A recent survey by Green Park Interim and Executive Ltd. has revealed that companies, especially in retail, are being overwhelmed by their inability to keep up with, understand, and mine data. In fact, only 26% of retail chairs, CEOs, and senior executives believe that their team has the digital expertise they need in data and analytics.
Resumes for data analysts should highlight Education and Certifications; you may need separate headings for each. Under Skills, you should list the software programs that you are familiar with, especially the scripting and statistical languages you know. You may need a section for Conferences you have attended or for Presentations if you have presented at those conferences.
But the bulk of information in your data analyst resume appears under Experience:
- Always lead with the results of any project you have participated in; your goal is to solve business problems, so highlight the solution.
- Give examples of your soft skills, such as reporting, communicating with peers or other departments, strategizing, and presenting; all the data crunching skill in the world ceases to matter if you cannot communicate.
- Include metrics—your project increased customer satisfaction 15%; you created a model that improved sales targeting 10% year-over-year.
- Add any awards you received or acknowledgment from your previous employer (sometimes the annual review includes comments that are worth repeating on the resume).
- If you have been a data analyst for a long time, compress your earlier jobs (which are probably no longer relevant) under a title such as Early Career.
- Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and matches your resume.
- As always, check your resume against the job posting or advertisement to make sure that you have honestly met the criteria for the job and that your resume communicates this.
As a graduate of MIT, I understand the technical language and requirements of data analysts and how to communicate them in resumes. For a no-obligation quote, please contact me at Robin’s Resumes®.