Data Analyst (General)
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 (General) earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $78,332
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $77,989
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Develops computer programs to analyze large customer information databases for companies and organizations. Analyzes data to identify patterns and provide information relevant to a particular business, industry or field; analysis may be used for marketing, or to detect fraud in financial transactions, or for research. Develops computer programs to protect confidential customer information.
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 | 1960 | +10.7% |
| Nationwide | 53553 | +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 (General) 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.
- 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.
- 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
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.
- Microsoft Power BI: Working experience of Microsoft Power BI. Power BI is a business analytics service provided by Microsoft. It provides interactive visualizations with self-service business intelligence capabilities, where end users can create reports and dashboards by themselves, without having to depend on information technology staff or database administrators.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Data Analyst (General) that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Big Data: Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing application software is inadequate to deal with them.
- Apache Hadoop: Apache Hadoop ( ) is an open-source software framework used for distributed storage and processing of dataset of big data using the MapReduce programming model.
- R: Ris anopen sourceprogramming languageand software environment forstatistical computingand graphics that is supported by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
- Data Integration: Data integration involves combining data residing in different sources and providing users with a unified view of them.
- Data Validation: In computer science, data validation is the process of ensuring that a program operates on clean, correct and useful data.
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 | 35% |
| 3 to 5 years | 47% |
| 6 to 8 years | 11% |
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
- Data Specialist
- Database Analyst
- Junior Data Analyst
- Business Analyst
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