Analytics is the new sexy

Data is sexy. It helps you make better decisions at work and in your personal life. The challenge is that it sounds stodgy. This stereotype is harmful, as the need for smart data analysts is hot and fast-growing. -Forbes

Data analysts aren't the highest paid of all data science roles. In fact, some see analytics as an opening into more lucrative careers in data science such as data engineering, or machine learning.

But for many, this isn't the case. In fact, senior analysts' salaries are comparable to other roles across the industry. So if you want to be an analyst and stay an analyst salary shouldn't be the determining factor. Not only that, but in the long run you want a satisfying career - not one that promises a huge salary upfront but where the burnout rate is high.

Many people get into analytics because they like to tell stories. Not stories of our own invention, but we let the data tell the stories, because if you look closely enough, your data is, in fact, trying to tell you a story, you just need a 'sexy analyst' to figure it out for you.

The numbers agree with this too as the projected growth rate for data analysts between 2022 and 2031 is to be 23%, which is higher than the average of 5% across all industries.

Data is not only sexy right now, it's about to heat up and get extremely hot as companies embrace the value that analytics brings in helping companies make data-driven decisions. Those informed decisions drive profits - it's a no-brainer.

The problem is supply. There simply aren't enough analysts out there even though the technical skills can learned rather quickly. Not enough people are attracted to a role that they think is all about crunching numbers or making silly charts for people.

All of this is changing of course. Educational platforms that once only offered software engineering programs have begun offering data analytics as the demand is simply too lucrative for EdTech companies to resist. It wasn't too long ago that you rarely heard the term data analytics, but today it's becoming increasingly ubiquitous - not to mention, sexy.

Analytics in the Media

Data analytics are all around you, and the media is no exception. All those charts and graphs you see, all those statistics behind the stories - these things are the work of analysts.

But it's not just in journalism, the media uses analytics to discover audience preferences in order to create 'stickiness'. Such insight is changing Hollywood and the media in profound ways according to an article appearing in CIO.

Best-selling author, Walter Shields has found at least three ways analytics is being used in Hollywood and the media. First, he says data is used to track user preferences. This is obvious, but with the growth of streaming TV, analysts have no shortage of data to work with.

Second, data analytics can also be used to understand how audiences interact with content, and finally, analytics is being used to predict box office success.

These are only a few ways analytics is being used in media, but with a market expected to grow at least tenfold within the next ten years, expect media and entertainment to harness the power of analytics in even more ways.

Data Analytics Market Size To Surpass $393 Billion By 2032 from $38 Billion in 2023

Source: Precedence Research

Word of the Day: DataOps

DataOps is a set of practices, processes and technologies that combines an integrated and process-oriented perspective on data with automation and methods from agile software engineering to improve quality, speed, and collaboration and promote a culture of continuous improvement in the area of data analytics. -Wikipedia

Alex the Analyst's Free Data Analytics Bootcamp

With over 500,000 subscribers, it seems everybody in Data Analytics knows this popular YouTuber: Alex The Analyst. If you can get over the fact that it's free, this is a great bootcamp for learning analytics - yes, an actual FREE bootcamp. I say this because not all free things are worth your time, but this is not in that category. This is better than lots of paid content - maybe some of the best things in life are actually free after all.

Quotable

“If you don’t become a data-driven business, I don’t think you’ll be here in 20 years. The long-term value is existence.”, Data Officer Director at Jaguar Land Rover. -Forbes