- 17 minutes ago
Avoiding the biggest data analyst job search mistakes can make a real difference in how fast you land interviews and offers. Drawing from years of hiring and personal experience, this guide breaks down seven common missteps candidates make and how to fix them before your next application or interview.
The advice covers working with recruiters, tailoring your resume instead of sending a generic one, and building a portfolio that proves your SQL and analytics skills. It also explains why researching the company matters, how soft skills can be just as important as technical skills in the interview, and why networking and a strong LinkedIn presence can open doors over time.
If you are preparing for a data analyst interview, updating your resume, or trying to break into analytics, this is practical career guidance you can use right away. It is especially helpful for job seekers interested in SQL, Python, Excel, Power BI, Tableau, and data analytics portfolios.
Created for anyone searching for data analyst job search tips, interview preparation, resume advice, recruiter outreach, networking for jobs, and portfolio ideas for data analytics careers. A useful listen for career planning, interview prep, and learning how to avoid common mistakes in the data analyst hiring process.
The advice covers working with recruiters, tailoring your resume instead of sending a generic one, and building a portfolio that proves your SQL and analytics skills. It also explains why researching the company matters, how soft skills can be just as important as technical skills in the interview, and why networking and a strong LinkedIn presence can open doors over time.
If you are preparing for a data analyst interview, updating your resume, or trying to break into analytics, this is practical career guidance you can use right away. It is especially helpful for job seekers interested in SQL, Python, Excel, Power BI, Tableau, and data analytics portfolios.
Created for anyone searching for data analyst job search tips, interview preparation, resume advice, recruiter outreach, networking for jobs, and portfolio ideas for data analytics careers. A useful listen for career planning, interview prep, and learning how to avoid common mistakes in the data analyst hiring process.
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00:00What's going on, everybody?
00:01Welcome back to another video.
00:02Today, we're gonna be taking a look
00:03at the seven biggest mistakes you want to avoid
00:05in your data analytics job search.
00:13Now, I just recently partnered with Career Foundry
00:15to do an entire webinar on this exact topic,
00:17but it was like an hour and 15 minutes,
00:19and that was really long.
00:21And so I'm gonna take everything
00:22that I talked about in the webinar,
00:23really condense it down
00:24because I think this is a really important topic.
00:26So we're gonna start with the biggest mistakes to avoid,
00:28and go all the way down to the ones that aren't as important,
00:31but are definitely ones to consider.
00:32And if you avoid all of these mistakes,
00:34which I've made almost all of them,
00:36then you'll have a lot better shot at landing a job.
00:39So lots of waste of no time at all.
00:40Let's jump right into it.
00:41Number one is not working with recruiters.
00:44Now, you may not know this,
00:44but when I was trying to get my very first day
00:46to Animal Shop, I applied to over 1,000 positions.
00:49That's right, that is not a typo.
00:50That is 1,000 positions.
00:52I think it was 1,050 or something.
00:54I had it all in an Excel spreadsheet.
00:56I was tracking it all.
00:57It was pretty miserable.
00:58And I realized very quickly
01:00that I cannot do this by myself.
01:02Working with a recruiter is one of the best
01:03and the fastest way to land a job as a data analyst.
01:06I even made an entire video,
01:08and I'll put the link somewhere down below,
01:09of how you can reach out to recruiters.
01:12Now, super quickly, how recruiters work
01:13is essentially a company is gonna pay a third-party company
01:16to find them really good applicants.
01:19So if they come over here,
01:20this company is called ABC Company.
01:23They're gonna hire this third-party company.
01:25They're gonna find me,
01:26and then they're gonna get me in for an interview.
01:28If they hire me, if that ABC company hires me,
01:31they're gonna pay me $50,000.
01:33They're gonna pay the recruiting company a 10% servicing fee.
01:37So let's say $5,000.
01:38That money is not gonna come out of your salary at all.
01:41So you don't have to worry about paying the recruiting company.
01:44I've heard of some instances where you do have to do that,
01:47but don't work with them, okay?
01:48The company should be paying the recruiting company.
01:51And so it's essentially a free service for someone like you,
01:54who's looking for a job.
01:55Just the company wants a good hire,
01:57and so that's why they pay the recruiting company.
01:59The second biggest mistake that I see people see
02:01is use generic resumes.
02:02And I am super guilty of this one.
02:04I did it for years,
02:06until I finally kinda started whipping myself into shape.
02:08I'm like, no, can't do that anymore.
02:10A generic resume is just a resume
02:12that you're gonna send out for any job.
02:14And imagine you're applying to data analyst jobs,
02:16business analyst jobs, financial analyst jobs,
02:19marketing analyst jobs.
02:20They're all data-related jobs,
02:22but they're not the same job.
02:24And the job descriptions for those jobs
02:26are going to be different.
02:27So if you just sent out your generic resume to everybody,
02:30well, you might get some callbacks,
02:32but you'd probably get more
02:33if you actually created a customized resume.
02:36Well, how do you actually do that?
02:37Well, first you can look at the job description
02:39and see exactly what they're looking for.
02:41And then you can say, okay,
02:42how can I change my resume to fit
02:45or be closer to that job description?
02:46And then when you do that, then you send it.
02:49It definitely takes a little bit more work,
02:51but if you're really serious about certain positions
02:53that you're like, I really want this one,
02:55that's when you need to create a customized resume.
02:58You can still use your generic resume
03:00for a lot of the positions
03:02or a lot of the jobs that you're applying for.
03:04But if there's a few like five or 10 or 15
03:06that you're really excited about,
03:08those are the ones that I would create
03:09the customized resume for.
03:11The next biggest mistake that I see
03:12is just having only a resume.
03:14So you don't have a portfolio, you don't have any projects.
03:17Now, this is something that I kind of pseudo did
03:20when I was first starting out.
03:21I had no portfolio,
03:22but what I did was I actually sent in my resume
03:25on applications and I sent in an additional sheet
03:28that had SQL scripts on it.
03:30That's it.
03:30I didn't have a portfolio.
03:32It wasn't a full project.
03:33It was just here's code or SQL code that I've written
03:36and here's how it looks.
03:38And that's all I did.
03:39And that actually landed me my first job as a data analyst
03:41at the healthcare analytics company.
03:43But if I had known about projects and portfolios
03:45and all these things,
03:47I would have had a much better chance
03:48because I could showcase multiple projects.
03:51Now, why do you actually need a portfolio
03:52or projects at all?
03:53Well, let's say we have two resumes
03:55and they're the exact same,
03:56but one person has a portfolio.
03:59Well, this person has SQL and this person has SQL,
04:01but this person can show it.
04:03This person can demonstrate that they actually know SQL.
04:06So when they get into an interview
04:07and the interviewer says,
04:09Hey, you know, tell us about how you know SQL.
04:10They can point to those projects as experience.
04:13If they've never had a data analyst job before,
04:16say I built this project.
04:17Here's what I did.
04:18Here's the data.
04:19And here's what I learned from it.
04:20And here's the insights that I found from it.
04:21And you'll have a lot more to talk about.
04:23Whereas the person who just learned SQL through a course,
04:26isn't going to have any projects or a portfolio
04:28that they can point to and say,
04:29here's how well I know it.
04:31And here's what I can do with it.
04:32Now, really quick.
04:33If you've not heard about analyst builder
04:34is my data analytics learning platform.
04:36We built it from scratch.
04:38I have full courses.
04:39We also have a coding section where you can practice coding
04:42and you can earn badges and certificates.
04:44It is phenomenal.
04:45I highly recommend you check it out.
04:47I will leave links in the description
04:48so that you can go ahead and check it out
04:49because honestly, it is pretty amazing.
04:51Now onto the next mistake,
04:53which is not researching the company before your interview.
04:56You've done all this hard work to apply for these jobs,
04:59to work with a recruiter, to land an interview.
05:01And when you go into that interview,
05:02you want to be really, really prepared
05:04to actually answer the questions well,
05:05and then ask really good questions at the end.
05:08I made this mistake only once where I did not come prepared.
05:11And they were asking me,
05:12hey, what do you know about our company?
05:14And I was like,
05:14I have absolutely no idea what your company does.
05:17That was just me being super naive
05:19and not understanding how this works.
05:21Like they really want someone who's interested in the company,
05:24in the position, who knows what they do.
05:26And I didn't.
05:27And so I never made that mistake again,
05:29but that is one that you can easily avoid.
05:32When you're about to go into an interview for a company,
05:34you can just go on their website,
05:35take a look at exactly what they do.
05:37You can find a lot about what kind of data they might collect,
05:40what kind of systems they might have.
05:42And you can just store that in your memory.
05:43You don't have to take super detailed notes,
05:45but you should at least have an idea of exactly what they do.
05:48When you get asked that question about what they do
05:50and what you're interested in and why you want to work there,
05:52you'll have really good answers for those questions.
05:55And hopefully when you're researching the company,
05:56you'll also have some questions for them as well.
05:58So you can ask,
05:59hey, I see that you do this in your business.
06:01How do you guys actually collect that data?
06:03Or how do you get that?
06:03Or how do you transform it?
06:04You can ask really good questions.
06:06It genuinely does just really help show
06:08that you're interested in that position,
06:10that you're excited to actually work there.
06:11The next biggest mistake
06:12is that you're only focusing on hard skills.
06:14And don't get me wrong,
06:15hard skills are super important.
06:17Learning SQL, Excel, Power BI, Tableau, Python, R,
06:20and all of these other skills and tools
06:22that you can learn for data analytics,
06:23they're really important.
06:24You have to know how to use them.
06:26But in an interview,
06:27I think it's about 50-50 knowing the hard skills
06:30and having really good soft skills.
06:32So when you're applying,
06:33your resume is the only thing that they're gonna see.
06:35And so of course your hard skills are super important.
06:38That's probably a hundred percent
06:39of the actual getting into the interview.
06:41But once you're in the interview,
06:43they already know that you have the hard skills.
06:45Now they wanna make sure
06:46that you have some of the soft skills
06:47that they're looking for.
06:48Is this person a good communicator?
06:50Are they actually enjoyable to talk to?
06:52Do they have good time management?
06:54Or do they spend 20 minutes on one single question?
06:56These are things that maybe consciously
06:58or subconsciously sometimes they are paying attention to.
07:01And also they just wanna make sure
07:03that you have a good personality.
07:05Believe it or not,
07:05personality makes a big difference to a lot of people.
07:08So if you're really vibing with the hiring manager
07:11and you're really getting along,
07:12that goes a long way to actually getting a job.
07:15The very last mistake that you should avoid
07:17is neglecting networking.
07:19Networking is where you connect with other people
07:20and you join communities
07:22and you get to know people at work
07:23and you connect with others and you just get to know them.
07:26That is what networking is.
07:28Now networking isn't always in person.
07:29Sometimes it's online as well.
07:31So you're joining an online community
07:32or you're reaching out to someone on LinkedIn,
07:34but you're building relationships.
07:36I'll give you one example.
07:37I was working with someone for two years as a data analyst
07:40and he went away to USAA, which was a banking company.
07:43And about a year later, he was messaging me saying,
07:45hey, we have an opening on our team for a BI developer.
07:48And he wanted to know if I wanted that job.
07:50And of course, at that time I was not looking for a job.
07:53I just got a promotion to an analytics manager,
07:55but I've had that happen a lot over my career
07:58where people will reach out to me and they'll say,
08:00hey, we really liked working with you.
08:02We'd love to bring you on into this company.
08:03That only has ever happened to me once I started networking.
08:06Now, of course, these relationships take time.
08:08They don't happen overnight.
08:10But if you're on the top of someone's mind,
08:12you form that relationship with someone.
08:14If a job pops up that they're near to,
08:16or they have a connection to,
08:17they can put in a good word for you as a reference,
08:19or they might be hiring manager and they might hire you.
08:22Now, I forgot there's actually one more,
08:23and this one's not as important,
08:25but there is a piece of it that I think is important.
08:27And that's not having any online presence.
08:30In today's technological world,
08:32not having a LinkedIn is like
08:33just shooting yourself in the foot.
08:35A lot of hiring managers are gonna go on LinkedIn,
08:37or maybe even Facebook or Twitter,
08:39or wherever they can find you,
08:41and they're gonna look you up.
08:42Maybe Instagram, for example.
08:44They're gonna wanna see what kind of person you are.
08:46And so if you have a really good LinkedIn profile,
08:48you have a good headshot, have a good banner,
08:50your skills, your experience, that's a good sign.
08:53But if someone has a really bad LinkedIn,
08:56or no LinkedIn at all, that may not be a terrible thing,
08:59but it's just not a good thing.
09:01You wanna leave a good impression when someone looks you up.
09:03I've done a lot of interviews in my day,
09:05and some people don't have any social media.
09:07It's not a huge problem.
09:08I'm just like, huh, that's odd.
09:09I thought I would be able to find them.
09:11And then I get into an interview,
09:12and they're perfectly pleasant people.
09:14They just don't do social media.
09:15And I don't have a problem with that.
09:17But there have been other people where I'm like,
09:19whoa, this is a really great LinkedIn,
09:21or I found their GitHub, or I found other things.
09:24I'm like, this is really great.
09:25And then when I get into an interview,
09:27I talk about those things.
09:28I ask them, I say, hey, we saw your GitHub repo.
09:31You know, tell us about some of the projects
09:33that you've worked on.
09:33And those are things that I can use as a hiring manager,
09:36and I can ask you and say, hey, tell me about that.
09:39So those are all the mistakes,
09:40and I promise you I've made almost every single one.
09:42I will tell you one last funny story,
09:44just because we're at the very end, and why not?
09:46Which is the very first time
09:48I started working with a recruiter.
09:49I don't come from a recruiter world.
09:52That's just not how the healthcare industry really was,
09:54or where I was working.
09:55So I didn't know really what a recruiter was.
09:58And when I started getting into tech,
10:00I started trying to work, you know,
10:01get a job and work with a recruiter.
10:03One reached out to me and wanted to meet me
10:05for an actual interview.
10:06And it just didn't sit right with me.
10:08I was like, something is wrong with this.
10:10And so I told my wife, I said, listen, in one hour,
10:13here's what I'm supposed to be going in.
10:14In one hour, if you do not hear from me,
10:16I was like, here's my location, call the police.
10:19Either I've been murdered, mugged, or they've taken me.
10:22Like, I was genuinely kind of scared.
10:24I was very nervous.
10:26I had no idea what to expect.
10:27Now everything turned out fine.
10:29That interview actually landed me my first data analyst job.
10:31And I can look back and I can laugh on it now.
10:34But a lot of these things just come from,
10:36I didn't know about any of these things.
10:38And so all of these mistakes are things
10:40that I have done in the past.
10:42And so if you're doing them,
10:43I highly recommend changing them.
10:45Every single thing that you correct,
10:47every single mistake that you change and get right,
10:49is a better percentage of landing a job.
10:52So if you start over here and you just have a resume,
10:54you have a 10% chance of getting a job.
10:56Then if you work with a recruiter, there's another 10%.
10:58So you have a 20% chance of landing a job.
11:00Then you have a portfolio, another 5%.
11:03And then you research the company.
11:04And then you create not generic resumes.
11:05It just increases your chances of actually landing a job.
11:09And I like to work in that headspace where the more I do,
11:13the better things I do,
11:14instead of making all these mistakes,
11:16the better chance I have.
11:17I like to focus on that
11:18because I like to increase my chances.
11:20I don't want 5% chance of getting a job.
11:23I want 40% chance of getting a job.
11:25So I hope that that was helpful.
11:26Now you can identify some of the things
11:27that you need to correct and can help you land a job faster.
11:31Again, go check out Analyst Builder.
11:32It is amazing, highly recommend it.
11:34But thank you guys so much for watching this video.
11:36I really appreciate it.
11:37If you liked it, be sure to like and subscribe below.
11:40And I'll see you in the next video.
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