you are going wrong (and what to do about it)

2. You’ll get to spy on your peers (who doesn’t love a bit of gossip)

3. You’ll get to nerd-out with me as I crunch some numbers

Let’s dive in:

Question: Do you want a role in data?

95% people said yes.

That’s great.

If 95% had said they wanted a job as a baker, I would have had to rethink this newsletter.

Question: How many years work experience do you have?

• 16% said they have 6+ years work experience.

• 38% said 2+ years.

• 46% said <1 years.

These are the 3 categories, we’ll use going forward.

Question: How you done any data courses?

Before you do anything else, I would recommend learning Excel, SQL and one of PowerBI or Tableau.

Most of you seem to be on the right track.

67% have done all 3. If you’ve done that, I would move on to using those skills at work. If you cannot do that, I would create a data portfolio and practice that way.

I wouldn’t do any more courses on other tools. It’s diminishing returns after you’ve learned those big 3 (SQL, Excel & a BI tool).

Question: Have you used data in the workplace?

I was surprised by how much experience people had.

I guess this just proves how important learning SQL is. 91% of people who have data experience have used this tool.

Excel gets a bit of stick online, but it’s still incredibly important. It gets better every year too.

Questions: Have you built a data portfolio? Do you want to learn to land a job through LinkedIn posts?

If you’ve mastered those 3 tools, the next step is to get work experience. If you don’t have as much as you need, build a data portfolio.

I think this goes hand in hand with a personal brand on LinkedIn.

Questions: What do you want help with?

Here’s what you said:

This gave me a lot to think about. I’ll follow up with resources to guide you through this soon.

Resources to help you

If you’ve done the steps I just mentioned, the next step is to learn how to tell your ‘story.’

This is when you describe how everything in your past, is relevant to your future job. To be honest, this is why most people don't get calls back. They undervalue their past work.

But I can help you with this. For a step-by-step guide, check out:

• ‘Infinite Upside: How to Land a Job Through Online Networking’ (e-book)

• For 1:1 career coaching 

• For free guides

Hope this helps,

Michael

P.S.

Want to chat?

Jump in the comments on LinkedIn, any day at 12.30 (GMT)

I answer every comment for the first 45 minutes each day!