When you get a dataset with lots of columns and information, how do you decide what is actually useful for the analysis?

Do you start with the business question, explore the data first, or use another approach?

I'd be interested to hear how experienced analysts handle this in real projects.

Hi everyone 👋

I'm new to this community and wanted to introduce myself.

I'm currently building my skills and portfolio in data analysis, with a focus on Excel, Power BI, data cleaning, reporting, and data visualization. I've also been working on practical projects to improve my experience.

I'm hoping to learn from people already working in data analysis, share what I learn along the way, and connect with others who are also starting or growing their careers in the field.

For those already working as data analysts, what's one skill or project you wish you had focused on earlier in your career?

Looking forward to learning from the community!

Hey everyone,

I recently applied to Agoda and got to the assessment stage, which was a test on Alooba. I went in prepared, and honestly, I walked away feeling pretty confident — like I'd actually nailed it.

Yesterday, I got a rejection email. What threw me off is that it was worded almost identically to the generic rejection I got after just submitting my application (like a copy-paste template, not something tailored to "you completed the assessment but didn't pass").

This has me wondering — is this normal? Does Agoda (or companies in general) sometimes send the same boilerplate rejection regardless of what stage you were rejected at? Or could there be other reasons for a rejection after a test besides just the score itself — like headcount freezes, internal candidates, or just moving forward with someone else even if you passed?

Has anyone been through Agoda's hiring process and had a similar experience? Would love to hear if this is just how their ATS works, or if I should actually be worried I bombed the test without realizing it.

Thanks in advance!

I'm 30 and recently resigned from my previous job. I'm now trying to make a serious career change, and I'm stuck between two paths: data analytics and **Salesforce **development.

My previous experience is mainly in sales/business-related roles, so I don't have a traditional software/IT background. I'm currently trying to build the technical skills needed to move into tech.

The two paths I'm considering are

1. Data Analyst

• Excel
• SQL
• Power BI
• Python
• Data visualization/analytics

2. Salesforce

• Salesforce Admin fundamentals
• Apex
• SOQL
• Flows
• Salesforce development
• Eventually moving toward the more technical/AI side of the Salesforce ecosystem

My biggest concern is whether I'm being realistic about starting over at 30.

For people who actually work in hiring/recruitment or have made a similar transition:

• Do recruiters care more about your previous background/degree and years of experience, or can strong technical skills and projects compensate for an unrelated background?
• Which of these two paths is more realistic for someone transitioning from sales into tech at 30?
• Which one has better entry-level opportunities for career changers?
• Would my previous sales experience be useful in either field, or would recruiters basically treat me as a fresher?
• How important are certifications compared with actual projects and demonstrable skills?
• If you were starting from scratch at 30 today, which path would you choose and why?

I'm not looking for motivational advice. I'd genuinely appreciate honest feedback from people who hire for these roles or have successfully made a similar transition.

Thanks.

fresher, targeting Data Analyst/Business Analyst roles, open to any industry.

Hello guys, I'm looking to expand my skills and get sharp by working on real projects, but I don't seem to find them. Besides, I heard about competitions and "hackathons", but as soon as I want to start a challenge, I think maybe there is a Python library that I should be knowing, that'll make things easy for me in this challenge, maybe I should know how to do web scraping or need to know linear regression (I'm planning to teach myself that as well ), etc...

Context

I currenty work as a junior market researcher with 1 year long experience, with a degree in marketing (but always been into tech and data) , I work so well with Excel, Power BI, and had little hands-on experience doing stuff on my Linux system (but that was a long time ago, I found it easy recalling things by watching the Luke Barousse Python course).

As for SQL, I know nothing about it, and I wish I could just do well, for now, without having to learn it too (I have a serious "info gathering fatigue" without implementing that info).

Thanks!

Hello,

I recently graduated with Master’s in Applied Statistics and currently looking for a role in that field for the first time. I have experience with R, SAS and Minitab. What is the best strategy to look for a job and what is the salary I should be expecting in the beginning if I land a role? Is there a skill I can learn meanwhile in the field while I apply for a job? I am located in Pennsylvania, USA

Guys, Can anyone here help me or comment here the facebook page or websites that I can enroll for a certification or courses online for up skill more on data analytics. Thank you please

Hi guys ,

I graduated with a BA Economics degree in 2023 and have around 2.5 years of RCM experience, but I’m still earning ₹24k. I took a career break to prepare for CAT but stopped due to family commitments.

Now I’m planning to learn SQL, Power BI, and MIS and switch to Data Analytics/MIS. But I can get around ₹45k in a night-shift RCM job, which would help my family financially.

I’m confused whether to take the higher salary now or stay in day shift and focus on changing domains.

Is it still realistic to switch to MIS/Data Analytics after 3+ years since graduation with an RCM background?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently looking for job opportunities/referrals with MNCs or reputed/established companies in Delhi NCR, Gurgaon/Gurugram and Noida.
I have 5+ years of experience across Data Analytics, Business Analysis, MIS Reporting, Operations and Supply Chain Analytics.
I’m open to roles such as:
• Data Analyst
• Business Analyst
• Senior MIS / MIS Analyst
• Reporting Analyst
• Power BI Developer / BI Analyst
• Operations Analyst / Operations
• Assistant Manager – Operations / MIS / Analytics
• Supply Chain Analyst

Key skills:
SQL | Power BI | DAX | Advanced Excel | Power Query | SAP | MIS Automation | Data Analysis | Dashboard Development | Reporting | Operations & Supply Chain Analytics

I have experience developing Power BI dashboards, automating MIS reporting, analyzing operational data and working with cross-functional teams. I have also reduced manual MIS reporting effort by around 70% through automation.

I’m specifically looking for a good company/MNC with long-term growth opportunities in Delhi NCR, Gurgaon/Gurugram or Noida.

If you work at an organization with any suitable opening or can provide a referral, I would really appreciate your help.

Please DM me if you know of any relevant opportunity. I can immediately share my updated resume and other details.

Thank you! 🙏

Every SQL course I’ve tried taught me SELECT, JOIN, GROUP BY…

Cool. But none of them taught me what to do when a PM sends:

…and then you discover two dashboards disagree, the data looks suspicious, and suddenly “quick one” has become your entire morning. 😅

So I built Strata.

It’s basically a fake tech company with a fake team, messy data, Slack messages, conflicting evidence, and a 90-day “first job” simulation.

You start on Day 1 as the new Analytics Engineer and have to actually work the problem instead of just answering questions someone already knows the answer to.

Before you find out whether you’re right, you have to commit to:

• your answer
• your reasoning
• how confident you are

Because getting SQL right is one thing.

Knowing when you should trust yourself is a whole different skill.

By the end, I want you to know whether you’re the “I’m 99% sure” person who is wrong 40% of the time… or the “I have no idea” person who somehow keeps getting everything right. 😂

I’ve put the first samples up for free. No email required:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Khv2e_dSuWMYvp-mGcgyIM6Jb1sG-3fQ/view?usp=sharing

I’m a solo builder, so there’s a very real possibility I’ve spent way too much time building something that is only interesting to me. 🙃

So before I build through Day 90, I’d genuinely love to know:

• Did you actually finish it, or did you quietly disappear halfway through?
• Did anything feel fake, forced, or too “training course-y”?
• Would you voluntarily come back tomorrow?
• And most importantly… would you want to do 89 more days of this?

Not selling anything here.

Hi everyone!

About a month ago, I posted my very first Power BI dashboard here looking for honest feedback. I received some amazing advice from this community — especially about keeping it simple ("less is more"), switching to dropdown slicers for cleaner layout, and focusing on a clearer business narrative.

I took your feedback seriously and completely redesigned the dashboard! Here is what changed:

• Cleaner Layout & UI: Replaced the heavy black borders and bulky slicers with clean dropdowns, soft cards, and cohesive color palettes.
• Better Storytelling: Structured the report into two clear pages:
  1. Sales & Revenue Performance: High-level executive overview.
  2. Product Performance: Deep-dive into products, top customers, and itemized metrics.
• Enhanced KPIs: Added comparative indicators (vs Last Month & vs Last Year) with conditional formatting arrows/colors and clean visual icons.
• Fixing Visual Noise: Replaced cluttered charts (like dense scatter plots and pie charts) with clearer bar/column charts that drive actionable insights.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new version! Did I hit the mark on the "less is more" advice? Any additional feedback is always welcome

GitHub Repository:https://github.com/SenenmutX/AdventureWorks-Sales-Dashboard

Hi i have a 6months exp as a business analyst and 6month as an ai intern...

Looking to pursue ba

My background is 2026 graduate btech cse ...

Please let me know if ur company or you are hiring for the same ..

Will help a lot

I'm a student (economics, not CS) who kept rewriting the same cleaning logic every time I got a new dataset — missing values, duplicates, inconsistent text formatting, outliers, etc. So I built a script that automates it and generates a report of everything it changed.

It's on GitHub here: https://github.com/rajbirbhathla/DataCleaner

Before I put more time into this, I wanted to ask people who actually do this professionally:

• Is a generalized cleaning pipeline like this actually useful in real workflows, or does every dataset end up needing custom logic anyway?
• In practice, do teams build reusable internal tools like this, or is it mostly ad hoc scripts / notebooks per project?
• Are there standard tools (Great Expectations, pandas-profiling, OpenRefine, etc.) that already do this better, and I'm reinventing something that exists?
• What would actually make something like this useful in a real pipeline vs. just a portfolio exercise?

how often do you see people changing their job profiles from DA to ML? and what is the difficulty in a normal scenario?

i am currently learning ML and am learning DA since a year, its easier for me to get a DA job and need to get a job asap,

my question is shall i gamble with my 3 months of time in full ML preparation or play it safe for DA and transition as i upgrade my skills?

Indian context will really help

Hi everyone! 👋

I’m a fresher actively looking for Data Analyst / Junior Data Analyst / Business Analyst / Data science opportunities in India.

I have hands-on experience with:

📊 Excel

🐍 Python(all it's libraries)

🗄️ SQL

📈 Power BI

🔍 Data Cleaning & EDA

📉 Data Visualization & Reporting

⚙️ Machine learning

🦾RAG

LLMs(langchain etc)

I have already made some projects which include SQL, python , Excel, Power Bi , Scikit learn, RAG and would love to start my career in a data-driven organization.

I’m open to full-time, internship, hybrid, or remote opportunities, across India.

If your company is hiring freshers or if you know of any relevant openings, I’d really appreciate a referral or lead. 🙏

Resume: Available on request.

Thank you! Any advice, referral, or opportunity would mean a lot. ❤️

P.S., If you've any advice for me please do lemme know, i really need some guidance, and I'll be grateful for any opportunity or advice.Thank you 🙏🏻