A data analyst is a professional who collects, cleans, and interprets data sets to help solve problems or answer questions in various industries such as business, finance, criminal justice, science, medicine, and government. They use automated tools to extract data from primary and secondary sources, remove corrupted data, fix coding errors, and transform data. Data analysts also communicate their findings to management and other stakeholders, including company leadership. Some of the day-to-day tasks of a data analyst include:
- Gathering data: Analysts often collect data themselves by conducting surveys, tracking visitor characteristics on a company website, or buying datasets from data collection specialists.
- Cleaning data: Analysts should know how to clean and prepare data for analysis, including removing errors, identifying outliers, and transforming data.
- Analyzing data: Analysts perform statistical analyses on data and interpret information gathered to inform critical business decisions.
- Creating reports: Analysts compile their findings into reports that can help improve their company, and they use data to find trends and insights that can be used to make recommendations to clients.
- Developing systems for collecting data: Analysts develop routines that can be automated and easily modified for reuse in other areas to make their job easier and more efficient.
- Overseeing data collection and storage: Analysts may be responsible for overseeing the overall processes for collecting and storing data, as well as setting guidelines for data quality.
It is important to note that data analysts and data scientists both work with data, but what they do with it differs. Data analysts typically work with existing data to solve defined business problems, while data scientists build new algorithms and models to make predictions about the future.
