Group of people sitting at a table discussing with graphs and charts demonstrating various data points floating above their heads

With data becoming increasingly integrated into nearly every industry, data analysts are now everywhere. The advancements of technologies means, for one, that data is produced at an astonishing rate. We have access to way more information than we’ve ever had before. This has the potential to revolutionize the operations of many industries. But there’s a catch: without the skilled professionals that can expertly maneuver through this data, it’s just a useless lump of stagnant information.

Industries need experts with the know-how to extract value out of data. That’s where data analysts come in. As an analyst, you’ll be able to use data to find trends, make predictions, and formulate valuable intel that can then be used to drive decisions. That’s the necessary backdrop to the ever-lucrative data-driven decision making.

Because using data to drive decisions is applicable to basically every industry across society, there’s a massive range to the types of jobs you can do as a data analyst. You can do things like help monitor trends and manipulate data for financial institutions, analyse environmental data for climate scientists and preservationists, or anything in between.

Within all that, you can work with cool technologies like:

Your dynamic skillset can carry you around the world and across a variety of job types. Let’s look at some of the most popular positions data analysts can occupy in their professional lives. Here’s a summary of the jobs we’ll be talking about and explaining:

  • Business Analyst & HR Analyst
  • Budget Analyst
  • Insurance Analyst & Credit Analyst
  • Marketing Analyst
  • Web Analyst & Social Media Analyst
  • Healthcare Analyst
  • Transportation Logistics Specialist

By the end of this article, you’ll have an idea of the scope of opportunities a career as a data analyst can open up for you. It’s worth remembering that before you can head down a pathway towards marketing analytics or transportation logistics, you’ll have to flesh out your skills by training in data analytics.

Start learning data analytics today and launch a ceilingless, fufilling career.

Business Analyst & HR Analyst

One of the most common jobs a data analyst will work at is related to business intelligence. As a business analyst, these professionals would be involved in improving the processes, systems, products, and services of a business using extensive, expert research and sagacious analysis skills.

The data-driven insights that these analysts generate would help to make the inner workings of a business much more efficient and effective. They would help ensure that the decisions that businesses make are aligned with the data; meaning, aligned with what’s happening in reality.

The position of HR Analyst is a similar ballpark. These analysts are responsible for initiatives and missions that align with a business analyst framework, just directed towards human resources and human processes. These professionals would work to analyze data related to the human side of businesses and organizations to ensure that everything’s operating smoothly, and to generate insights on how to improve.

Budget Analyst

While business analysts might work on financial budgets in some capacity, for larger organizations this task merits an entire role to itself. A budget analyst does exactly what you’d think they do: help organizations and institutions analyze, plan, and reflect upon their finances.

A budget analyst isn’t limited to working for businesses. These experts can also work for public organizations like government agencies, as well as private businesses, schools, universities, museums...the list goes on. Practically every organization needs a data expert to help with their budget.

Budget analysts work to specifically develop budgets, review funding requests and other proposals, monitor spending, and project future financial needs by examining trends.

Insurance Analyst & Credit Analyst

Here’s another way for data analysts to work on the financial side of things, but from some different angles. An insurance analyst works to examine and analyze the hard data of insurance policies to determine the risks and benefits for the parties on either side of the arrangement. They’ll also utilize risk-calculation equations, review insurance applications, and more.

A credit analyst has a role that overlaps a bit with an insurance analyst. These professionals also spend a good portion of their time evaluating risk factors using their complex data-driven equations. They also perform tasks like examining the financial backgrounds of credit applicants, crunching data like records, income, and savings information.

Marketing Analyst

Just like business analysts look at the internal processes and systems of an organization, marketing analysts examine the systems and processes that link businesses to consumers. These professionals are charged with analyzing trends and patterns within the market in general, the customer base, and the business’ competitors.

Marketing analysts’ main mission is to track the efficacy of marketing campaigns and understand why things are happening using data. They can perform tasks as disparate as segmenting the target market, or forecasting consumer trends and behaviour. These experts are data analysts that work within a larger marketing department to assist in their campaigns and initiatives.

Web Analyst & Social Media Analyst

An enormous quantity of data is generated by the internet. User behaviour can be analyzed and understood down to its most minute components, but only if qualified data analysts are there to generate wise insights from it. Data analysts can work to analyze the understand the data generated by website in general as a web analyst, or with social media platforms in particular as a social media analyst.

Whichever role they occupy, these analysts would examine and track engagement with websites, spot and define trends, analyze user demographics, and more. They would be able to make websites and platforms as effective as possible by testing and comparing new potential functions. They would also help these internet localities be safe from attacks, by supporting data integrity and server security.

Healthcare Analyst

For aspiring data analysts that want to help others and make a difference in the world, a specialization as a healthcare analyst may be lucrative. Similar to a business analyst, these professionals work at understanding the internal processes and systems of the organization and rendering them as efficient as possible. But unlike their counterparts, healthcare analysts specifically purport to improve the quality of care provided to patients.

To achieve those aims, healthcare analysts work at improving the business operations of healthcare institutions like hospitals, clinics, and care facilities. They’ll evaluate medical data, develop and maintain record-keeping processes, and perform many more tasks involving data to ensure that these institutions are providing care in the most effective data-driven ways possible.

Transportation Logistics Specialist

For laypeople, we probably don’t think much about the massive infrastructure of transport networks that criss-cross our countries. Maybe we’ll see a truck driving across the highway, or meet a delivery worker handing us a package we ordered online. But beneath it all is an incredible spider-web of routes that underlies our supply chains.

These incredibly complex networks need to be meticulously planned out, maintained, and rendered as efficient and effective as possible. To support these aims, data analysts are needed. As a data analyst specializing in transportation logistics, these professionals work to design the tightest transportation networks possible, bridging the gap between businesses so that supply chains run smoothly and quickly.

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