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What analysts actually do
Most analyst work is answering business questions with data: why did sales drop, which customers are leaving, what should we stock next month. Tools matter, but the job is judgement and communication.
The core skills, in order
Learn these in sequence — each builds on the one before.
- Excel: cleaning, lookups, pivots
- SQL: joins, aggregation, window functions
- A BI tool: Power BI or Tableau
- Python basics with pandas
- Communicating insights clearly
What you can safely skip (for now)
You don't need advanced statistics, machine learning or three BI tools to get your first role. Depth in SQL and one BI tool beats shallow knowledge of everything.
Build a portfolio that shows thinking
Three strong projects beat ten tutorials. For each, state the business question, show your process, and end with a recommendation. Hiring managers want to see how you think, not just that you can build a chart.
PD