Skill Set of People In Analytics

As a fact, advancements in technology do not remove the need for human insights. However, there is an urge for skilled people with the ability of understanding data, who can think from the business point of view and come up with valuable insights. Hence, the demand for people specifically with analytics skills is soaring as businesses are keen to exploit the power of Big Data. Therefore, job seekers in the analytics field can make use of their skills and become competitive and subsequently vital assets to an organization, boosting the business along with their careers.
While most business analytics programs and MBA courses expose students to some skills vital to a career in analytics, the onus lies in the hands of individuals to upgrade and learn new skills. 

Skill Set of Analytics —  A survey from LinkedIn

There is no doubt LinkedIn has become the number one “social media for jobs” and has created a platform for networking, career development and sharing job-related information. In other to find the most important skills for analytics careers, we conducted a survey on LinkedIn to compile skills of people in this field. 
Methodology: We went through several profiles of people with analytics jobs and compiled their skills. We conducted a descriptive analysis of these skills and grouped them into technical skills, soft skills, and industry knowledge.

Technical Skills

Having some type of technical skills is very key to any analytics job. This is because analytic jobs require accurate use of tools and technologies to gather analyzed and report on data in a way understood by the layman.

The survey conducted on LinkedIn revealed the top technical skills that people with analytics careers. It was not surprising that excel was the most popular software used, as excel is by far the most well-known tool for working with data. Other software skills such as SQL, Tableau, R, among others.

Below is a chart showing the result of the survey on the most popular tools and technology from the sample of business analysts.

Tools and Technologies

Figure: Chart showing popular technical skills of analysts on LinkedIn

Soft Skills

Soft Skills are very important in improving productivity, collaboration, and healthy work environment hence highly valued at the workplace.

The job of an analyst calls for one to have great interpersonal skills as they interact and work with several people in collecting data and presenting results and recommendations to be implemented by businesses. Soft skills that stood out due to high frequency were leadership, problem-solving, management, customer service, time management, and public speaking. 
Below is a word cloud of all the skills compiled from analysts on LinkedIn, the varying sizes representing  the frequency of each skill

Figure: Word Cloud of soft skills of different people with business analytics  jobs

Industry Knowledge

While the work of an analyst is largely versatile, and their services are needed in different industries, it is important that one understands the industry they want to work in to be able to efficiently provide tailored analysis beneficial to the firm. For instance, an analyst interested in digital marketing, analytics should have a good knowledge of social media and how people interact with it.

Below is a chart depicting different industry knowledge possessed by people with careers in analytics. These keywords could help in deciding which industries to work in and what knowledge you need to survive in some specific analytics jobs.

Word Chart showing  industry knowledge from analysts on LinkedIn

Sample Profiles for Business Analyst

Based on the survey conducted on the skillset necessary for MBA students who are interested in careers in analytics, below are typical profiles of people with analytics careers; 

Name: Profile 1
Occupation: Digital Marketing Analyst
Technical Skills: Tableau, Search Engine Optimization, Excel
Soft Skills: Communication, teamwork, critical thinking 
Industry Knowledge: Social media marketing, social networking, advertisement 

Name: Profile 2
Occupation: Management Analyst 
Technical Skills: Excel, SAS, Quickbooks
Soft Skills: Problem-solving, communication, presentation skills, time management
Industry Knowledge: Performance management, project planning