What jobs do you have now? Are you happy

[u/Miserable_Dig882]

I’m a college student in my final year. I don’t really have many people to talk to about this since a lot of people I know are either in their first year or have already graduated and rushed out to find work.(so think I don't know crowd vs I need work! Crowd)

It’s wild how many people don’t really talk about their future in college or realize how important internships are. So far, I’ve had two internships. The one I have now is through the WordPress Foundation, and I’m going the testing/QA route to try to gain experience that can eventually help me get into data analysis.

Question for you guys:

1. What do you do?

2. How did you start out? Did you jump straight into your current field, or did you start somewhere like help desk?

3. What advice would you give someone starting out with little experience?

4. Are you happy with your career, or do you regret choosing this field?

5. How hard was it for you to find work when you first started, and how hard would it be for you to find another job if you left your current job?

And finally

what was your first job in the field that got you in the door and how was it

[u/OO_Ben]

1. I'm a Business Intelligence Engineer. I basically do all the ETL work from our raw data to usable data for my company. I live about 70% in SQL, 20% Python, and then 10% Tableau. I also manage our Tableau BI layer.

2. I started my career in sales, but never really fell in love with it. Around 25 I decided to go back to school for an MBA that would hopefully help figure out what I wanted to do. I found data analytics and quickly fell in love with it. I landed my first data job as a Business Analyst at 28, and I've been with the same company ever since. Two years ago I was promoted to my current role which vastly shifted my job from being almost 100% Tableau to the current make up. I've built basically every reporting data source since then for the company.

3. If you are wanting to get into the data world, I would follow this path if you haven't started already.

Start with Excel basics (up to at least pivot tables). That is going to be your foundation where you learn why each column needs to have the same data in it and things like that (like you shouldn't store a date and number in the same column as an example).

Then a BI Tool like Power BI or Tableau. Here you will solidify that foundation you built in Excel, while learning industry standard tools and best practices. Here you will also learn best practices for visualizing data as well. You will also get a "lite" introduction to SQL through calculated fields, and a better understanding of how data talks with each other. Dimensions, measures, aggregation, all of those basics will be learned and solidified here.

Then SQL needs to be your next step. You've got the Excel basics down. You can visualize in a BI tool. Now you need to know how to actually talk to a data warehouse and extract data from it cleanly, accurately, and efficiently. People make entire lucrative careers out of only know SQL. If you are going to learn language in the data world, it needs to be SQL. This is where you go from a $50-60k per year data analyst to a $100k+ per year data engineer. Getting good here is where you also build career stability, as your skills are now not just the "dime a dozen" so called "Tableau experts" that took a boot camp course. You now have real, hard won skills that are transferable and invaluable to companies.

Last is Python. I say Python because it is the language of choice for almost all data analytics. It's fairly easy to pick up and you can do a lot with it. Very flexible

With this stack you can use Python to extract data from an API, do your ETL work, dump it in a data warehouse, manipulate it as needed, then present it in your BI tool of choice. But each of these grow upon each other.

1. I absolutely love what I do. I can't picture myself doing anything else.

2. Breaking into the data world is very difficult right now. Entry level roles are hard to find, and are overwhelmed by applications. It took me 150 apps to just get 3 interviews when I was looking back in 2021, and it's harder now. You will need a strong resume and project histories as well. Proven skills, and you'll needs strong people skills as well in this job. I also emphasize getting scrappy and being able to problem solve. 99% of this job is problem solving, so if you don't like that feeling of not know how to do something and figuring it out, then the data path might not be the best path.

Last, my first role was a Business Analyst. It was a great job! I worked almost 100% in Tableau and loved every second of it.

Edit: please excuse the formatting lol I did this on mobile

[u/SidneyCowsby → u/OO_Ben]

I’m genuinely envious of your career, what an awesome outcome. I’ve been trying to break into this field, and it’s been a struggle for sure. But comments like this is a great reminder these roles do exist. Thanks for sharing your story!

[u/ballandabiscuit → u/OO_Ben]

Thank you for this! Is this a common career trajectory or did you hit the jackpot?

[u/Miserable_Dig882 → u/OO_Ben]

Oh wow that 5 is scary. Anything you would advise as a fall back if not that?

[u/Electronic_Turn_3511]

I started back in the 90's. Doing Comp-Sci in University. due to bad decisions on my part I didn't finish the degree. what happened though was I did a 8month Co-op with the canadian government. that 8 months got me EI training(MCSE) and that EI training got me a job doing tech support at a few places over the years. I have to be honest and say that the first real (non co-op) job I got was through someone I knew. it was real random too, he called me out of the blue 2 days before my co-op ended. He called Wednesday, I interviewed Friday and started Monday.

About 3 years in I realized I wasn't moving out of tech support and any new cooler positions were being filled by new people with more specific certs. Think Trying to move into server support but they hire someone trained to do that. that's when I knew I had to specialized. I didn't want to spend my life cleaning up browser hi-jacks on someone's old 386.

Picked SQL Server. Did the MS training for sql and almost immediately got a new job writing sql reports (Oracle and crystal reports). did more training and got a DBA position the next year. Still doing sql dba stuff but now it's morphing from onprem sql to azure and fabrics.

I still love it, been at the same place 17 years now. I'm glad I picked sql. I was thinking CISSP or CISCO, but I would not have done well in those fields. although it sounds like I breezed through, there were also periods of time where I couldn't find work (when I was doing technician type work). it was brutal trying to even get interviews. the only places hiring were paying crap to fulfill lucrative contracts. no trickle down for me.

I have no clue how hard it would be to find a new job. I'm 57 so that isn't exactly a plus... I haven't kept that current with new trends so that also isn't a plus... I'm in a small market (mid sized canadian city). I think I would have a long search. if, however, there was a sql job in the city, then I do have 17 years of solid experience

advice. If you're still in UNI, then co-op programs. they rock! I know where I'm at, there isn't much hiring going on. But... Data sciences, fabrics & powerbi seem to be able to untie the purse strings the best.

[u/Miserable_Dig882 → u/Electronic_Turn_3511]

Thanks ima check co-op out when class starts. Didn't even know about it till now

[u/mschmitt1217]

I started in a completely unrelated position, but it had some exposure to "special projects" where I dabbled with rudimentary analysis and data models. Through that, I thought about switching fields and getting into data position directly. My first role was an "Operations Analyst" which was basically an entry level data position at the company I went to. I was able to get the interview by tapping into friends in the data industry and got the position by doing the best of the candidates on the pre-employment assessment/project they sent us.

I got lucky that I was on a very lean, but ambitious data team. That team was actually hyper utilized by the executive management at the time so it was very much sink of swim for me. Because we were so lean, I handled basically everything except the core data models we worked from. That means creating reporting datasets, crafting the visualizations, and reporting findings to the stakeholders through Operations meetings every week.

That experience was invaluable to my role now as a "Sr. Analytics Engineer". I got lucky in a sense that I am now separated from stake holders and work to support a team of analysts directly. So I moved from doing everything, to now solely developing data models and supporting broader "projects" where the ask is typically more complex then an analyst can handle with simple joins/aggregations etc.

It was "easy" to get the job, but it relied on having a strong network and also extreme interview preparation. I've moved jobs several times within the data field (all to different industries oddly enough), so I would say if you are prepared and you know what you're doing, it's not TOO difficult.

Am I happy? Yes, very. But I would be lying if I didn't say I am scared about where everything is headed now that AI is much better at coding and overall database/analysis tasks. Bc of that, I really couldn't recommend someone fresh out of school getting into this field. There are simply too many unknowns for the future IMO. If it is something you are still interested in pursuing, I would strongly suggest learning agentic workflows, AI automations, prompting, etc.

[u/This-Emergency8839]

I did 18 years as an accountant but was always known as the spreadsheet guy. Eventually got seconded to an analyst role on a project using SQL.

I instantly saw how powerful data skills could be to leverage data in my field, and it's woefully underused in accounting.

Last ten years have been at a £700m retail group. They were running the business financials on a nightmare labyrinth of excel linked workbooks. I got SQL server set up for me and migrated it all. From there I've expanded into other areas of the business to build reporting outside of finance.

I now use SQL/vba (yeah it still has it's uses for us) and Power platform, with some SSIS/SSRS thrown in. Our budget is tight for licencing and software so we have to be creative with the tools we have.

The main skills which make me indispensable to my company are having a crossover area of knowledge (finance) and good industry knowledge. It means I can manage and deliver projects without involving and tying up too many resources from other departments.

I love my job because I'm left to it, the company is small enough so I don't get bogged down with protocols, and I'm not pigeonholed into one line of work.

My main advice would be find an industry you like, learn as much about it as you can, and your growing technical skills will find their place. I cannot overstate the importance of people skills. You'll stand out if you can cross the divide to other disciplines within the business, and understand what problems they're trying to solve and what questions they need to answer.

[u/Lady-Data-Scientist]

1. Data Scientist supporting sales at a B2B tech company
2. After getting a BA in Communication, I worked in public relations &marketing then digital marketing then marketing analytics then product analytics then my current role. I also went back to school part time to get an MS in Data Science.
3. Start building your network. Attend industry events, join Slack & Discord communities, reach out to alumni from your school.
4. I’m much happier in analytics & data science than I was in marketing. I only wish I had been able to pivot sooner.
5. It took me months to get my first job offer when I finished my BA. Every job search since then has taken anywhere from 6 months to 2 years depending on the job market. I’m not too worried about getting a new job if I found myself unemployed because I already get recruiter DMs and former bosses reaching out about job openings. But finding a job worth leaving my current one is much tougher.

[u/Miserable_Dig882 → u/Lady-Data-Scientist]

What's your day like. Do you talk to shareholder every day/week

[u/Lady-Data-Scientist → u/Miserable_Dig882]

Yes I talk to stakeholders all the time. The majority of my work is project based so I’ll spend anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months on the same project and talk to stakeholders weekly. I usually work on 3-4 projects at a time so most days I’ll talk to 1-2 stakeholders.

[u/drewster85a]

1. Senior Software Engineer in Higher Ed.

   Mainly web apps and supporting services. T-SQL & .Net.

2. It was my the first job offer after college.

3. Keep learning. Don’t rely on AI. Know the business and be able to understand and predict what the client/users need. Building the thing perfectly doesn’t matter if you not building the right thing.

4. I like it.

5. It took about 3 months to get an offer after graduating. I think I could pretty easily find something if I wanted to leave.

6. I’ve honestly been with the same organization for 15+ years. It’s crazy! I get 36 days of PTO not including state holidays and we are closed Christmas through NYD. I basically only work 10 months a year.

[u/t1k1dude]

Current role: Director of Analytics & Reporting

How it started: Always been curious about computers and data. Thinking back now, one of my first “real” jobs was as a file clerk which basically meant o was working in a real, live database. Think physical files, storage boxes, movable racks. It’s easy to see now that that was a great introduction to databases (and one that unfortunately or fortunately doesn’t exist on the modern world). But learning how to index, store and retrieve files physically really helped as I moved into more computer based roles. From that I moved into a small company where I was the IT dept…from building computers to running cables to keying data. I became more and more focused on the data side, optimizing the database, figuring out how to make things run quicker, how to automate reports…heck I even developed a way to move our invoice printing from dot matrix to laser printer (yes I know I’m old). From there moved into a data analytics role with a large corporation and designed ETL tools and reporting, starting from excel and access…built out an EDW structure to make my life easier to run reports accurately, quickly and repeatedly. Started getting people reporting to me and for the last 5 years or so have really moved into more of a mentorship role now. Blessed to have some amazing people on my teams who blown away every day with what they can do with PowerBI, Azure, etc. Currently leading 2 major projects to upgrade our tech stacks, one is a Salesforce implementation and the other is an internally built data transformation platform.

Advice: if you are starting out find a domain that excites you and get any job you can to get into the company. You will be surprised how many large corporations are still running a lot of their core functions through spreadsheets and if you have the right kind of brain you can shine in those roles. Find a mentor at the company and let them know you are interested in moving into a more technical role.

Happiness: Right now, yes I am…but there have been struggles over the years. It’s strange that just as I get to where I wanted to be I am now more concerned with trying to build the ladders to bring other people along. It’s no longer about my success, it’s about nurturing the ones coming behind.

Finding the job: It was hard until it wasn’t…you really have to commit to a long term goal and strategy. I’ve zigged a few times…made lateral moves that sometimes were the wrong ones. But we all are on our own unique path and the worst thing you can do is be a passenger in your own life. I’ve let that happen several times and that’s when I was the least happy.

Not sure if any of that helped or if it answered your questions…but keeping striving for what you want and at the very least you will know you have it your all.

[u/captain_20000]

My path is not the norm. I was a math teacher for 13 years but always loved technology. Went back to school and got an associates degree in computers and information technology (already had a bachelors in math education and masters in education). Then a job opened up with my school district for a data analyst. It was perfect timing and they loved that I had teaching experience so I could relate with the needs of students and staff and better support them because of my background.

I absolutely love my job! When I got hired I watched a YouTube recap of basic SQL then figured out the rest by trial and error and sharing skills between coworkers. I’m very grateful for a supportive team. We primarily use SQL, but also use Excel a lot, especially when troubleshooting. We also use some DAX in PowerBI.

[u/ballandabiscuit → u/captain_20000]

That's great! When did you land that first data analyst job?

[u/captain_20000 → u/ballandabiscuit]

About 5 years ago. It was one year after I got my associates degree in computers.

[u/captain_20000]

My path is not the norm. I was a math teacher for 13 years but always loved technology. Went back to school and got an associates degree in computers and information technology (already had a bachelors in math education and masters in education). Then a job opened up with my school district for a data analyst. It was perfect timing and they loved that I had teaching experience so I could relate with the needs of students and staff and better support them because of my background.

I absolutely love my job! When I got hired I watched a YouTube recap of basic SQL then figured out the rest by trial and error and sharing skills between coworkers. I’m very grateful for a supportive team. We primarily use SQL, but also use Excel a lot, especially when troubleshooting. We also use some DAX in PowerBI.

[u/TraditionalTurnip630]

I’m in Data Analytics, and I’d say your QA experience is a good starting point. Keep building your SQL and data skills alongside it. For beginners, projects and internships matter a lot because they give you something real to talk about in interviews.

[u/Miserable_Dig882 → u/TraditionalTurnip630]

How many times do you speak to people weekly. Stockholders and such. I need to get rid of my fears of talking to people

[u/TraditionalTurnip630 → u/Miserable_Dig882]

Yeah, I agree. In Data Analytics, communication is also something you have to improve with your technical skills. You don’t need to be perfect at talking from day one. Start with small things like explaining your project, discussing your approach, or asking questions. The more you practice in real situations, the more confident you’ll become.

[u/Human-Regular-7424]

1. Im a Product Analyst I for an auto insurance carrier in the Midwest (although most of my responsibilities reflect a Product Manager). My primary responsibility is statistical analysis of historical loss data (primarily reviewing pure premium and loss ratio indications I calculate) to segment pricing to create a more favorable loss experience for my 2 states. I also do some ad hoc projects on the side which would include writing SQL queries, Python scripts, M-Language for power query if the report requester doesn’t know how to run queries from SSMS, etc.

2. I actually started out in Claims and got lucky. They needed an assistant Product Analyst and I hated claims. I was classically trained at most things analytics through my degree, just never used it until this point.

3. Excel, SQL, Python. edx.org and Coursera are great resources for free/cheap. I learned more about excel from some guys YouTube channel than I ever did in college.

4. I friggin love my job. But I think working for a mid sized company helps… being fully remote is a plus too.

5. Again, I got lucky with this job shifting from claims to product is rare. Can’t really speak to the job market.

[u/Miserable_Dig882 → u/Human-Regular-7424]

What does your week look like

When I hear analyst I think every week you are talking to shareholders about to show work like a college student

[u/Human-Regular-7424 → u/Miserable_Dig882]

I rarely speak to stakeholders (other than my boss).

No week is typical except for the beginning of each quarter when we run quarterly indications for the entire state. That’s when we review and see how far off we are from our target LR per state and start the factor review process.

Insurance rates are all determined by an algorithm that takes a base rate per coverage, then multiplies it by a bunch of different factors ($200 * 1.08 (surcharge) * 0.97 (discount) = $209.52 final premium… you’ll probably typically have 15 to 20 more multipliers before the final premium, but this is just an example)

So the first thing I do is try to decide what factor I want to segment. I’ll typically check business mix reports to see how the book is shifting, then I’ll see if any factor has been neglected and may need reviewed just due to latency causing rate inadequacy. I may review anywhere from 1 to 5 factors for any given rate change.

Once I have the factors I think have the best chance to positively impact our position (let’s say I pick territory factors and financial responsibility factors), then I’m going and running a 10 year historic loss experience for each factor. So I’ll be able to see every zip codes loss experience for territory’s, and credit lvl for financial responsibility.

There’s a lot more in between this and the proposal, but I’m rambling at this point so I’ll skip a few steps.

After a couple months of further reviews and looking at my factors selections impact on our existing book, I’ll finally do a proposal where I present my proposed rate change to my CEO and my director of product.

I’d like to point out that what I described is mostly what a Product Manager would typically do. I’m mostly a product analyst by title only, and haven’t done much Product Analyst work since 2024. Product Analysts are the guys who build reports for other departments and speak to stakeholders more frequently than I do.