What is Data Analysis?
A Data Analyst job description must be written with a deep understanding of the role in your company. Clearly know and communicate how the role will fill some of your organization’s gaps.
First, let’s define the term – data analysis is collecting, filtering, and reading complex data from various data sources to help organizations make informed decisions.
There are different types of data analysis that can help your decision-making, and an ideal candidate should be savvy about all of them.
Descriptive Analysis
These are easy-to-read summarized data that simply describes what happened in the past, without drawing conclusions or explanations from the data.
Exploratory Analysis
This type of analysis observes data to discover findings and the relationship between variables. It is often used for drawing a hypothesis.
Inferential Analysis
This uses sample size data to infer a larger data set. It is often useful for predictive analysis when you want to make a forecast on a larger data set.
Diagnostic Analysis
This determines the cause of trends or correlation between variables in a data set. It usually answers the question, “why did this happen?”
Predictive Analysis
This forecasts a likely outcome based on historical data by using statistical algorithms, machine learning, and other data analysis techniques.
Prescriptive Analysis
This uses data to determine best practices and form recommendations for optimal results in any possible outcome.
What Does a Data Analyst do?
The Data Analyst role enables organizations with informed decision-making based on essential data in sales, market research, industry trends, and logistics. Thus, data analysts may act like your resource person and consultant before making any big decisions to scale your efforts.
It’s imperative to understand the role’s day-to-day deliverables, which you may communicate under the Data Analyst responsibilities, such as implementing and maintaining databases, filtering data, and providing readable reports.
Know the technical skills required for the skills portion as well. Examples of these are data visualization and design, programming languages, statistical programming, machine learning, and more.
Types of Data Analysts
Here are types of data analysts to narrow down your search for the right candidate.