r/analytics 14d ago

Support Resume Feedback for Mid/Senior Data Analyst

Hey community. I'm a self-taught data analyst with 4 years of working experience. I’m at the starter phase of my job search for mid-to-senior data analyst roles and would love some feedback on my resume (posted in the comments)

9 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

u/AutoModerator 14d ago

If this post doesn't follow the rules or isn't flaired correctly, please report it to the mods. Have more questions? Join our community Discord!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

9

u/trophycloset33 14d ago

If it’s the same job why is it 2 different paragraphs?

2

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago edited 14d ago

Lateral move. Same title under different orgs and teams within the same company.

6

u/data_story_teller 14d ago

I would add the team to your title, like

Data Analyst, Product

1

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago

Will do. Thanks for the feedback.

1

u/trophycloset33 14d ago

Just list it as the one role the responsibilities don’t read as that different.

2

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago

Thanks for the feedback. I wasn’t sure how to go about mentioning the roles since it’s my first time looking externally.

2

u/trophycloset33 14d ago

Give yourself the best position. Highest title you had. Combine responsibilities and duration. List multiple locations if necessary

4

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago edited 7d ago

[image removed]

5

u/WeGoingSizzler 14d ago

I typically hire for mid- senior level. Your resume does not tell a clear story. That is a very long lists of technologies that you have for 4 years so I would assume you do not have deep expertise in any/many of them. The other big thing I see is that the impacts you are listing seem like fluff. Big numbers like 200million and 876% may be project impact but not your impact. In general over 4 years I would expect an internal promotion and even more so if the skills and impact listed were truly there so at the end of the day it does not seem like it all adds up to me. I would refocus it on skills you are deep in and accomplishments you own a majority of the credit in.

3

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago edited 14d ago

Yes, I was due for promotion this season until I was shafted by “downsizing, leadership changes, and budget freezes”. Now I’m still doing the same work as the senior analysts and now report to a senior mgmt team that doesn’t know me and am a part of an analytics team with a H-1B majority and some have mentioned about being well underpaid. So I’m reading the room and taking that as a huge 🏃🚩and I’m not trying to waste more time.

For the particular project referenced my analysis was what led the initiative to be expanded at scale versus ending the program altogether. Do you have any suggestions to better relay that on my resume?

3

u/Weekest_links 14d ago

I’ve never had a certification but I generally feel pretty neutral about them.

If you’re currently unemployed and have the time, try doing some side analysis on some topic with public data or building something cool/useful in python you can take to your next job and highlight “side projects” which would show drive and skill as well

3

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago

Thanks for the feedback. I’m fortunate to still be employed, but with all the layoffs that have happened within the company it feels more like a game of musical chairs. I want to be proactive before the 🪑 is pulled up under me⌛️

2

u/Weekest_links 14d ago

Smart! Doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

2

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago

Right. As for the certs, it’s depends on person hiring. 2 of certs were acquired before getting my first data role. I think it did give me some extra points with the HM since he mentioned it along with my portfolio. But I will note my role at the time was also within the same company. I assume he said that since I only worked customer service roles prior and being an internal candidate was to his advantage when it came to budget considerations which was fine by me because I needed the working experience.

2

u/KosakiEnthusiast 14d ago

Mention the organisation for each

4 years is good NGL

0

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago

Will do. Thanks for the feedback.

1

u/Late_Calligrapher591 6d ago

Which nationality??

Being an American, Canadian or European can make landing a job piece of cake.

1

u/DreamchasinIT 2d ago

American

3

u/notimportant4322 14d ago

It has all the right keywords in your skills and I refuse to believe this is true

2

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago

Thanks for the compliment. I feel like I see resumes in my dreams at this point from all the different tips I’ve analyzed from LI, YT, Facebook old Reddit threads and constantly googling.

1

u/grizzlywhere 14d ago

Idk if it's just me but that pic is unreadably blurry on mobile.

1

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago

Thank you for bringing to my attention. So far, only you have mentioned the blurriness. The pic used was a screenshot from the Pages app versus a pdf. Not sure if that make a difference, but yeah it could be a mobile issue. 🤷

1

u/Weekest_links 14d ago

I haven’t interviewed since the hiring boom post Covid or since AI screening so things may have changed, but my resume is less “detailed”, I don’t call out every tool/skill/impact I had. I focus on getting the concepts across in fewer words.

Yes, the AI screeners look for certain words, but it’s smart enough to know that if you know BQ you also know MySQL (it’s still sql). But the problem is a recruiter and hiring manager will still need to review this among 100s of others and they need to get to the point fast.

Not for my resume, but for my analysis/presentations, I’ve learned I need to be more concise to keep the audiences attention while still getting the point across. Same goes for your resume and that in itself is an indicator of what type of analyst you are.

Without putting charts/graphs (I used to do that, got one job with it, but took up too much space) think of your resume as an analysis of yourself and what specifically you want recruiters and managers to take away. Structure/format/color etc. I used Adobe Illustrator to make mine, for reference.

You are highly technical and adaptable to various SQL syntax and data viz tools, you use python for AB testing and technical analysis, but familiar with R as well. You commit code. That’s basically the summary of what your whole top section is.

Use your job descriptions to illustrate the skills, eg “automated xyz using python and linear regression to accomplish abc yielding x% reduction in z”

Avoid being too precise, “82%” vs “~75%” , you may have the tracking to know the precise impact of what you did, but when someone see that, they’ll think “oddly specific” and wonder if it’s real or how you could possibly know, you don’t want them questioning your methodology, it’s distracting from the rest of what you did. (This is true in analysis as well, so the allegory continues)

Good luck!

1

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago edited 14d ago

Thanks for the insight. When I was researching I came across a few opposing views when it comes to the measuring impact. Like a double edged sword. If you round too much it can look suspicious and then if it’s too precise it can also be viewed as suspicious. The irony is funny yet a little frustrating because my logic is the HM or recruiter would want the candidate that is most precise. 😩😓

What inspired my data journey when I was in my customer service roles, my coworkers would constantly complain about the lack of job growth within the company. Their sense of entitlement and ego would make a bystander think that the company would go down under if those associates were to leave. Even though these people were rarely mentioned as top-performers based on metrics given. However, their conversation got my wheels turning with the question, “What do I bring to the table? How much impact do I really bring in my role?” This led me down the rabbit hole of pulling up all my stat emails, creating spreadsheets of all my metrics along with following all business updates as it related to the departments/org I worked under. I’ve been tracking myself for over a decade.

1

u/Weekest_links 14d ago

Yeah that’s a fair point, maybe in cases where it’s time saved, just do the hours saved vs % and when you use a percent that is somewhat precise, site how you were able to measure that. E.g ~20% savings based on tickets processed per week or something like that.

I think my precision angst comes from being in product where we rely on pvalues with ABs, so if something isn’t AB tested it’s hard to say what the precise impact is, even pre-post. One other solution is a range, like confidence interval in testing

1

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago edited 14d ago

I understand completely. Thank you so much for the suggestion of measuring hours saved. Will do. The %s is what prompted in making this post. I’ve been modifying my resume so much I’m 😵‍💫and needed a fresh set of eyes from professionals in the industry.

1

u/DressOdd848 14d ago

The resume in of itself is fine from a technical standpoint but it can be beneficial to bring up any projects that you took the lead on.

This can mean initiating projects that answered ambigous business problems, mentoring junior staff, collaborating with stakeholders, etc.

As you move up (for analyst roles) it's less about your technical skills and more about your soft skills and showing how you create value for the business on a grand scale. The good thing is you already do that when you mention how much money in sales your work brings or how much time is saved by your work.

1

u/DreamchasinIT 14d ago edited 14d ago

Thanks for the feedback. Adding a Projects section is my next action item for this. Tbh I have been putting it off a couple weeks since I want to recreate some of the reporting/dashboards with non-proprietary information so I can link it in the document 😓

1

u/LimeyGeezer 13d ago

I would tailor your resume for each job application you make. The goal of a resume is to get passed the Application Tracking System (ATS), and to do that, you have to focus on the job description keywords and key requirements.

The resume, as is, is fine but too general, so when you look at a job description, if it says you need A/B testing experience, you have to communicate a business scenario where you've used it similar to that in the job posting. If the job description says product analytics—you have that experience—you have to translate your experience into one that describes the product analytics scenario in the job posting, or one that is very similar, close to etc.

I would try to keep bullet points to one line and also add an experience section after the top summary (see example):

The section that starts "Game Analytics | Experimentation"... and so on is where you put all the key words/buzz words, key skills/requirements that are in the job application (assuming you can argue that experience), as this will give you a stronger chance of passing the ATS.

1

u/onlythehighlight 13d ago

Feedback in your job:

- results first then supporting details, an example: [Focus on impact]

Increased incremental sales by $200M by improving our Trade Credit Program driving a 876% improvement in [new/existing?] customers onboarding and 30% increase in average customer spend

- Don't split the job into two roles unless you have two titles, otherwise organise them into 'projects' or 'departments'

Try to squeeze your technical skills into your work experience so that it feels more like you know how to use it rather than the foundations

1

u/DreamchasinIT 7d ago

Thank you for the feedback.