132: How to Become a Senior Data Analyst (ft. Elijah Butler)

Avery: 00:00:00

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my newsletter subscribers what they want me

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to cover next in the data career podcast.

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And a lot of people messaged and they

said, Avery, you helped me so much go

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from zero to data analyst, but now what

do I do to become a senior data analyst?

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And so that's what today's

episode is going to be about.

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So I invited my friend, Elijah Butler,

who has over 200, 000 social media

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followers and recently went from

data analyst to senior data analyst.

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At Humana, a Fortune 50 company.

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Elijah also just recently started

his own YouTube channel, where I

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will be featured on there very soon.

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So you can check that out in

the show notes down below.

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Let's get into the episode.

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Elijah, what even is

a Senior Data Analyst?

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A Senior Data Analyst is a data analyst

that kind of bided their time for a

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little while, learned some more things,

and eventually were given a fancy

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Avery: title.

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So what even like changes, like do

you get to wear a badge when you come

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into work or what's the difference?

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There are a bunch of differences whenever

you become a senior data analyst,

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depending on the company of course,

because some data analysts do more than

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senior analysts, but in my experience

you're expected to have a higher level

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of technical skills, a higher level of

soft skills, and then you're also given

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more ownership over all of your projects.

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When you're starting as a data

analyst you're kind of just given

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commands to perform analyses.

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When you become a senior data analyst,

you should take more ownership over

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the project so you can give suggestions

on what might be a better approach

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or a better way of solving a problem.

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Avery: So you're basically a data

analyst with more responsibility and

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hopefully more capabilities at this point.

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That's the hope.

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Anybody that's worked with me

has been thoroughly let down,

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but that's what they're trying

to do when they hire a senior.

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Avery: There you go.

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I like what you said though, that there

is quite a spectrum that even like some, I

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don't know, non senior data analyst jobs.

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Might be harder or more difficult or

even maybe like more responsibility

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than some senior data analyst jobs.

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Oh, a hundred percent.

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There is no like threshold.

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The government doesn't like force us to

name jobs properly or anything like that.

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So I look at job openings all the time

because I spent a lot of my time helping

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people get into data analyst jobs.

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And I will see a senior data

analyst job that pays 70, 000.

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And then I'll see a job that doesn't even

have a Senior in front of it for $190,000.

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So don't what title be a big distraction.

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It's obviously nice, it looks good

on LinkedIn, but there are a lot

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of jobs that just say data analysts

where you're probably doing more

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work than many senior analysts or

at least a higher level of work.

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Great.

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Avery: And, and you went from being an

analyst to a senior analyst recently.

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How long have you been

a senior analyst for?

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I've been a senior analyst

for about six months now.

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I had been in data analytics

for just under three years.

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By the time I got promoted to senior

analyst, I actually got referred

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to a senior analyst position on a

different team at the same company.

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And now combined, I've been an analyst for

three and a half years and just out there

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analyzing every data that comes my way.

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Avery: And most of that data is like

some sort of like healthcare insurance

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data because you work for Humana, right?

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Which is a pretty big company.

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Oh yeah.

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I obviously can't get too deep into it.

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Humana does a million more things

than I would have thought coming in.

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So it's been various healthcare data,

business data, a lot of fun stuff.

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Very cool.

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Very cool.

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And,

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Avery: and so you were an analyst for,

you know, three years and then you

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got promoted to the senior role, which

you've been in the last six months.

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You mentioned you stayed within the

company when you made that transition.

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You did change teams, but you

stayed within the company.

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Is that right?

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Yeah, that's correct.

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I had been looking at senior

roles for a few months.

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I just, I thought I was ready.

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Also, as I had chances to interview for

a couple of different roles, it gave me

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other things to learn and prepare for.

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And I happen to have a connection on

LinkedIn, which I know you're going to

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love this Avery that worked at my company.

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And she shared a opening on

her team for a senior analyst.

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And I was like, Hey, I'm currently

looking for a senior analyst role.

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Would you mind to refer me?

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And she did.

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And I guess my former boss had said

good things about me, because obviously

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if you're going to switch within

the company, they're going to ask

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your current boss, how good you are.

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And the rest was history and.

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I'm so glad that it happened.

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Even more than just the title

change and a little bump of salary.

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I'm really enjoying the

kind of work that I'm doing.

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So never discount that when you're looking

at what job you think is right for you.

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Avery: And what's really changed for you?

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Like on a day to day basis, like you

still go to the office at the same time.

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Like what, what has

actually changed for you?

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So I, I've always worked from home,

so I at least don't have to worry

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about a different office schedule.

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I think the biggest change

of pace for me would be the

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ownership factor of my projects.

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My boss, who I love, really pushes

me to take ownership, to ask all the

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questions I need to, to give suggestions

whenever I think there is a different

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approach that might work better, or

say we're looking at the wrong metric

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for what we're trying to solve.

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So I think that's the biggest thing

that has changed and As I've become

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a senior, I'm still actively looking

to find different ways of analyzing

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data that are better, that I can find

answers that I couldn't find before,

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and part of that is I'm starting to

implement Python into my work for the

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first time, and I'm just really getting

started with that, but that's always fun.

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It's nice adding new

capabilities to your work.

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It's nice to challenge yourself.

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But again, overall, it's just

like, instead of just receiving

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orders, you're a part of the team.

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You help make the decisions.

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Avery: That's good to know because I

think a lot of people who are looking

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to land their first day at a job, they

often think, well, what if I don't know

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what to do or like how to analyze it?

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And I mean, that's always

going to be the case.

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Even when you're like, A senior, senior,

senior analyst, like you, you're still

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not going to know everything, but it's

important to recognize that like as

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like a junior analyst or even like a

normal analyst, you're not expected

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to know everything right off the bat.

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Like you are expected to get

instructions from someone and then

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kind of execute those instructions.

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Versus a senior analyst, you

might start to come up with your

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instructions on your own, if I

understood what you're saying, correct?

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A hundred percent.

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You're expected, like, the

expectations, again, you're

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gonna have a little bit higher

expectations on your technical skills.

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Like, whenever you're getting your

first job, you probably spent If the

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job market was good, you probably spent

a couple of months learning skills like

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SQL, Excel, Tableau, stuff like that.

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Done a couple of projects, but

actually applying that will be your

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first time doing actual application.

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Whereas when you start as a senior data

analyst, I would expect that you're

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much more comfortable with those tools.

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It doesn't mean that you

have to be an expert.

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You don't have to master it.

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I know neither of us would say

that we've mastered anything.

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We'll be mastering these

tools until we die.

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But you're expected, like,

you should know how to build a

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report in Power BI or Tableau.

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You should know how to write basic

SQL query, like it's nothing.

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And you could figure out more

advanced stuff with the help

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of Google and Stack Overflow.

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Avery: Very interesting.

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And do you feel like your, your

journey of like three years is

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pretty typical or is that faster

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or slower?

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I think it can vary a lot.

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Again, remember that.

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The job titles don't

always match experience.

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So, but in general, from what

I've seen, I think for driven,

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hardworking individuals, I definitely

think three years is reasonable.

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A lot of people have to job hop

a little bit to make this happen.

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And there's.

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Definitely no shame in that.

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I'm happy that I was able to be

promoted within my organization.

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But I definitely think

three years is reasonable.

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It may be on the shorter end, but also

don't let that hurt you or get you down if

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it takes you longer than that to move up.

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Because even if it takes you five or

more years, there's no shame in that.

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There's

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Avery: also a lot of growth opportunities

from the analyst role to the senior

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analyst role that don't necessarily

reflect in the title, but there's

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definitely a lot of growth that

I've seen individuals have just

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like taking more leadership over a

project, getting promoted before you're

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actually like getting a money promotion

before getting the title promotion.

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So there's still a lot of like, I

guess the little mini milestones

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on that way to the big one.

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The one thing that I thought was

interesting that you mentioned is

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you mentioned that you are using,

you know, Python, a new tool in

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this senior role, but that doesn't

seem like it was a requirement.

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Like you didn't have to know

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Python to move into

the senior role, right?

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A hundred percent.

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It was not required of me.

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Again, I think as I have before

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Avery: you're actually like

getting a money promotion before

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getting the title promotion

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using SQL, you need to build

this report using Tableau.

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Instead, it's more like you need to solve

this problem in the best way that it's

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going to be to solve it and For a few of

the problems that I'm currently working

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on, I think literally a simple linear

aggression would really help to find

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the cause and effect of certain things.

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So it was more of me taking that

initiative and being like, I think

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Python would help me a lot with my work.

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I think it would help us

think about problems better.

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And.

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Yeah.

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It was pretty much me that was like,

I definitely think Python would help

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our team and help us answer questions.

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Avery: Very interesting.

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So I think a lot of people would be

like, no, you have to, you have to

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be like taking a, you're going to get

tested in SQL and then tested in Python.

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And then that's how you get promoted.

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But it seems like to me from your

experience is it's almost like as

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much about your soft skills as it

is about your technical skills.

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Exactly.

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It's a lot more.

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Critical thinking and problem solving,

especially like for the first few months

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of this job, I hardly used SQL at all.

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I'm now starting right now.

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I'm going to be using it a lot more,

but it's using the tools that just

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happen to make sense in the moment.

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So it's been a lot of Excel and

Power BI and then Salesforce

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because my current team uses.

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Salesforce and then just being able to

communicate with others again to really

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dig into the why of whatever you're

doing whenever someone comes to you and

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just like, can you pull data about this?

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You should always be asking why, like,

what question is this going to answer?

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And then you can get into more

technical questions like, how

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do you want the data to look?

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What timeframe of data

are you looking for?

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So.

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Those soft skills of communication,

critical thinking, and problem solving

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really come more into importance in a

senior role, at least in my experience.

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Avery: Very interesting, because for those

who've listened to the podcast before,

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you know, that landing your first day

at a job is not really about how skilled

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you are or how many tech skills you have.

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It's all about the SBN method, right?

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The skills are just a third, the

portfolio ends up being a third, and

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then networking ends up being a third.

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And kind of similarly landing the senior

role sounds like it's a lot of, of

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course, your skills have to be there.

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Like you have to be able to

write some sort of a SQL query.

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You can't just be SQL illiterate, but

then your soft skills play a big role

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in terms of like, that's kind of like

networking in terms of like projects.

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I'm curious here, obviously like

you're, you're not getting promoted

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because you built a project outside of

side of work, but I would imagine that

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the stuff you were responsible for.

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In your previous role allowed you to

kind of show, Hey, look, I can take

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responsibility and not totally muff it up.

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You know, I can take a project, analyze it

and come up with some meaningful insights.

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And that's kind of proof that I

should move into the senior role.

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Was that your experience?

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Yeah.

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Especially again, moving up

within my organization, because

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they're going to contact my boss.

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So.

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If I was clocking in three hours late

every day and I never got any work done,

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that probably wasn't going to bode well

with me for moving up in the company.

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But definitely the work that I was

currently doing made a big benefit

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to me waiting that senior role.

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I was able to go to my interviews.

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I think I had three or four interviews

for my senior job and be able to

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talk about the previous projects

that I'd done for work, but.

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Honestly, some stuff outside of work

ended up playing to my benefit as well.

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I'm a big, kind of, business nerd,

as weird as that might sound.

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So, my knowledge of things like finance

and business operations, I think

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that was a big selling point for me.

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And then, Also, I always recommend

for really driven data analysts,

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don't let your only learning

be what you do on the job.

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If you want to really have a wide swath

of senior level roles that you want to

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move up to, if your job only has you

working with Power BI and Excel, you're

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really going to be limiting yourself.

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So, if That is your case.

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Make sure that you're spending a little

bit of time out of work working on SQL.

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And maybe after you've got all

three of those downs, you could

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add something like Python on there.

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So I think the mix between my projects

that I did for work, my interests outside

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of work, again, business, it kind of

gave me that domain knowledge as well as.

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Spending time learning out of

work really are what propelled me

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to move up as quickly as I did.

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Avery: The, the other thing that

I think you're actually maybe

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underselling, you mentioned briefly at

the beginning, was actually networking.

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You know, networking is not only important

for your first day of the job, but for

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your second, for your third, and for

your fourth, and so on and so forth.

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Even when you're transferring internally,

In the company, like, like you did,

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because you have a big presence on

LinkedIn, followers there and you post

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useful, funny stuff on there quite a bit.

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And that seemed like that was one of the

reasons, or at least you have a connection

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within your company that kind of was

like, Hey, there's this job that you might

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be a good fit for within our company.

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You want to apply.

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Oh, yeah, really for any job that you

want to want there any job that you

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want to get in your life There are two

things that you need to do You need

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to be good at whatever that job wants

you to be good at and you need to know

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somebody Especially in this economy.

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I really I would love to have the data

for how many jobs are by Referral over

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like cold apply and every other thing.

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It really has become of Like again, you

obviously got to have those skills, but

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everybody that is trying to get into

analytics has some level of those skills.

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So it's really about finding

an effective way to network and

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it isn't just formal things.

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It isn't just cold DMing on LinkedIn.

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It isn't just career fairs.

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This was just person that I

had on there for my company.

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Never plan to.

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Asked her for anything and then

just she happened to pop up that

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her team was hiring for that role

and I was like, hey, no pressure.

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I'm currently looking for a senior role.

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Um, if you think that I might be a

good fit from it, you've probably

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seen some of my posts on it.

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I would love to interview for the role.

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I'd love to hear more about it.

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And.

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That's just really all networking is.

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And when I say all that networking

is, it can literally be at any forum.

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Like literally one of my best friends I

met on LinkedIn because I was trying to

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meet other data analysts in the area.

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And now me and my wife go on double

dates with him and his wife all the time.

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So within the

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Avery: past I thought you were

talking about me there for a second.

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No, you're, you're special too.

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But, uh, shout out My best friend.

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Avery: I

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got to shout out my friend Clayton

if he is listening to this.

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But literally like Uh, six months

ago, I got a new job through

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LinkedIn just by being friendly.

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And then like a year and a half ago,

met one of my best friends through it.

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: 00:14:54

So, uh, don't just think that jobs are

all that you can get out of networking.

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: 00:14:59

Avery: A hundred percent.

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: 00:15:00

I love that.

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: 00:15:01

And I also love that you stayed

internal within, within your

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: 00:15:03

company for, for this role.

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: 00:15:05

I interviewed Zach Wilson not

too long ago on the podcast.

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: 00:15:09

We'll have his interview in

the show notes down below if

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: 00:15:11

you guys want to take a listen.

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: 00:15:12

But he was able to go from like, basically

like 40, 000 to like 600, 000 in like

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: 00:15:18

six ish years because of job hopping.

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: 00:15:20

And he was able to He, he was

in a different role, not like an

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: 00:15:23

analyst role, more like software

engineering and data engineering.

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: 00:15:26

And they had a little bit more, especially

software engineering has like a more

324

: 00:15:28

structured development process, but

she was able to do so from job hopping.

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: 00:15:33

And I often see that's, that's a way

that people kind of land the senior role.

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: 00:15:36

So you can at least know that

you have the two options.

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: 00:15:38

You can, you can follow.

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: 00:15:39

You know, the job hopping method of like

landing these promotions through other

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: 00:15:43

companies, a lot of the times, for some

reason, other companies are more willing

330

: 00:15:47

to invest in you than your current

company, but I'm glad to see that Humana

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: 00:15:50

was willing to invest in you and saw, saw

your brilliance and was like, yeah, we got

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: 00:15:53

to keep Elijah let's, let's promote them.

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: 00:15:55

But it's just good to know that, that

both options are there and available

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: 00:15:58

to, to people who want to do this.

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: 00:16:00

100 percent and the important thing

to remember overall obviously salary

336

: 00:16:06

and all over compensation is really

important But keep in mind things like

337

: 00:16:11

stability how much you enjoy your job

How much you enjoy your co workers

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: 00:16:15

and that with all of those reasons?

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: 00:16:17

Were really big on me trying to

stay at humana before I worked

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: 00:16:21

elsewhere And that's definitely

the case on my current team.

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: 00:16:23

My current team has Just

incredible chemistry.

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: 00:16:26

I love the people that I work with.

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: 00:16:28

So make your money.

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: 00:16:30

Don't get cheated out.

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: 00:16:31

Like if I were to, I don't know,

fall off a cliff tomorrow, it isn't

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: 00:16:36

going to hurt Humana's bottom line.

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: 00:16:38

So always be looking out

for you and your family.

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: 00:16:40

But sometimes it can make

sense to just try to climb the

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: 00:16:43

ladder at your current company.

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: 00:16:45

If that works for you.

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: 00:16:46

I love that.

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: 00:16:47

Avery: Okay.

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: 00:16:47

What other advice would you give,

you know, young Elijah or someone

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: 00:16:51

that's looking to, you know, become.

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: 00:16:53

I'm more senior analyst in

the next 12 months or so.

356

: 00:16:56

I think it's just all about learning and

you can even include your boss in on that.

357

: 00:17:01

Like if you say, Hey, I really

want to grow in this role.

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: 00:17:05

I really want to, however long it takes

eventually lead to that senior role.

359

: 00:17:10

I really want to take on more

responsibilities and get a lot better.

360

: 00:17:14

And a lot of becoming a senior

data analyst is just learning and

361

: 00:17:18

becoming a better data analyst.

362

: 00:17:20

So you got to improve

your technical skills.

363

: 00:17:23

So that's going to happen

naturally somewhat on the job.

364

: 00:17:26

But again, I highly recommend

spending a little bit of time.

365

: 00:17:28

It can even be on company time, uh,

working on your technical skills.

366

: 00:17:32

Like if you're taking courses outside

of work, that's also going to benefit

367

: 00:17:36

your work because you're figuring out

better ways to do things, learning

368

: 00:17:39

how to work with stakeholders better.

369

: 00:17:41

So managing stakeholder.

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: 00:17:43

Expectations.

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: 00:17:44

Learning the good questions

to ask when a report comes in.

372

: 00:17:48

Really try to become more of a

suggester than just an order taker.

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: 00:17:53

I think that is incredibly important,

but again, I just can't overstate enough.

374

: 00:17:58

Learning every day is It's gonna

benefit you so much in life, even

375

: 00:18:02

if it's just 20 minutes a day.

376

: 00:18:04

Doesn't even have to

be just data analytics.

377

: 00:18:06

Read some good non fiction books, read

Atomic Habits or something like that.

378

: 00:18:11

If you spend a little bit of time

learning every day, spend a little time

379

: 00:18:14

trying to get healthier every day, those

habits are just gonna compound, and if

380

: 00:18:19

you don't even focus on that end result,

just focus on your process, and you're

381

: 00:18:24

just gonna see leaps in your life that

you wouldn't have thought possible.

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: 00:18:27

https: TheBusinessProfessor.

383

: 00:18:27

com

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: 00:18:27

Avery: Totally agree with that.

385

: 00:18:28

Uh, I, I love that you also mentioned

that like, you can, you can upscale

386

: 00:18:32

on work's time, one of my students who

just landed a data role, she may have

387

: 00:18:36

landed it over a year now, she just

messaged me and she's like, my boss is

388

: 00:18:40

giving me 10 hours a week to upscale.

389

: 00:18:42

I was like, Holy crap.

390

: 00:18:43

That's a lot.

391

: 00:18:43

Usually people don't get that much,

but the point is you probably have

392

: 00:18:47

or can take like one to two hours,

at least a week in upscaling she has

393

: 00:18:51

10, which I think is fantastic, but.

394

: 00:18:53

Like every company is going to

want their employees to improve.

395

: 00:18:57

And they, like you said,

reap the benefits of that.

396

: 00:18:59

So don't be like, Oh, I'm

going to go to this job.

397

: 00:19:01

And as soon as I'm there, I'm never

going to learn anything again.

398

: 00:19:04

You're going to, they're

going to help you learn.

399

: 00:19:05

And that's, that's one of the cool things

is when instead of paying to learn,

400

: 00:19:09

you're getting paid to learn at that

point, which is such a cool feeling.

401

: 00:19:11

Oh, 100%.

402

: 00:19:12

Literally today, my boss was encouraging

us in a team meeting to make sure that

403

: 00:19:17

we're spending even just a little bit.

404

: 00:19:18

One to three hours a week.

405

: 00:19:20

I'm sure we could spend more than that

if we needed it, had the time for it.

406

: 00:19:23

But I really liked that

she encouraged us to learn.

407

: 00:19:26

Something that I had

been doing for a while.

408

: 00:19:28

I've kind of fallen off the past

couple weeks was I start work at 8am.

409

: 00:19:33

And if I'm honest, 8 to 9am, I'm

still waking up a little bit.

410

: 00:19:37

So responding to Teams DMs,

I'm responding to emails.

411

: 00:19:41

And I also spend like 30 minutes

just working on something.

412

: 00:19:45

Learning that's going to

help me do my work better.

413

: 00:19:47

So recently that's been a Python course

and a pandas course within Python.

414

: 00:19:53

So yeah, just learning a little bit

every day really just goes so far.

415

: 00:19:57

And I would say the one other thing I

would add, as long as it's something that

416

: 00:20:00

is at least tangential to your work, like.

417

: 00:20:02

A social media creator.

418

: 00:20:04

So I wouldn't spend time on the clock

personally, like working on LinkedIn

419

: 00:20:09

strategy course or something like that.

420

: 00:20:11

But anything I'm doing that has to

do with statistics or SQL or Python,

421

: 00:20:15

that's going to benefit my job.

422

: 00:20:17

So I, if they ever discouraged

me from learning, I'd be like,

423

: 00:20:20

that's only going to hurt you.

424

: 00:20:22

Yeah, hopefully.

425

: 00:20:24

Yeah.

426

: 00:20:24

That's a little bit of a red

427

: 00:20:25

Avery: flag at those, at that point.

428

: 00:20:26

Um, but yes, of course, make sure

it's, make sure it's related.

429

: 00:20:29

Now, now I'm curious though,

Elijah, you're a senior analyst.

430

: 00:20:32

You've been there six months.

431

: 00:20:33

You're in no rush to go anywhere else.

432

: 00:20:35

But like, what is next

after a senior analyst role?

433

: 00:20:38

Like, are you a senior analyst

for the rest of your career?

434

: 00:20:40

Um, you

435

: 00:20:41

could be, honestly, like there are

some very high paying senior analysts.

436

: 00:20:45

A lot of companies after senior, they

might expect you to go into management.

437

: 00:20:50

And if you can still get

some salary increases.

438

: 00:20:52

Increases you don't necessarily

have to go into management.

439

: 00:20:55

Some people won't like managing people.

440

: 00:20:57

Some people honestly won't be good

managing people and I've yet to

441

: 00:21:01

know because I've yet to try it yet.

442

: 00:21:03

So there is no specific path.

443

: 00:21:06

You could stay a senior analyst.

444

: 00:21:08

I would say within my company, it

would probably need to eventually

445

: 00:21:11

move up to a lead analyst, which

it has lead in the title, but that

446

: 00:21:16

can vary based on what I've seen.

447

: 00:21:18

I think it would It would be

a title and salary change.

448

: 00:21:21

I would probably take a little bit of

management, be kind of like a side manager

449

: 00:21:25

to people, but not be like they're direct.

450

: 00:21:27

So right now I'm incredibly

happy on my company and my team.

451

: 00:21:31

So the most likely thing for me would

be moving up there, but I'll always look

452

: 00:21:36

into every opportunity if I, there was

ever something crazy that came my way.

453

: 00:21:41

I would always look into that.

454

: 00:21:42

I will.

455

: 00:21:42

At some point, probably at least take

a educational deep dive into data

456

: 00:21:47

science and data engineering to see

if any of those interests me more than

457

: 00:21:51

data analytics, but as far as I can

see, I love the team that I work on and

458

: 00:21:55

hopefully I can make an impact big enough

that would warrant an increase or just.

459

: 00:22:01

It's just stay in there and being happy.

460

: 00:22:02

Avery: Love that.

461

: 00:22:03

Yeah.

462

: 00:22:03

Lead, lead analysts, I

think is a great option.

463

: 00:22:06

Management, like you

said, is a great option.

464

: 00:22:07

And then, yeah, of course there's

the offshoots of data science.

465

: 00:22:10

There's the offshoots of data engineering.

466

: 00:22:12

There's this new thing

called analytics engineering.

467

: 00:22:14

That's like halfway data analysts,

halfway data engineering that I

468

: 00:22:17

think, uh, is a big opportunity

for a lot of people to grow.

469

: 00:22:20

I guess to, to sum that up is.

470

: 00:22:22

There's lots of options.

471

: 00:22:23

There's, there's lots of different

directions you could go based off

472

: 00:22:25

of what your interests are and maybe

what they will become down the road.

473

: 00:22:29

Once you try to experiment

with all of that.

474

: 00:22:31

A hundred percent.

475

: 00:22:32

It's just literally whatever

you're interested in.

476

: 00:22:34

And that's overall, what's

going to guide me down my path.

477

: 00:22:38

I think at least for right now,

I again, really enjoyed business.

478

: 00:22:41

I really liked being a part

of the business decisions.

479

: 00:22:44

I feel like data engineering is.

480

: 00:22:46

It's kind of between data and

software engineering, so I feel

481

: 00:22:50

like it's less on the business side.

482

: 00:22:51

But if you're like, I literally

don't care what I'm doing.

483

: 00:22:55

I literally just want to make

as much money as possible.

484

: 00:22:58

That isn't me currently, but like

you can make some stupid money in

485

: 00:23:02

data engineering and data science.

486

: 00:23:04

So it's good to always look at those.

487

: 00:23:06

But even if you're making a ton of

money, if you hate your job, if you're

488

: 00:23:09

making 500, 000 as a data engineer.

489

: 00:23:12

You're having to work 60 hours a

week and all 60 hours are miserable.

490

: 00:23:16

I promise you would be, I almost

promise that you would be happier in

491

: 00:23:20

a much lower paid job that you enjoy.

492

: 00:23:22

Totally agree with that.

493

: 00:23:24

Avery: I love that.

494

: 00:23:24

So to summarize for all of you, Asa.

495

: 00:23:26

Aspiring senior data analyst, you

guys can follow Elijah's example.

496

: 00:23:30

He made sure that he had a good baseline

of skills and had been in the industry

497

: 00:23:33

for a while, but then it was really his

personal skills and what he was doing

498

: 00:23:36

outside of work that allowed him to

transition within his company from the

499

: 00:23:40

analyst role to the senior analyst role.

500

: 00:23:42

Now, of course, that's one

path that Elijah is showing us.

501

: 00:23:45

But there's so many more you could job up.

502

: 00:23:47

You could do so many different

things, but regardless, you

503

: 00:23:49

always got to keep learning.

504

: 00:23:50

Like Elijah said, it's

not going to hurt you.

505

: 00:23:52

And then just make sure you're

doing the soft skills at your job.

506

: 00:23:54

Elijah, thank you so much for joining us.

507

: 00:23:56

You guys can check out

Elijah's own YouTube channel

508

: 00:23:59

in the show notes down below.

509

: 00:24:00

I'm going to be on there soon.

510

: 00:24:02

So you guys know that it's

going to be good, right?

511

: 00:24:04

Elijah.

512

: 00:24:04

Oh,

513

: 00:24:05

I'm so excited about that video.

514

: 00:24:07

Avery shares a ton of specifics

about building a portfolio.

515

: 00:24:10

I know that's kind of one of

the most stressful parts about

516

: 00:24:13

getting into data analytics.

517

: 00:24:14

So if you want all of the deep down

dirty secrets of how to build a great

518

: 00:24:19

portfolio, be sure to tune into that.

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