 What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another video. Today we're going to talk about how I would become a data analyst again if I had to start over from scratch. I've actually been thinking about this a lot recently because things have changed since I became a data analyst six or seven years ago, right? The job market's different, the tech stacks are different, and a lot of people ask me every single day, hey, how do I become a data analyst? And so I want to give a good perspective of from today, if I had to completely start over exactly how I would do that again. Now, in this scenario, it's almost like I had amnesia. I completely forgot everything I know. The only thing that was left in my memory is that I really want to be a data analyst. That's all I have left. So my sole purpose right now is just to land a job in data analytics. And I'm starting from scratch. Nobody knows who I am. Nobody knows who Alex Freeberg is or Alex the analyst. I'm just some person, right? Who wants to be a data analyst. And I'm going to tell you how I would do that as quickly as possible. So let's start from the very, very, very beginning. Remember, amnesia Alex doesn't remember anything except that he wants to become a data analyst. He doesn't even know what a data analyst does. So the first thing that I would do, the very first step is just research what a data analyst does. And this part just takes like a couple of days, right? You're just figuring out what they do, figuring out what kind of things you might be interested in. And then I would determine what kind of data analyst do I want to be? Do I want to focus on healthcare because healthcare uses different tools than something like financial analyst or a marketing analyst or just a broad general data analyst, which would learn kind of the tools that I usually talk about on the channel. So I would try to figure that out. And then I would try to research what skills to learn exactly for that position. But for this example, for this scenario, I'm just trying to become a general data analyst where I can get hired at any company. So that's the first thing that I would do. The second thing that I would do is then start learning the skills because you cannot become a data analyst with none of the data analyst skills. It's just not possible. Now I've talked on my channel a lot about what skills you need to learn. SQL, Excel, Tableau, Power BI, Python, then there's a ton of others. You can do R, AWS, Azure, Looker, and a ton of others. But Amnesia Alex wants to get a job as quickly as possible. So I'm not going to recommend he learns all of those skills. I'm going to recommend that he only learns three. That's going to be SQL, Excel, and Tableau. Now, why do I recommend those three skills in particular? That's because those ones are the ones that have the highest probability of being in a job description. So SQL for sure is going to be in like 75% of job descriptions for data analysts. Excel should be in probably like 100%. And then Tableau is just a BI tool. So if you know Tableau, you know Power BI or you know Looker for the most part, like, you know, like 80% of the other ones. And so if you learn a BI tool, you usually know the other ones. And so just learning a BI tool, you can switch Tableau for Power BI or a lot of other tools. But I recommend Tableau just because it is a popular tool that a lot of companies use. And those three skills are going to open up probably 40% of the jobs for data analysts out there. Now, of course, the more skills that you know, the more jobs that you can apply for, right? If you keep adding skills to your skill sets, then of course, you're going to be able to apply for 50, 60, 75% of the jobs that are out there. But if I was starting over, I would just want to give myself the best chance to land a job really quickly. And so I would just focus on those three skills at the beginning. Now, where would I learn these skills? I'm pretending Amnesia Alex doesn't remember he's married doesn't remember that he has any money in his bank. He is completely broke. So if he has absolutely no money, I would recommend that he goes on YouTube and learns all the free things that you can find on YouTube. It is basically a university, a YouTube university out there, where you can find anything. And I myself have an entire channel dedicated to data analytics, and you could probably learn 90% of what you need to learn just on my channel. There's tons of other great channels out there if you want to dive into different things. Now, if you're not Amnesia Alex, and you do have some money and you remember who you are, and you do want to dive into some of these skills a little bit more in depth than what YouTube has to offer. There are some platforms that I do recommend. I've been using you to me for a long time. I've also been using Coursera for a long time. I've even created my own learning platform for data analytics called Analyst Builder. On Analyst Builder, I have all of my own full courses that go a lot more in depth than what I have on YouTube. And we also have a questions page where you can practice for technical interviews. And we'll get into technical interviews in just a little bit when we talk about getting interviews. So I'll leave links in the description if you want to check it out. But learning the skills is super important. So that is the next step that I would do. And honestly, I think that I can learn a sequel, Excel, and Tableau within two months. So that's kind of assuming that I don't have a job. Amnesia Alex doesn't have any work to do. He's only dedicating just to those skills. I think two months is plenty of time to really know those skills well enough to land an entry-level job. Now, if I, as Amnesia Alex, would start applying for jobs right now, all my resume would have is Excel, Tableau, and Sequel. That's one of the worst resumes I've ever seen. So what Amnesia Alex is going to do, or I am going to do, is I'm going to build projects and build a portfolio. When you're learning the skills, you should be building projects with them so you really solidify those skills. So the projects are just kind of complementary to learning the skills. And then you can put those projects on your resume. At least that's what I would do. So now instead of just the three skills at the top, we have three skills and we have multiple projects underneath it. I'd probably do two in Sequel, one in Excel, and maybe one or two in Tableau. All of these would go into a website and I have a link in the actual resume, but then I'd have my actual projects on my resume. That will really fill out my resume, make it a lot better. That can take a week or two weeks depending on how quickly you can get those projects done or how well you know those skills. But in two weeks, you can have five projects or an entire portfolio created. So up till now it's two and a half months of work, invest in really learning and building projects. The next thing that I would do is start creating a resume. And there's going to be a really simple resume. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. I've done lots of videos on creating the best resume for data analytics. And really I would just highlight the things that are really relevant and not include things that aren't. Amnesia Alex has no work experience. He has no education experience. So for him, he's really just going to be putting the skills and the projects and maybe a summary section as well. But it's not going to be super, super impressive, but it is going to have a lot of what they are looking for in a lot of job descriptions. So I'm like a really, really, really good resume because that is going to get passed a lot of these automated systems that kind of check the resume first. And when a hiring manager sees it, they're going to see the skills that they're looking for. They're going to see projects that are interesting and relevant to that position. And so hopefully I'd be able to land an interview. The next thing that I would do is work with a recruiter. And this is one of those things where most people when they're first starting out, don't do this. They just start applying to jobs and doing the LinkedIn, you know, single click applies. They don't work and you get really frustrated. And that's because you're applying to hundreds of jobs that thousands of other people are applying for. But recruiters are really great because they have a connection with the company. So I would work with a recruiter or as many recruiters as I possibly could. Believe it or not, there was a time where I had no experience. And this was just, you know, six or seven years ago. And I was working with six or seven recruiters at a time, just juggling them, kept messaging them and asking them and emailing them. Hey, do you guys have anything messaging them on LinkedIn, reaching out to them cold calling? You just, you kind of have to put yourself out there. So if I was starting over, I would do that tactic instead of applying for a thousand jobs and then working with a recruiter, I would start out working with a recruiter. I also have an entire video on how to reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn, both by directly messaging them and then also by finding them and cold calling and cold emailing them. So if you're interested in finding out how to do that, I would check out that video. Now, after I work with a recruiter, the very last thing that I have to do in order to land a job is to really nail the interview and get a job offer. That's it. The interview is usually comprised of two parts. It's the general interview and that's the technical interview. Now, the general interview is one that you'll get in almost any position. So they're going to ask you, tell us about yourself, tell us about your work experience, tell us why you want this position and what you know about the company. These types of things. So you can just get ready for those by researching the company, researching what they do and getting ready for that interview. The next part is a technical interview and you're going to get this in probably 75% plus of the interviews that you have if it is a more technical role. Typically, it's either in SQL or Python. Just in general, it's usually SQL. Like 95% of the technical interviews that I had over my entire career have been in SQL. You really want to nail that technical interview to show that you know the skill well. And that's why we created Analyst Builder like I was talking about a little bit ago. We have that whole section where it's just practicing for technical interviews and either Python, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server. It is super awesome just for that. So I'd really want to prepare for my interview. I just practice, you know, telling about myself, practice for the technical interviews. I would nail the interview and I would set the job position. Now, that's usually the longest process working with a recruiter and landing a job because all the learning up till then is all self-paced. You can do that all yourself for free or for very little money. And then working with a recruiter and then actually landing a job, that can take anywhere from three months all the way up to a year. And so in the shortest amount of time possible, if I really streamlined this, I really worked hard at learning those skills, working with a recruiter nonstop. I like made it my job. I think it'd be very possible to do that within six months. They're really optimistic timeframe because six months to completely change your career is pretty quick, but I definitely think it's possible if, you know, I was starting over today, I definitely think I could do it. Of course, there are outside factors like the job market of hiring is like really slow or where I live or things like that. But in general, I definitely think I could do it within six months. Now, to some of you that may seem like a really long time, but to put it in perspective, you're going to have this job for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And you're going to learn new skills and you'll get promotions. Maybe you could transition to data science or data engineering or any other number of jobs that are related to data analytics. So that is the exact path that amnesia Alex would take in order to become a data analyst as quickly as possible. Now, if I had a little bit more time, I didn't need a job, I had more time to spend, I would definitely be learning something like a cloud platform. And then I'll be learning some AI as well to work with those tools. Now, I didn't mention AI as a must know, because even now, even today in the end of 2023 or early 2024, depending on when I post this, even today, those tools are not crazy integrated, you don't have to know them. Now in the future, in two, three, four, five years, they may become more integrated into all of our software, into all the tools that we use, then it would become more of a requirement to know those things. So that is exactly what I would do. If you haven't already, be sure to check out Analyst Builder. I am incredibly proud of it. It is one of the best platforms out there for learning data analytics. If you like this video, be sure to like and subscribe below. I will see you in the next video.