 What's going on everybody welcome back to another video about one week ago I told you I was going to be doing an AMA video and that you could ask me any questions that you had and you guys did not set a point so let's answer your questions. Now this isn't one of my typical videos where I am comparing something or teaching something this is just you guys asking me questions so this is going to be pretty laid back because for the most part the people who are watching this one specifically will most likely just be fans of the channel it won't be you know random people who are finding it in search it's just going to be the people who like you know what I have to say and have questions and so this is going to be pretty chill I'm looking forward to it I like making these kinds of videos but I'm just going to start at the very top of the questions again I just said you know ask me any questions personal or you know for I guess professional and then I said you know if you really like somebody else's question to upvote it and so we got a lot of good questions to come I'm going to start at the very top and this is from Luke Barouse I'm gonna it's probably not right but he says if you had to choose between Python or R for the rest of your life would you install pandas or matplotlib first that's funny on a serious note where do you see yourself transitioning to next after your current role that's a really good question you know I will say that I have a lot of aspirations if that's the right aspirations I think that's the right word I have a lot of goals right for my career where I want to go in terms of my next stepping stone I may just take another data analyst role or maybe even a senior data analyst role somewhere maybe that's not my current company that's not a different company but I feel like either that or some type of managerial role would fit me best but I feel like I'm definitely mid-level higher maybe senior level you know a lot of people and somebody and this is going to be asked later on or ask if I'm going to be doing like data scientists stuff and I'll talk about that a lot more in-depth when I get to that question because I kind of skim these really quick my I really do think though I'm going to probably go into more of like a senior data analyst role in my next you know position that's just my guess but you know eventually I want to get into management I like working with people I enjoy people and I'm hoping that that I can actually make that happen but we'll see you never know how things are going to go the next question is from Yash and he said there are a couple of ways we can start learning data analysis skills like starting with Excel or maybe with SQL and then Tableau etc so what are the most efficient way of putting it together and how much time to give to each of the tool to learn the skills so basically what skills should you learn and like what's the priority and then how much time should you spend on each skill it depends completely on each person I have my own personal preference I've made a video about it what I will say is I really like the order of SQL Tableau Excel Python and here's my logic of why SQL is in a lot of technical interviews is also super important for data analyst work and I genuinely think that you can learn a lot of the basics I mean I have a whole series you can learn the basics in like like 30 minutes or at least you can understand the concept of the basics then you can practice and get better at it I think that you can get up and running with SQL very quickly and it's a huge boost to your self-confidence because you know when you're first starting out you're like am I gonna make it can I do this like SQL is something where you're like wow this is really cool and I'm learning it very quickly this is a good sign I think Tableau is the same way um Tableau has a big impact on your career has opens up a lot of doors as well as it's not super crazy hard to learn at least the basics you can learn very quickly and it's all drag and drop you're not running code you're not running like scripts or anything like that and so if you learn SQL and then you learn Tableau right away I mean those are that's a great combination that you can put on your resume and you know you you start giving yourself a fighting chance of getting a job very quickly that's my logic um Excel because Excel you just need to know how to use it a lot um and then Python is my last one it's not because I don't think it's important it's because I think it's the hardest to learn and so I think if you learn those first three first you stand a much better chance of giving yourself like a really good running start to learning data analyst tools and skills um and then learn Python afterwards if you start if you just jump right into Python um which I kind of did at one point you can get really lost um and get really demoralized at least that's from my experience and so I recommend that one last now how much time it completely depends on how much time you can invest right some people can do this in a week some people can do this in three months or six months um if you're like spending every waking hour doing this you can learn those first three skills you know in a week um at least to the basic level where you can add them to your resume comfortably um I think to really get a good handle on these skills it will take at least you know a month or two and then you include Python that's an additional two months just for that one skill so you're looking at like four months but again every person's different those time frames are very much subject subjected to change however you want to say that I think that if you're just trying to learn the basics of each like SQL can take you like three three four days to a week same with Tableau Excel should not take you as long because I think Excel's a little bit easier and then Python can take you like a month that's just like completely you know generalized uh answer right there but that's kind of that's that would be my answer um moving on to the next one from Shardal Shah uh it says hey Alex is it okay to aim for a data analyst role to bridge the experience gap that is required for the data scientist role if yes then what skills should the data analyst require acquire if no then how to close the experience gap that is required for the data scientist role I get asked this question a lot I'm glad you asked this I really do think that a data analyst role is a really good stepping stone if you want to become a data scientist a data analyst can also be your landing step right it could be your final step you are trying to achieve to become a data analyst but absolutely there are so many transferable skills that somebody can take from being a data analyst to a data scientist um and so my answer would be yes um and then you ask if yes then what skills should the data analyst acquire I think that if you're just going for a data analyst role it's going to be much different or not much different but a little different than if you're using a data analyst role to eventually get into a data scientist role if you were trying to become a data scientist my recommendation is pick up a cloud platform excuse me because a cloud platform is going to be extremely important for data scientists because they're most likely going to be doing some data engineering some software developments in a way some statistics and cloud is kind of where almost everyone's going for that so I would try to pick up some type of cloud platform I use azure but AWS is really good Google Cloud Platform works as well that would be one another one as I would say you most likely need to pick up Python if you're going to be doing machine learning or or any anything in that realm where you're working with any data scientist stuff Python is kind of the way to go in my opinion and so I would be learning Python I would be trying to do a lot of prep work while you're a data analyst in learning those models and how to use them and how to train train your models all the all the things that a data scientist is going to need to know how to do do that while you're a data analyst just on your free time learn those things and you'll set yourself up to be in a good position by building a portfolio and and really practicing those skills so when you get into an interview for a data scientist role you're ready so that would be the two things that I would probably focus on as well as the obvious things like SQL Tableau Excel those other things that we just talked about I would also be learning those so that is my two cents Akshay Joy says hey Alex could you please make a video on how to create a right portfolio for an entry-level data analyst job for someone with no experience and what all projects need to be included in it thanks yes I want a hundred percent I'm going to do this I am actually finishing up very very soon the sequel advanced tutorials I have like two more videos I've already recorded one but I have one more after that after I do that I will be doing several projects not just in sequel but several projects just in for a portfolio so I 100% and plan on doing that I'm super excited because so many people have asked me to do it I just in my head had a timeline of how I wanted to do it and so maybe I'm you know disappointing a ton of people by it taking so long but yes I will 100% be doing that and for what projects are needed you know everybody has a different opinion on what project you should be showing I think you should be doing at least doing one or two sequel ones and then a tableau one where you're showing dashboards I would also include if you know how to use python a few python ones those are kind of like the state the staples right I think sequels kind of usually left out but I think it's more one of the more important ones for most jobs but again not many people are doing videos on how to create a sequel portfolio project which is why I want to do it is because I want to show you guys what you should be doing how to do it and kind of walk you through that and then you can use your own data set and do all of the things I show you how to do and make it your own make it unique and then you can have that that project and so yes I will be doing that the next question is from data analytics world that says what are must-learn topics in sequel from people who are freshers or having less than two years of experience as a data analyst if you have two years of experience as a data analyst you should know a lot that's a I mean two years of experience is a lot of experience so at that level I mean you should be knowing how to use ctes sub queries you know obviously joins and unions you know temp tables if you're just starting out like if you're just trying to get hit the ground running you can look at my again my sequel basics and in sequel intermediate I think that's as high as you need to go you know learn the basics of select from where group by order by and then learn how to use joins and unions honestly if you can use that you can do probably 80 percent of what I do all the time that covers about 80 percent of it then if you want to learn the more advanced things like windows functions and all those other things I just mentioned that's probably like the other 20 percent in sequel so that's that's kind of that's kind of my thoughts on that one um Alexis Moreno Moreno Moreno I don't know if you could turn back time to when you first started college what major would you pick what major would you pick to start from so what made what made what I changed my major yeah I would change my major if you didn't know I have a degree in recreational therapy so it's not really the most conducive to this field I would absolutely 100 change it to computer science I feel like if I had done that my knowledge of computers and programming languages would be a hundred times better than they are I think I'm pretty good I really I really do understand how to use them I just feel like that that core background knowledge that people get when they have computer science degree is just so much more advanced they know a lot better than I do and so I kind of I've always somewhat in some way regretted my degree because I thought I was going through a whole I was I thought I was going to do a whole different thing for my life I switch careers and now I'm here I don't regret that I got here I love this this job this field but you know I do regret a little bit my decision in the degree that I got so yeah it'd be computer science um let's see let me scroll down a little bit uh no that was the same one I'm looking for this well here's here's actually another good one it's from Kavitha DS it says hi Alex what's the average salary for one-year experience data analyst um so I'm going to speak for the US I I go Canada and Europe a little bit but I obviously know the US better if you're with zero experience you're looking at anywhere from like 45 to 50 to 60 depends on where you live if you live in like LA I hope you would make more than that like 90s to 100 after one year's experience if you're making 45 let's say you're making 50 thousand after one year's experience and I'm just going to use 50 as like a baseline usually you can be looking anywhere from about a 15 to about a 30 percent raise right so you can be looking and don't do the math on this you can be looking anywhere from like you know 60,000 ish to 70,000 ish um and when I say one year's experience I mean you know a true one year's data analyst experience I think you can absolutely get over 60,000 again depends on where you live if you're living in the middle of nowhere in like Ohio no offense to people in Ohio you're living in the middle of nowhere in Ohio you're probably not going to make that much because the cost of living is probably super low so I'm not going to pay you 60,000 but relatively speaking like if you were in Dallas which is where I live um I from speaking from personal experience I had six months experience with no background degree they just you know I got that job I was making 63,000 so I know it's absolutely possible um so that is my answer on that one um another one says it doesn't it's not a question it just says data analyst freelancing from Moen um I I don't know much about data analyst freelancing um one channel to check out if you do want to learn a little bit about that is how to get an analytics job he does freelancing he owns his own business and so he has talked about that more than I have and I've actually talked to him about that in an interview that I did with him so my recommendation would just be to check out his channel um there was another one in here oh it's right here I didn't even see it it's literally right here it's from our con it says why are you a data analyst and not a scientist great question why why why just a measly data analyst and not a a behemoth of a data scientist I know you didn't say it like that I'm just messing with you but um so why am I a data analyst and not a data scientist um the first thing is is because I didn't start out I'd look in this field looking to become a data scientist or anything I didn't even know what any of this was the data analyst career found me right so I'm checking time real quick uh cool the data analyst found me and so when I found this path I started learning everything to become a data analyst and do it better and be better in it of course as I'm learning these things I found out about what a data scientist is um and a lot of these things that overlap and now I'm much more established in my career and why don't I go and become a data scientist why don't you know why don't I try to make that transition make a lot more money um or potentially make a lot more money the main reason is because I don't really want to be a data scientist the the the things that they do the type of work that they do on some level is interesting I just don't it's not for me I much prefer and I've said this in other videos I said this in q&a's and so you know you can quote me on this I much prefer the data engineering side of things than the creating models and and all those things I I really like the automation the etl process um I like that side of things that's that's what I enjoy the building data warehouses I just maybe my brain is more suited for that um and and you know I feel like I'm pretty good at math but I I I don't even know if I'd be good at the math for what data scientists do I really don't know um so that's my logic I I I genuinely have gotten offers or at least you know people like hey interview for this position for a data scientist and I've always turned him down I don't even want to interview um because if I got the job or if you know whatever I feel like I wouldn't like it so maybe it's just I haven't tried it and I would like it but I'm really happy with where I'm at I like my job I like what I do maybe in the future I'll do data engineering I just don't ever see myself doing you know being a data scientist it's just not what I personally want to do and I have I feel like I know that that that job well I know what they do I understand what they do um it's just not for me so that's why um that is gonna wrap it up there were other questions but they kind of somewhat overlapped with other ones but those are the most questions I didn't I might make a few cuts here and there um but I tried to just kind of keep this pretty seamless throughout um I love answering you guys' questions if you have more questions leave them down below I'll I'll answer your comments um if I can I'm not making a promise but if I can I'll answer your questions um thank you guys for watching thank you for supporting the channel and for watching these types of videos and for asking questions I have a blast doing this and and you guys I hope you guys know that that I enjoy this a ton um and so thank you guys I appreciate it thanks for watching I will see you in the next video