Before diving into the skills you’ve gained and used everyday in your healthcare career, I want to establish a concept that I find very important. Often these transferable skills are called “soft” skills; however, you’ve worked hard to gain them! Communication, organization, problem solving, and more come through hard work, practice, and the desire to improve yourself and drive your career forward. For that reason, I vote we reframe these crucial skills as people skills, and I can guarantee that, as a transitioning healthcare professional, you’ve got them in spades.?
Organization
- As a healthcare professional, how many tasks, schedules, meetings, documentation, EMRs, and more do you have to keep organized? If you’re anything like me, probably a ton. Organization is a necessary component to being a successful healthcare professional!
- As a data analyst, organization is also key. A data analyst must keep track of various data, often from disparate sources. They are often involved in organizing and presenting information to help make business decisions.?
Problem solving
- In your healthcare profession, problem solving is a must. No two situations are ever exactly the same and yet, you’re able to resolve issues and help people by using problem solving skills. Innovative thinkers are abundant in healthcare jobs.
- In your data analyst career, problem solving is a top priority. Technology does not come without its hiccups and, as a data analyst, you may be expected to figure out what the problem is, why it happened, and fix the problem in order to capture or gather the data you need. On a larger scale, data analysts may use problem solving skills to collaborate with teammates on bigger-picture issues.
Collaboration
- Collaboration skills are incredibly important to healthcare professionals! You need to be able to work with teammates, patients, other healthcare professionals, and more, depending on the setting in which you work. Collaboration skills are crucial to a healthcare career.
- Similarly, collaboration skills are required in a data analyst position. You may be collaborating with a variety of stakeholders throughout the data analysis process - business owners, other data professionals, managers, etc.?
Communication
- In healthcare, communication comes in a number of ways. You verbally?communicate with clients/patients, other healthcare members, families, and others. You provide written communication in the form of documentation, emails, research articles, etc. Consider how many times it’s been critical for you to communicate clearly and effectively. You’re already a pro!
- In data analysis, communication is how you explain your findings to others! It’s of utmost importance to be able to not only pull data, but also explain what insights you found and, most importantly, what they mean. In many job postings, I’ve found phrasing along the lines of “be able to explain technical concepts in a non-technical way,” which is something you have experience doing.?
Intellectual curiosity?
- As a healthcare professional, we’re constantly asked to learn new concepts, techniques, EMR systems, and more. We’re experts at being able to dig deeper than surface level. In healthcare, things are constantly changing and evolving and we must be able to keep up with best practices.
- As a data analyst, you will be asked to dig deeper and find the insights that others might miss in the data. You will need to be curious, want to find the answers, and solve the puzzle. Technology frequently improves and you will need to be willing to continue learning throughout your career.
- Honorable mention goes to: attention to detail, research, presentation skills. These skills are incredibly important too! Don’t underestimate the power of people skills.?
So many of the people skills you’ve earned in your current career will allow you to present yourself as a strong candidate for a data analyst position. Along with the hard skills you’ve gained, such as technical and data analytics skills, you are already well on your way to entering into a data analysis career.?
What do you think? Did we miss any other people skills you think folks in healthcare already have that transfer to data analytics? If so, please let us know in the comments!
