Being a techie, this is the best time to be alive. We are not talking about just the scientific advancements around us such as the new and improved gadgets but diverse technologies too. Big Data analytics, for instance, has grown substantially in the last couple of years that every company – from startups to tech giants are now incorporating the technology into their everyday operations.
Apart from analytics, its allied sectors like the Internet of Things, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence have gained significant grounds. Around two years back, these were just buzzwords that made rounds on the internet, fascinating people with their potential. Today, it still fascinates us, with the only difference being that we have seen the magic of the technologies at work.
From a $2 billion industry, the Big Data analytics sector has grown eightfold to a $16 billion industry today. As it kept evolving, it has influenced the way things have been working across industries and silently shaping our future. Tons of job opportunities have been created and today, reports claim that around 50,000 vacancies are waiting to be filled by skilled data scientists.
If you’ve been following the news, We are also sure that you must be aware of the news on the layoffs and retrenchments in the IT sector. With the conventional skills in IT becoming redundant, companies are doing away with IT professionals for good. This brings us to a situation, where we need to upskill to a skill that is in-demand right now and the one that’s actually forming a crucial part of analytics.
Analytics has helped IT professionals break away from a stagnating career, less rewarding jobs, nonauthoritative job profiles and frustrating work environments by giving voice to their opinions and making them inevitable at a workplace. For those of you who’re serious about quitting your job or growing in your career, Big Data analytics is the most practical way forward. We are sure you would have read tons of blogs and videos on why analytics will offer you the best paychecks, work-life balance, and a solid career path.
But what still remains unclear is the way to go about switching from IT to analytics. For most of us, this is a huge step and requires careful consideration of several factors. To help you deal with paranoia on mid-career shifts, we’ve compiled the simplest way to switch from IT to analytics. Check them out.
Understand your skills better
Not everyone has the same skill sets, strengths, and shortcomings. Each of us has a core skill set that we are a master at and it’s crucial for you to realize your strength before you actually decide to switch to analytics. Now, understand that the analytics industry is very niche. There are tons of different responsibilities available for you to take up. So, the more niche your skills are, the better your growth will be. If you feel coding is your cup of tea, you can become a Python or R specialist; if logical reasoning and statistics are your strength, focus on specializing in Data Science, where you’ll be responsible for talking to data, understanding patterns and finding insights on a myriad of things.
Think like a Visionary
When you’re working on the right skills for the industry, also consider the pace at which analytics is evolving right now. Do not take a tunnel-vision approach to learning analytics but see the bigger picture. As we said, besides analytics, IoT, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are also evolving. So, in future, look at the scope of your career beyond analytics. See which course will take you the furthest in the ladder and how you can lay the foundation today for a solid career path. Data is the new currency and the basis for everything today. Robotics, connected devices, neural networks and other complex technologies are built on data and that’s exactly why you should not just limit yourself to a career shift today but a career path for tomorrow.
Take up a course
You cannot switch to a career in analytics by just understanding where your strengths lie. You need to work on them, refine them and become industry ready. That can happen only if you take up an analytics course and learn analytics the right way. Taking up a course will allow you to understand the industry better, get to know more about the requirements, teach you the analytics tools, get a clear picture of the different job roles, and prepare you for your role. Besides, only a course can make you work on case studies and give you opportunities to get hands on with real-time industry data and work on projects like you would in the industry. The more practical exposure you get, the more familiar you become with the industry.
1. Python: Programming Skills are a necessary tool in your arsenal as a Data Analyst! They are essential in performing predictive analytics on big data sets in order to draw useful conclusions. In general, Python and R are the most commonly used languages for this purpose. Python is used because of its capacity for statistical analysis and its easy readability but purely statistically, R is a little more popular as it was created specifically for data analytics.
2. Data Analytical Skills: As a Data Analyst, you should obviously have Data Analytical Skills or what’s the point!!! This is the ability to analyze and interpret large amounts of data and produce actionable insights for your company. So you should be familiar with at least the basics of Statistical Analysis and the knowledge of when to use which statistical techniques for a given data problem. Also, there are many analytical tools that are immensely helpful in Statistical Analysis as a Data Analyst. The most popular of these are Tableau, Spark, etc. so it’s important that you have a thorough knowledge of them.
3. SQL: Data plays a big part in the life of a Data Analyst (Obviously!). And so you need to be proficient in SQL as that is one of the primary tools for Data Management which involves Data Extraction, Transformation, and Loading. This means that you have to extract the data from various sources, then transform it in the required format for analysis and finally load it into a data warehouse. A Data Analyst also needs SQL to run queries in order to find relevant trends in the current data and for data processing that might be of use for a Data Scientist.
Since you will be working on data and information that will course the way forward for your business, you will have to get the right industry exposure even before you join. So, taking up an analytics course is the best way to switch from IT to analytics. When you learn, you will also understand how different the industry from IT is and fine-tune yourself accordingly.
The opportunities are right here right now. So, no matter if you’re a fresher or a professional with 10 years of experience in IT, don’t get stuck at where you are. Don’t miss out the biggest technological revolution of our times and instead, capitalize on it. Consider these points, switch to analytics, and take your career where it deserves to be. Good luck!
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