 What's going on everybody? My name is Alex Friedberg and in today's video we're going to be talking about some of the expectations versus reality as a data analyst. I know when I was first starting out I had so many expectations because I really just didn't know the field that well. And so now that I've been in it for a while I'm starting to understand that my expectations when I first started out were quite different from the reality of how it actually is. So in today's video we're going to talk about some of the expectations that I actually had when I was first starting out and give you some of the realities of what I actually discovered once I got into the career. Number one is that data analysts mostly work on data visualizations and visualizing your data is extremely important and it's definitely something that you need to know how to do. But I quickly realized that visualizing the data and actually working on that process is maybe only 10 to 20% of the job. I would say that the majority of my time was spent actually cleaning and prepping the data for those visualizations and the cleaning process is sometimes quite intense and it takes a long time. It could take anywhere from 50 to 70% of the time that I was spending in my job. And there are other things besides data visualization that I was doing, things like data modeling, data mapping, working in databases and data warehouses, things that weren't data visualization related almost at all. Number two is that you have to know how to use all the latest tools and technologies. And I think this one is almost kind of a trap because there are so many new technologies and tools coming out that it's almost impossible to keep up with them all. I think that sticking with the basics of SQL, Python, Tableau, Power BI, Excel will get you so far in your career. And so you don't really have to rely on all those latest tools and technologies. And honestly, knowing your data and understanding your data is far more important than the actual tools that you use. Number three is that my analysis is going to have a huge impact on the company. And honestly, your work is probably not going to generate millions of dollars for your company or revolutionize their business model. And honestly, 95% of your work is going to be small tasks. But those small tasks do definitely build into a larger project that can have a big impact on your company. It just doesn't typically have a large impact right away. Sometimes it can take even months or years to see the impact of all the work that you're doing. Number four is going to use all your tools in your job. And in a perfect world, that might be true where you use every tool that you know just perfectly streamline the process and get the best analysis and dashboards that you can. But in reality, your company is normally sticking with three to five products that I use for just about everything. And I totally get it. You want to use all those skills and tools that you spend a lot of time learning and incorporate that into your workflow. But it can be quite challenging to actually incorporate that into your workflow when you're working for a company. So if you're learning things like Golang, Spark or Scala, these things may not be something that you incorporate in your current job. Number five, and of course it's about money, is that you're going to be making a lot of money in no time. I know for myself when I was getting into this industry, I had the expectation that most people who get into this industry start making a lot of money very quick. Now in certain areas, it is completely possible to make even $100,000 right at the start of your career. But from the vast majority of people all across the country, that is just not very realistic. Typically when you're first starting out, you're looking at anywhere from 45 to 65,000, from mid-level anywhere from 65 to 80, and for senior level anywhere from 80 to low 100s. And that is definitely a generalization, but typically to make $100,000 or more, you're looking at anywhere from 3 to 10 years of experience, and it definitely depends on where you're living and what industry that you're working in. This was my personal list of expectations that I had when I was going in, and I know that the reality didn't meet all of those expectations. I think the biggest one for me was actually the first one where data analysts mostly work on data visualizations. I studied a ton about data visualizations and Tableau and Power BI and things like that. And it just turned out I didn't actually work on it half as much as I thought I was going to. And so I hope that this video was helpful, especially the people who are just starting out in their career. If you want to learn more about data analytics, be sure to check out my channel. I have videos on just about everything data analytics related. Thank you guys so much for watching. I really appreciate it. If you liked this video, be sure to like and subscribe below, and I'll see you in the next video.