From the course: Learning Data Analytics Part 2: Extending and Applying Core Knowledge

Continuing on with data analysis

From the course: Learning Data Analytics Part 2: Extending and Applying Core Knowledge

Continuing on with data analysis

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- [Instructor] After going through the foundations and the application for data analysis, I often get asked, "What's next?" The first thing people tend to think about is which tools they should learn first. "I should learn SQL, or Tableau, or even R." They're not wrong. Tools are important. But I would argue if you're at the beginning of your career, you should focus on soft skills more than tools. Data analysis is more than just learning points and clicks. If you don't know why or how to critically look at something, you won't know what kind of questions to ask. If you're not actively listening, you might miss things you otherwise wouldn't. You can have the most beautiful statistical model in the world, but analysis is about how people use the information you give them, and that requires being able to communicate it effectively. The only people that will be impressed with your fancy model are other analysts and not the people who need the information. Explore the library for skills on active listening, critical thinking, and effective presentations of data. These are very key components of an analyst. Once you have those soft skills down, focus on specializing in an area. If you enjoy data cleaning, mining, and querying, you might explore more on relational database design theory, as well as digging deeper into SQL and using it to query. If you enjoyed the visualization portions of this course, you might explore the other tools dedicated to visualization, and dig deeper into tools like Power BI Desktop that we used in this course. No matter what your next step will be, just keep making steps to further your understanding and your skills working with data.

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