Hi everyone, happy Tuesday

DataAnalyst.com has now been live for just over a year, and we've brought over 1,550 hand curated data analyst jobs onto the site - all of them including a salary range.

There's now over 3,600 of you currently subscribed to the newsletter, and I can't thank you enough for your support and for joining us on the journey.

Now, there are 3 things I'd like to share with you today.

1. We have partnered with University of Illinois - Chicago, who are looking for an Associate Director of Data Analytics
2. Day in the Life of a Data Analyst with Selvin and Isaac, prompting you to ask yourself a simple question - "Why did you become a data analyst?"
3. February 2024, Data Analyst job market summary

Hope you enjoy the read, and as always - please do share your ideas, thoughts and/or if you run across more bugs on the site.

If you've applied to a job and are in the interview process, wishing you good luck and please let me know how it goes!

Thank you,

Alex

P.S: I'm currently looking for data analysts open to share their career journey, so if you're up for an email based interview, please just hit reply, write couple of words about yourself and we'll organise something - would love to get you featured and share your experience with over 3,600 of our readers!

1. University of Illinois - Chicago is looking for an Associate Director of Data Analytics

We've partnered with University of Illinois - Chicago, who are looking for an
Institutional Research Data Coordinator (Associate Director of Data Analytics), focused on Education.

UIC is among the nation's preeminent urban public research universities, a Carnegie RU/VH research institution, and the largest university in Chicago. UIC serves over 34,000 students, comprising one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation and is designated as a Minority Serving Institution (MSI), an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPSI) and a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).

By emphasizing cutting-edge and transformational research along with a commitment to the success of all students, UIC embodies the dynamic, vibrant and engaged urban university.

This position is responsible for overseeing the data and reporting needs of the University of Illinois Chicago's (UIC) College of Education. The Associate Director of Data Analytics will develop and implement a strategic vision regarding institutional data collection, analysis, and communication.

They are looking for someone with 1 - 3 years of experience, with the role being performed onsite, in Chicago, IL.

The salary range $70,000 - $90,000 per year.

In addition all full time benefits eligible positions include a comprehensive benefits package which include; Health, Dental, Vision, Life, Disability & AD&D insurance, a defined benefit pension plan as well as paid leave which includes; Vacation, Holiday and Sick.

Interested? You can read more and apply 👇

Associate Director of Data Analytics @ University of Illinois - Chicago

2. Day in a life of a Data Analyst with Selvin and Isaac

Firstly, thank you to Selvin and Isaac, for taking the time, and sharing your experience!

Since I launched DataAnalyst.com just over a year ago, I've had many chats with people aspiring to become data analysts.

From the snapshots of cool looking dashboards, ability to work remotely from anywhere in the world, to extremely attractive salaries and benefit packages - what's not to love, right?

Frequently, having these conversations bring me back to my own experiences.

"Alex, why do you want to do X (not Twitter)?"

What the question really comes down to, is knowing what's behind my motivations, and understanding those incentives.

So, for those who are looking to enter the data analytics field, there are two excerpts from their interviews I would like to share, where both Selvin and Isaac are providing great thinking prompts for you to ruminate on.

Selvin Quire, Data Analyst at Wintrust Financial Corporation - on his transition from the education sector, growing through shadowing, and connecting passion with what you do.

‍I would say the first step is to confirm why you want to become a data analyst.‍

Two starting questions someone can ask themselves are:

1. “Beyond the income potential, what excites you about being a data analyst?”
2. "Can a data analyst career lead into future opportunities that align with your goals?”

You don’t have to know every single aspect about a data analyst role before deciding, but being able to confidently answer those two questions is a good start."

He also goes on to sharing how you building on your "Why?" together with what you're passionate about in your life, can help you in developing your data analyst portfolio.

"I would recommend creating a portfolio that has a mix of “standard” and “passion” projects.

What I mean by standard is using datasets or answering business questions that you could typically see in the workplace such sales data from a restaurant or figuring out the most popular songs on a streaming service.

Passion projects could include data from something that you enjoy outside of your career. I believe this helps with learning data concepts as it’s tied to a topic you’re passionate about. For example, let’s say you’re an avid video game player, specifically role-playing games. You could find (or create) a dataset that shows all of the RPG games and the number of sales they’ve has for each console over a certain period of time. You can come up with a question or hypothesis, play around with the data, and analyze it to develop your own insights.

Putting these kinds of projects into one portfolio will show your data knowledge, ability to learn, and your personality and professional branding to help you stand out."

You can read the full interview with Selvin, here.

Isaac D. Tucker-Rasbury, Senior Data Analyst at BlueLabs - on teaching himself SQL, seeing growth as an iterative process, and using data skills for social good

‍"Allow your interests and convictions to lead you in deciding what to work on.

Let’s assume you are capable enough to work anywhere and on anything.

Then the next question is, “what do you want to work on?”

If you pick something that fills your metaphorical cup everyday, you will benefit from the natural momentum of your interests.

Pick something exclusively for clout or pay, and that will get old quickly. I’m fortunate enough to have been able to follow my interests and now even my convictions.

I wish you out there reading this a fulfilling, and then yes a well paid, career."

For those who are currently actively looking for their first role, he wrote down his thoughts, to commemorate everything he'd done to land that first data analyst job.

Here are the 6 tips he boiled the process down to:

1. Develop a firm grasp on the basic tools (ex. MS Excel & Power Query, SQL, DataViz (Power BI or Tableau), and Python)
2. Create a public facing portfolio (ex. Projects, writing, videos, social media, it just has to work for you to consistently share)
3. Share your work publicly on LinkedIn and other social media
4. Write a solid resume, submit applications and get to networking ASAP
5. Develop a habit of lifelong self-study
6. Iterate on this to make it your own

You can read the full interview with Isaac, here.

3. February 2024 - Data Analyst job Market Summary

As you're all used it it by now, we're utilising the data available to bringing you the 2024 February edition of Market Summary - a deep dive into the data analyst job market, where we can have a look at the job openings and provide you all with insights on the latest hiring trends for the past month in the United States.

Which industries are hiring the most? Are we seeing any salary increases? And what about the remote working trend?

As a reminder, we also recently released the data analyst salary guide which provides the overview of salaries in various industries - showing a more detailed view on each industry page, with a deep dive into how much entry level, senior and lead data analysts can earn depending on their experience.

Insights for the United States market

‍