Boasting a whopping 30% 10 year job growth and coming in at number 41 on CNN Money/Payscale’s Best Jobs in America, it’s no wonder the analytics manager made our list of “The Real Top 3 Hottest Tech Jobs of 2017.” In fact, we couldn’t find a list (IT focused or not) of most promising jobs of 2017 that didn’t include analytics manager. This came as a surprise to us only because we couldn’t say the same just a year ago, so we put it in the sleeper category for being all modest and flying under the radar until now. Today, we thought we would get the bottom of the analytics manager role so you can see if you have some skills to transition into one of the hottest jobs in America this year.
Prereqs –
In order to land a job as an analytics manager, one must obtain a degree in computer science or otherwise prove an analytics-related curriculum. If you have checked this off of your list, the next thing you will need is some experience in business intelligence. According to Wisegeek, “The most common path to become an analytics manager is through promotion from a business intelligence position.”
While that might be the most common path, being able to prove business intelligence experience through other roles can also work in some circumstances. The bottom line is, you will need to have a solid understanding of business intelligence applications and show success in carrying out the various responsibilities of a BI position. That brings us to our next point…
Hard Skills –
B2BNews Network describes an analytics manager like this, “At a minimum, she’s got strong math skills, is familiar with a programming language or two and is able to define the business or marketing value of disparate collections of raw data (with the help, of course, of some powerful software such as SAS or Tableau). And she’s really good at Excel.”
That pretty much sums it up for us. Each position will require use of some analytics software and the nature of programming will depend on the industry and client needs. The good news is, these hard skills are usually easily transferable and experiences with one company will likely strengthen your approach at the next regardless of what software or language is used.
Soft Skills –
Many analytics managers will come into situations where they need to present their findings to company stakeholders, some more skeptical than others. So it’s important to have solid communication skills and business acumen. We’re not saying you have to be high-five-level comfy with the C-Suite, but you do need to show them you have a general understanding of what your data means to their business.
People will come to you about ALL THE THINGS reporting related and you will just have to deal accordingly. If you are uncomfortable working with many different departments and analytics understanding levels, this type of work is probably not your thing. If you would like to play up your communication skills in your resume or next job interview, come up with a couple of examples where you had to present your findings to a group and then work with that group to dive deeper based on those findings.
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If you find yourself qualified for the latest analytics manager role in your city, check out our open positions and drop us a line.
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