A Day in the Life as a Data Analyst in 2021 (remote)
A list of what to expect in the day-to-day life of a data analyst.
Introduction
Before diving in, why should you take my word? What gives me the credibility to speak on behalf of data analysts far and wide? The simple answer is I can’t, and won’t speak on behalf of every data analyst with what my personal schedule looks like. The fact of the matter is that in every industry, company, and even team environment, the individual job of data analysts are subjective and can be perceived very differently. Therefore, what I aim to accomplish in this article is to provide you with one of the ways a day-to-day analyst role could play out. Let’s get into it.
My Day in the Life as a Data Analyst
8:00 AM — Grab a coffee, log in and check my emails for automated workflow refresh failures and/or potential ad-hoc report requests.
8:30 AM — Work on manual reporting and refreshes (until these get automated), or work on manually refreshing the automated data workflows if any of them failed when checking my email.
9:00 AM — Weekly Stand-Up Meeting (Mondays only, but varies with companies). Align and make known any and all goals for the day and week.
9:30 AM — Update my agenda/to-do list with priorities for the week/day.
10:00 AM — Continue finishing up the manual reporting given the specific day.
10:30 AM— Continue working on my Tableau dashboards for the stakeholders/customers.
11:30 AM— Meet/discuss with stakeholders on any updates and/or changes that they would like me to implement in the upcoming iteration or as a next phase.
12:00 PM— Take a step back and see how my day’s progress is as far as what my daily goals were and how much I’ve been able to cover/complete and what still needs to be done. If needed, meet with my manager and/or stakeholders on any new project timeline updates.
1:00 PM — Lunch break and/or personal errands.
2:00 PM — Possible meetings with my manager or stakeholders to align and discuss any changes or updates to the Tableau dashboards.
3:00 PM — Continue working on the Tableau dashboard and QA any new calculations or views before documentation.
4:00 PM — 1-on-1 meeting with other analysts to review each other’s dashboards and overall flow to get fresh eyes and new perspectives.
5:00 PM — Start wrapping up changes and comprise a short and concise email to my manager of what I was able to accomplish today, what I still need to work on, and a brief summary of what I plan to do tomorrow.
Read: If the life of a data analyst sounds like something you are interested in, see what skills are needed, both hard and soft, to make it in this growing field.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, take my daily list as a rough guide as to what could be for you. Again, with this field being so new, each company’s definition of what a data analyst should be responsible for will be different from the next. To add to the complexity, the dynamics and structure of the analytics team will also affect the scope of what each analyst will do in the overall process of each project. What any analyst can agree on is that one should be prepared to not only be adaptable in this sense, but to also be a rockstar in time management skills in order to be able to juggle multiple projects and moving parts throughout the day.
