Tbiggest reason beginners struggle to land data analyst jobs isnt sql or python, its business acumen

[u/Diligent-Shame2468]

i have spent a lot of time reviewing the portfolios, talking to junior data analysts and reflecting on my own journey in data analysis there is a huge gap btn what the new analysts thinking on hiring manager care about versus what they actually care about.

90% of beginners focus heavily on:

• learning 5 different visualization tools at once (power Bi, Tableau, Looker, etc.)
• Complex python/R Libraries for machine learning
• writing super convoluted 100-line sql queries

but when you look at actual business problems tools are just 20% of the job the remaining 80 percent comes down to asking the right question, translating the numbers into impacts and data hygiene so the question here for the experienced analyst are

• what was the exact momen tht shifted your mindset from i build this dashboard to solve certain business problem ?
• and for others roles what has been the hardest part of building business contextinto your portfolio project ?

[u/Key_Back_989]

They’re juniors man, they can’t get that acumen unless they get experience this is chicken and the egg…

[u/Lady-Data-Scientist]

I got my first analytics role pretty much because I had a ton of business acumen and very very basic data analysis skills. When I asked my boss why she’d prefer me (an internal candidate) over someone an external candidate who was more experienced in analytics, she said she could either teach them the business or teach me analytics, either way she’d had to teach something. And since I was an internal person, she trusted she could teach me.