As explained with food
Myth: You have to go to a top school to get a good job in business analytics (defined here as jobs analyzing data to improve the performance of for-profit businesses)
Reality: People in desirable business analytics jobs come from many schools, and over time the school matters much less than the track record you have built up at your past 1-3 employers. As one example, Google has found that grades do not predict performance in candidates with more than two years of experience
Myth: You need to know Python or have an advanced degree in statistics to succeed in business analytics
Reality: There are plenty of business analytics jobs that do not require coding skills or advanced statistical knowledge, although these skills (if genuine) are generally a plus
Myth: People with business analytics skills and STEM degrees are relatively scarce, with demand greatly exceeding supply, so you don’t need to prepare for interviews
Reality: Most job postings receive hundreds of applicants. You need to follow the usual (non-analytics specific) best practices in job hunting:
Myth: The best way to get a business analytics job is to search online, submit hundreds of applications, and sit back
Reality: Online research is good, and it helps to find a specific job opening when job-hunting at junior levels, but you will need to use your network (including informational interviewing) to get your resume pulled out of the pile at nearly any company you’ll apply to
Myth: It’s impossible to have a persuasive-looking work sample if you’re coming out of a non-business context, such as school
Reality: For junior roles, most hiring managers are looking for your problem-solving and communications skills, analytical prowess, and creativity--not necessarily your deep knowledge of their industry. School projects can be cleaned up and adapted for this purpose, and there are a great many public data sources that you can use to create your own business problem and analytical solution to write up
Myth: You need to pick an industry and stick with it
Reality: With a proven business analytics skill set, you can roam across industries, though after 3-5 years you benefit from having either an industry (e.g., retail banking) or functional (e.g., data visualization) hook
Myth: Most desirable business analytics jobs are concentrated in a small handful of companies
Reality: There are business analytics jobs in many industries and locations; they just go by different names, such as data analyst, strategy analyst, and business intelligence analyst. There are also many other roles inside of companies that can feed into pure business analytics roles, and many mid-sized companies, especially those owned by private equity firms, are hiring for this skill set
Myth: There is general agreement on what terms like “data science” and “business analytics” mean, so employers can hire you sight-unseen
Reality: These words can mean a wide range of skills across business, statistics, and technology. It’s good to have a work sample to show potential employers what specifically you can do
Myth: You should hold out for the perfect business analytics job, because you will be in it for a long time
Reality: A reasonable strategy is to take any interesting-sounding for-profit job that (has no obvious red flags and) has you analyzing data, because analytics jobs last only 2-3 years on average, and the most important criterion is prior business analytics experience in any industry. With the right mindset you can learn the needed skills on any job
Myth: If you get multiple job offers, you should evaluate them mostly by base salary
Reality: Total expected compensation over a 3-year time horizon (including target bonus and benefits) is more important, and in any case your compensation will increase over time as your skills become more valuable
Myth: There is a penalty for changing jobs too often
Reality: Hiring managers have increasingly high tolerance for job-switching; for business analytics jobs, it starts to look bad only after you’re applying from a position of having 6+ months of (undesired) unemployment, or if you’ve had 3+ consecutive hops with average job length below 2 years. If you are near these margins, it may be better to lower your reserve price, or change roles within your existing company, respectively
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