Data Analyst (Finance)
Career Area: Planning and Analysis
Occupation Group: Data Analysis and Mathematics
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Data Analyst (Finance) earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $88,757
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $85,364
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Analyzes financial data and prepares financial reports for management. Responsible for identifying relevant insights and compiling analytical reports that enable other employees in the organization to make sound decisions. May include analysis of prices of key financial instruments, or forecasts based upon financial trends.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 379 | +10.7% |
| Nationwide | 7819 | +10.2% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Data Analyst (Finance) is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Microsoft Excel: Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.
- Research: Experience performing creative and systematic work to understand a product, market, or customer, either before building a new solution, or to troubleshoot an existing issue
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Data Analysis: Data analysis, also known as analysis of data or data analytics, is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision-making.
- SQL: SQL ( ESS-kew-EL or SEE-kwl, Structured Query Language) is a domain-specific language used in programming and designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS).
- Python: Python is a widely used high-level programming language for general-purpose programming, created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991.
- Tableau: Tableau Software ( tab-LOH) is a software company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States which produces interactive data visualization products focused on business intelligence.
- Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Data Analyst (Finance) that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Quantitative Analysis: Experience performing economic, business or financial analyses that aims to understand or predict behavior or events through the use of mathematical measurements and calculations, statistical modeling and research.
- Visual Basic for Applications (VBA): Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is an implementation of Microsoft's event-driven programming language Visual Basic 6, which was discontinued in 2008, and its associated integrated development environment (IDE).
- Fixed Income: Working experience of Fixed Income, which is a type of investment in which real return rates or periodic income is received at regular intervals and at reasonably predictable levels. Fixed-income investments can be used to diversify one's portfolio, as they pose less risk than equities and derivative investments.
- Econometrics: Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data and is described as the branch of economics that aims to give empirical content to economic relations.
- Predictive Models: Predictive modeling uses statistics to predict outcomes.
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:
- Risk Modeling: Working experience of Risk Modeling. Risk modelling is about modeling and quantification of risk. For the financial industry, the cases of credit-risk quantifying potential losses due, e.g., to bankruptcy of debtors, or market-risks quantifying potential losses due to negative fluctuations of a portfolio's market value are of particular relevance. Operational risk, quantifying potential losses incurred due to failing processes is a relevant issue for any form of organization.
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 27% |
| 3 to 5 years | 53% |
| 6 to 8 years | 15% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Data Analyst
- Senior Data Analyst
- Quantitative Analyst
- Data Analytics Analyst
- Strategic Analytics Consultant
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