I analyzed 2,893 data analyst job postings so you don’t have to. Here’s what I found

You might be wasting your time learning the WRONG skills!

When I started my data journey, I kept jumping from Python to Tableau to Power BI to R… and back again. It was chaos.

I had no idea what to focus on.

Every YouTube video, Reddit thread, and Coursera syllabus said to learn something different.

Took me forever to ACTUALLY learn anything.

So to make sure that DOESN’T happen to you, I did what any data nerd would do—look at the raw numbers.

Easier said than done.

Here’s how I did it: (click to see full process)

1. Started my own data job board (FindaDataJob.com)

2. Scraped thousands of hard-to-find job postings every day (the ones NOT on LinkedIn or Indeed),

3. Put all the job descriptions into a database (yes, I used Google Sheets for this - not the best solution).

4. Used crazy Excel formulas to count how many times each key data skills was listed,

5. Analyzed the data by looking at skill frequency in the descriptions.

6. Put the results into a Google Looker dashboard (so I could embed it on my website)

7. Tell you about it (doing that right now)

The results?

The results may not surprise you, if you’ve been subscribed to the newsletter for awhile. After all, I said something similar in The Data Learning Ladder issue.

But they definitely surprised 2,000 people on this LinkedIn poll (although, I should have asked What is the MOST required data analyst skill?)

Results:

1. Excel - Required 39% of the time

2. SQL - Required 31% of the time

3. Tableau - Required 21% of the time

4. Python - Required 14% of the time

5. Power BI - Required 13% of the time

6. R - Required 8% of the time

Learn Excel. Learn SQL. Learn Tableau. That’s what the data says.

And that’s exactly what we focus on inside The Accelerator. New cohort starts soon.

Hope this helps