What a junior data analyst is expected to know

A junior data analyst posting can be read as asking for three kinds of proof: that you can use the tools it names, that you can answer a real question with data, and that you can say what you found to someone outside the data team. There is no single list of things every junior analyst must know, because postings differ. What a posting is asking, and what your resume or CV has to show for each ask, is the part you can work out for yourself.

This piece covers why "expected to know" is really "expected to show", how to sort the asks in a posting, what each one looks like on a CV, and what to do when something is genuinely missing.

Expected to know is really expected to show

A posting lists what a team wants. Judgement rests on what the CV shows, so each item in the posting is worth answering with a line that shows it in use. Evidence against keywords explains what counts as showing.

Reading a junior posting

Junior postings vary in how much they ask for, so treat the list as a set of asks rather than a syllabus. Sort each line into one of three kinds: a tool, a question, or a way of communicating.

"Pull records with SQL" is a tool. "Work out which products sell slowly" is a question. "Explain the results to people who are not analysts" is communication. Many lines can be sorted this way. Some cannot, such as a right to work or a required degree, and those are gates rather than asks. If you want the general method for reading any posting, how to read a job description before you apply covers it.

The tools, shown in use

A posting names the tools its team uses. Those might be a query language, a dashboard tool, a programming language or a spreadsheet. Which ones a given posting wants is in the posting, and nothing here ranks them.

What matters on the CV is use. For each tool the posting names, the CV can show what question it was used on, what data it worked with and what you did with it. A tool inside a described piece of analysis shows use. A tool in a list on its own is only a word.

A real question, answered

The question comes before the method. "Did some data work for a course" names no question, so a reader cannot tell whether the analysis mattered. "Worked out which items were being borrowed most" names one.

The question can come from coursework, an internship or a personal project. It only needs to be something someone wanted to know, stated in a clause. This does not depend on holding a data analyst title, and Do projects count without a job title? covers why.

Saying what it changed

The third ask is what came of the work, explained so that someone outside the data team could follow it. It can be a decision that changed or something that was understood differently. It does not need a number.

Whether you showed your findings to anyone is worth a clause too, even if it was a course tutor or a volunteer coordinator. If nobody acted on it, say what you found and who it was for. Do not claim an influence it did not have.

When something is genuinely missing

A posting may name a tool you have not used. Do not claim it. Say what you do have, plainly, such as a different tool used for the same kind of question, and let the reader judge the gap.

Some requirements are gates and some are wishes, and which job requirements are genuinely mandatory explains how to tell them apart. If the missing tool is one you can learn on a small real project, doing that project is an honest way to close the gap. Adding the tool to the CV without the work is not.

A posting read against a CV

Here is an invented posting excerpt and an invented CV entry, written for this article and not taken from any real posting or CV. The posting says: "Junior Data Analyst at a regional library service. You will use SQL to pull loan records, work out which titles each branch needs more copies of, and explain the results to branch managers who are not analysts."

The three asks are a tool, a question and communication. A CV entry under a Projects heading answers each one:

Tool: "Wrote SQL queries that combined loan records from two library branches for a coursework project."

Question: "Used them to work out which popular titles each branch was short of."

Communication: "Presented the results to a volunteer committee, who moved extra copies to the busiest branch."

Nothing in the entry needed a job title or a number. Each ask in the posting has one line that shows it, and no line claims more than the project did.

A five minute self check

Take one posting and your own CV, and ask three questions.

• Which lines of the posting are tools, which are questions and which are about communicating?
• For each one, is there a line on your CV that shows it, not only names it?
• Where there is not, is the gap genuine, or is the work done but never described?

A gap where the work exists is a rewrite. A gap where it does not is a small real project.

To see where your tools, questions and results are backed by evidence on your own CV, the data analyst CV checker reads it against a specific junior posting.