Things I HATE About Being a Data Analyst 

It's good to see the other side of a glamourised profession 🤝

Things I HATE About Being a Data Analyst Summary: 1. Enduring socialization & frequent meetings that drain your social battery 2. Cleaning data can become tedious. 3. People who are always asking for Revisions & Projects requested without a Objective/Plan. 4. Projects that are made to be VERY important (Rush/Emergency) but don't end up being used by the User.

As a fellow introvert, I feel for you. Interacting with people really drains my energy, and I usually space out in the meetings. I'm a do'er not a talker lol.

I was a Data Analyst at a FAANG company for 3.5 years. I created well over a dozen supposedly "high-priority" dashboards in that time and I kid you not, maybe 2 of them were ever looked at or used regularly by other members of my organization. Drove me up a wall. I kept getting "Meets All Expectations" ratings at each performance review cycle and my manager (who couldn't write a single line of SQL btw) kept telling me that I needed to "make more of an impact" in order to get promoted to the next level. How was I supposed to make an impact when nobody cared about my work? So glad I'm not alone in my frustrations and experiences. Great video Alex!

Dude, I really appreciate your sincerity and honesty behind these things. The fact that so much of one's hard work can just be cast aside is so demoralizing, but in a good light you've managed to sharpen those skills a bit further. Thank you for your content, good or bad I look forward to learning more from you.

It is comforting to know I am not alone with these. I have (top priority projects) that I had to work on and complete between Christmas and New Year that were only looked at once.

100% agree. My number one thing I hate is people asking for things to be added weeks or months after a dashboard has been completed and then they use it once. I started saying no to those requests and I got reprimanded 🙄

Thank you for sharing! It's eye opening and helps us newbies to know what to expect

Hey Alex, just wanted to say that you are the reason that I wanted to start data analytics as I watched a few of your videos and became super interested. Even started your SQL tutorial to see if that is something I would enjoy as well and I definitely did. So I started the Google Certificate program but it is great to hear the other side of data analytics as I know there are not only positives. I'm still going to continue down this path but it is helpful to hear that side so thank you for getting me into this line of work and enlightening me to some of the problems within the industry!

I feel you lol, especially about the last one. The real problem for this one is the “fake emergency state” to push work to get done. What I like to do is to challenge their emergency and instead, set up a fair deadline based on real business or company needs (new feature on product going live, meeting with client, etc..)

Couldn't agree more. Doing risk modelling but also as a part of it I do data prep sometimes. Relating to your point on "my work didnt get looked on", what I H-A-T-E as a modeller is when one does extremely complex and sophisticated techniques to solve a very difficult modelling problem, and people dont understand nor appreciate the work and effort. They treat it as "nothing", as "paper", as if its easier than what it is while its not. And on the data side, what I hate is when one has a stressed PM who does not understand data nor have a realistic understanding on how complex and time-consuming certain moments can be. It all boils down to appreciation of others work. I gladly get deep into details and fix and problem-solve, but its demotivating when one does it to someone who doesnt appreciate the craftsmanship and effort put into it.

Things I HATE about being a Data Analyst: MAKING PRESENTATIONS It kills my soul slowly to take 1-2 weeks to make a 30 minutes of a presentation for people with attention span of a marshmallow.

I think your point over this field maybe a clear picture of every field that nothing is glamorous or satisfying, there's intense grinding, frustration, mental pains, etc. Nothing is easy come.....and that's a great lesson learning for me even I'm not an analyst now, just started preparing for it, and thanks.

Alex HATES ANALYTICS and doesn't like being a DATA ANALYST!! EXPOSED!!! 😂jk Very MUCH resonate with your first issue as a fellow introvert. 🙌🏼 I just want to play with data all day and not have to fake laugh at bad jokes. 😳

Your last story is very relatable. A lot of stuff doesn’t get used or gets looked at but the person doesn’t know how to use it. And overtime they start to undervalue stuff. Like, don’t act like it’s so great that you automated a report but a year later, nobody remembers that you saved 10 hours a week. They just get used to it.I’ve designed dashboard or coded a complicated reports to show that we should cancel certain products or sell in new areas or fire certain people, and then had upper management look at it and sort of shrugs their shoulders and do nothing. You hear all these grant statements about KPI’s and valuing the business, but when you start doing it, they freeze up and go back to running on emotion

Thank you for this video!! I’m glad I’m not the only one who has these experiences! It has sometimes been enough for me to question whether I’m in the right field. I’d like to add on to your last item. I did a big project for someone who wanted it urgently. I worked on it for a long time while juggling my other duties, receiving many requests for status updates. Like your project, it was never used. The next month, the person asked me to update the project with the current info. So I went back in and spent a long time redoing the project, again with many requests for status updates. Again, it wasn’t used but the following month, she wanted it updated with that month’s current info. Wash, rinse, repeat. How do you handle situations like that? I’d love to see a video where you cover resources to learn soft skills like communication skills, business acumen and any other skills you think data analysts may need but aren’t always instinctual.

I always say to my stakeholders: 'I don't mind the hardwork, as long that you use it.'

Thanks for sharing 👍🏻 😊 Looking towards some more new stuff. Specially how to get remote data analyst jobs

Projects without boundaries, unnecessary social events, quality work not being respected, mate, you are not alone.

Thank you for being honest. In our certificate program all we hear is how great it is. I know it's just like any other job/career where you get the good with the bad. I already get annoyed with stuff in my classes and sometimes I just want to be like "look, let's not act like this is the greatest thing since toilet paper." I don't have anything against positivity but I do like honesty too.

Lol this was amazing. Doing my research to see if I’m interested in this career path. Love this! Thank you!

That "fixing it later" bit is absolutely the thing I hate the most.

Lol you cracked me up.. I can relate to the energy tank being drained by socializing... I am not looking forward to that part. Thank you for sharing!

I just love your honesty. Alex, thank you

Great video as always Alex. Like others I found the introverted cup emptying point interesting. As someone new to the analyst work and in particular a new organisation I have found the introverted nature of myself and team members a challenge in terms of learning. God help me if I do end up in half day meetings!!

Refreshing video.. Hit the nail on the head, love the style of direct presentation too. +1 subscriber. Thanks!

There is absolutely no profession I know of that doesn't have a downside. Appreciate your pointing out the flaws in the data analyst position!

I thought that I could relate to cleaning data until you said "for 2 weeks"! I've had several reports and projects that I've worked very hard on that have gone unused. Nothing like being on a meeting with people asking for metrics that' are clearly on a report that I've been providing for weeks. I recently realized that I've been trying to do data analyst tasks using only Excel and a little VBA, when there are other tools that are far more efficient like Power Query. So I'm implementing Power Query in my current role, and learning Power BI and SQL (eventually Python) on the side to become a real data analyst. Your videos have been extremely helpful in making the decision to pursue this, and I'm glad that you put this video out about some of the frustrations of the job.

Ahhh dude, totally 100% agree with all points you've mentioned here and your last one, I have to admit is the same as mine also!

A video covering ways to overcome these would be great ! Cheers Alex

What i love about your videos are genuineness and purposeful

Thanks for sharing Adding a summary and chapters in the video can be very beneficial for future videos.

I completely understand Alex - sometimes, I feel the same way at work for certain things, and it gets super frustrating lol.

Love the honesty in this video and working in Logistics I feel your PAIN ! 🤣 It's like the Wild West out there ... the Good, Bad and Ugly.

That was insightful!!! Thank you

As someone who has worked as an analyst for 5 years, every single one of these points resonated to me very strongly. Especially, especially the last one. "This is incredibly important, the most important thing going on in the company. This could be industry defining. Never have we ever had a problem like this before, we must fix it. We need the data, we need the dataaaaaaahhhhh!" then it seems like 2 weeks later there is a new "this is the most important thing that has ever ever happened to the company. Oh that thing from 2 weeks ago, oh yeah that's important, really important but this, this is it, the most important thing ever. We need the data, we need the datttaaahhh". My experience has been that the only way to deal with this is learning when to give something up, learning what is the required level of quality (and this does not mean more important decisions = better quality data), and knowing that this sits on them more than it does on you, they wasted the companies money not you.

Been following you since 10k subs, watching you now uploading such kind of videos is just awesome. Answering the unanswered questions!

Haha love the part when he says no one looks at the report after all the effort you have put into it! Exactly Spot on!

I really feel you. I have faced all of these things. I was working on project for days to get it done on time but then meeting cancelled and no one talk about it or try to reschedule it.

You keepin it 100, alex ☝🏼

One of your best video because it's so true and the reflect of the job

100% agree with every point, although I hit my data cleaning point probably after a week 🤣 Good to know I'm not the only one who gets frustrated with all these points

Great video! I wonder how these dislikes differ depending on whether you are an analyst in a centralized analytics dept or whether you're a solo analyst in a decentralized organizational model. I'm a decentralized analyst who used to be on a centralized team, and my feelings about data cleaning are completely different now.

The thing i hate the most - People who ask for dashboards but dont know that filters can add or remove data by checking boxes and constantly DM you confused when they specifically asked for them in the first place. Plot Twist - Their in their mid 30's and likely should know how to use this tool but somehow dont.

needed this for my sanity - #3 definitely tops my list though

I super love the social aspect of my data science job. I'm a consultant, though, and you have to be comfortable with that aspect of the work.

I’m a credit analyst in a financial institution and I relate to all of this 😂 The things we hate about a job seems universal but here I am, still trying to shift to data analysis. The worse thing about my current job is being labelled “Above Peers” during my performance review but having someone labelled @Average” be promoted instead of me..I mean…that’s basically why I’m trying to shift careers. I hated it so much I’m jumping ship.

I felt this. True words were spoken.

I have been trying to choose between the data analytics certifications and the IBM data engineering certification and given your frustration of having to go back and rely on other to adjust a database just made it super clear which certification my counter-dependent self should take so I don't have to crawl out of my skin on a regular basis to ask for help.

I feel the second last one the most. I feel like often I have to chase people down for details on some custom application or pipeline they've requested and half the time they're slow to answer or never do. The expectation is that down the road they'll just hand a me a list of all the stuff I already requested after the damn thing is built and now it's a huge pain to change. This is particularly vexing because you can see it coming. You're working on some project you know doesn't have all the pieces sorted and some point in the arbitrary future they'll ask for a laundry list of tweaks you tried to collect at the outset. 😵‍💫 And yeah. Then maybe two people use it for anything. ☠️

On your last frustration, sometimes in management we have to task out minor projects of lower value to team members to keep them busy when we're slow. It keeps them working and learning while we finalize an upcoming deal. I can understand the frustration.

Definitely relatable pain points. I feel an interesting video topic would be how to manage tasks, projects, and stakeholder interaction and input. Seems like your "hate" items are mostly around clarity from stakeholders and why or how they are going to use the data or dashboard. I'd be curious to know if you have any advice or frameworks that help improve these situations.

If I had to guess, the data cleaning frustration comes from what I call the law of logs. With any project and/or information gathering, the completion rate is very similar to a log graph. For example 0 - 30% might take 3 days then 30 - 60% takes 6 days and 60 - 90% takes 12 days. At that point because of the exponential nature 90 - 95% could take 20 days and that's the part that starts to become frustrating. The amount of time you've spent on the last stretch is starting to equal all the time you've spent on the rest and your brain can't justify the time.

Omg!!!! You nailed it!!! 💯 All.of.them!! And those dashboards that I create that no one looks at…I DELETE them from Tableau because I don’t want them coming back a year later saying…oh..I “found” this dashboard…can you tweak it to do blah…blah…blah…

Thank you for the video Alex. I’m about to start self-learning data analytics but your comments on the social requirements are giving me pause. For context, i left a previous job for similar reasons as i was always mentally drained due to my introversion and anxiety. Could you shed more light? What goes on in these meetings? Is everyone required to speak or is it more of brainstorming or receiving tasks for the day? Is any actual work getting done during the meetings, as it’s hard for me to imagine it enduring for hours!

Thanks Alex!

omg i can relate so good to the point of being stuck in useless meetings... completely makes my blood boil

I think often times the requester doesn't really understand what they need, I try to get a solid understanding of the intent.

@4:33 YES! "Ummm can you also add?"

I thought I was crazy, I have worked in this sector for up to 7 years and I’m so done. I am thinking of pivoting completely. I really hate it more than I love it now. Seeing other people’s reason is so validating.

"Let's just start with what we have, and we can change it later" literally I felt a physical reaction in my body of "NO" because I know exactly what you mean. Like, please, for the love of all things holy, have a solid plan and hammer out the issues before you go forward!! The changes will grow exponentially and then foundation will be based on irrelevant content! I am a planner. I need to know all the details and I need to determine and find solutions for all the major (and prominent minor) problems before I do anything. Travel, grocery shopping, home improvement, furniture rearrangement, etc. How do people just live flying by the seat of their pants?!

Hi Alex, I love all your content! Can you make a video on how to write about your projects? Or conventions for documenting your work in Markdown? Thanks

This is the vent session from my heart!

Everything you described is what I hated about being a system analyst at Procter and Gamble . Made me quit the whole industry for like 13 yrs . Now I'm crawling back but I refuse to be over extended , I'm going to lay out boundaries and clear expectations. P. S I still have access to this whole Quickbase system I set up in 2008 . Untouched and all that private information still there smh lol

So is it a bad career path for someone who despises meetings? I’ve been working in a job for about a year where I had one 30 min scrum call a day and even that had ended up being unmanageable for me. And the scope creep was enough to give me nightmare and I’ve quit the job without another offer in hand. Can you recommend a job profile which does not have the requirement to sit in meetings for too long?

Never work for a DS group that reports to IT. They will use you inappropriately for troubleshooting unrelated issues ("hey - can you fix this laptop - I mean, you know computers, right?"). And especially beware of requests to "help out" the data warehouse group most of whom don't know SQL very well so they try to make it your problem that their databases aren't efficient. Also beware of those informal "side" requests to "write a quick script" for someone. Those individuals will never give you credit nor will they forget that you helped them out so will keep coming back. So, over time you are doing unofficial development for them in addition to your job.

Great Video! So close to 200k!! This video is so relevant to anyone who does projects lol. I’d like to ask a question. I’ve gone from being an engineer to a systems analyst and hopefully transitioning this year to a data analyst role. When people make these career changes, do you ever see people transition to a mid level role? Or are they almost entry level? I’m hoping to move into more of an analytics type role, however I just don’t want to have to take a massive pay cut to do so.

I so agree . I’m always mad here complaining about how messy the data is 😂. Spend so much time cleaning it up

Think is one of your best topic. People who don't know the job think it's one of the best job because but actually as all job in the world there is bad stuffs as well

To me, the worst thing is when someone ask me to put the data in an Excel sheet instead of use the dashboard

Regarding your 4th point, after a two decades of analytics experience (marketing science at an advertising agency), I start with the mindset that my work may not be used. For me, when it's not used it's most likely it doesn't support the stakeholders proposed plans. They are quite likely to have commissioned a few pieces of analytics from different angles to back up a viewpoint or story, thus want it there to be able to pick and choose. I don't take it personally. However, knowing this, I'm always comfortable pushing back on timings. I tend to find when someone wants something today they actually need in a week or even longer.

I deal with most of this stuff as a BSA as well!

I appreciate your post on what you have put out here of what Data Analysis pertains to. Because I am a Black woman I truly must be careful of my response verbally in the workplace even moreso with the matters U brought up. This goes for other people of color as well who want to get into this industry. I have this video saved to review when necessary!

8:17 Man, I FELT that pause.

I'm making a career pivot from a somewhat obscure academic field. I am so used to spending literally years on something and knowing that about 12 people will read it. I think I'll be just fine with that aspect of the job. 😂

From a spiritual point of view and personal experience i would recommend not to fake laughs and not to put on a mask at work. I know its so common, and also kind of expected but not truely being yourself is draining too and have the "mask" of being happy or whatever on is bringing more conflict than just being yourself. If you have a bad day and feel drained and someone makes a joke and you just dont feel it, there is no harm in not laughing, if you dont find it geniuely funny, dont laugh, if anyone asks (sometimes they ask by giving you a look) you just state your point, im having bad day, its not my kind of humor and so on. And this can be applied to various situation not just faking laughs, people are sometimes emotionally very demanding (often without realizing it) , sometimes a compromise is okay but sometimes people want more and more over time, it starts little and one day they demand a million things and when you then create some distance to not being drained so much, they perhaps feel hurt and then they blame you. I think its better to start clear of, compromising is ok at times but if things get to much it should be named like, "yea i can work a few hours more this week, but i dont want it to become a habbit" just to have a example situation. But you need to be on your toes as many of these things happen more in the subconscious than in the conscious mind and it takes a little bit of sensitivity to communicate these things.

I'm looking at pursuing this career. I can't believe the water and disrespect of requesting a project be done but never actually looking at it. What do you guys think about creating a fake dashboard or whatever the deliverable is as a test to see if they'll actually use it before putting the months of work into it?

I agree on the last part make you do the project as fast as you can aside the fact that it is paid that's why they do that kind of treatment

I could be wrong @Alex, to me the last couple of these seem like culture / SME onboarding issues that seep into a very new industry. 3. No Scope / Loose Scope with frequent backend revisions 4. "Priority" / "Urgent" Projects that aren't utilized/viewed Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can often be notoriously unaware of how unmanageable they can be and the effect this has upon the team of professionals who work around them. A couple ideas based on your sharing here - which I really appreciate. Might part of a solution be to simply be data driven on the back side of a project? 1. If this is "urgent", could we insert language to that effect into the scope document (or create such a document) and then continue tracking afterward to see if/how it was utilized. - (For at least our internal use) Did the urgency on the front end match the degree of utilization on the back end? - If there isn't much scope on the front end how could we document this and have the stakeholder signoff on it? 2. If this seems too confrontational or unorthodox could we present this resource-enhancing idea beforehand to our lead or executive who we are most accountable to? I have seen in my experience as an instructional designer working with SMEs that guardrails and boundaries are really helpful - exactly the same way as a highly paid consultant would deftly manage the expectations and avoid getting into a place where they are stretched too thin. Your video *did not* come off that way at all - however reading between the lines - this was invaluable for me and other newer folks to see that SME management is always a vital part of the job - much appreciated!

Re:#4 In the Army, we called it Crisis Management. I've hated it for decades. You end up working for, then making someone else look good. Sucks!!

Hello Alex! Thank you very much for sharing all of these information and knowladge about data anslysis. Hoping you will notice my comment, I have to ask you is Data Analyst a profession of the future? I would like to learn more about Excel, SQL and PowerBi in next few months and, I was wondering will market need those skills in 2023 etc. Is it worthy to invest my energy and time in learning mentioned skills?

Hello Alex, Do you have a video on the stress or work/life balance associated with being a Data Analyst? I am currently a teacher who is taking the Google Data Analytics Certificate. Or, can anyone discuss this if they are a data analyst? I understand every job/career has its difficulties. Thank you in advance.

I appreciate what you are saying, however, for me as long as I am paid for the work that I do, the boss can do whatever he or she wants with it.

I love all of these (and by that I mean I also strongly dislike/hate all of these). Another one for the list maybe is when the stakeholders have absolutely no understanding of the complexity of the request based on existing data infrastructure and think something that should honestly take a month or longer should be doable in a couple days.

As a senior data analyst, i felt like it was me was talking in the video

Hello Alex I have specific question for entering Healthcare Data industry. I have degrees in Business & Nursing and wanted to pivot to healthcare analyst role. I see several jobs posting for SQL experience. Can you tell me which specific SQL cert I should target? Thank you

Exactly lots of meetings exhaust us!! If you get the manager who don't know abou data and database then he will exhaust you more and you will do revisions again and again!!

take a drink every time he says "genuinely" - you'll be trashed before the end of the video. Seriously though good content - interesting perspective, especially about the data cleaning. Thanks for sharing!

I appreciate all of this…but my sub-conscious plant lover is distracted by the lovely snake plant behind you 👀🌱😯🤩

I was getting exhausted by proxy, listening to you talking about social interaction

Need help with cleaning data from a standard pdf invoice. I am current data analyst that works with basic invoicing and estimate.

Hi Alex, Thanks for your videos. I want your thoughts about a Data Analyst Nanodegree Program. Do u think it is good one and deserve its cost. Thanks

Gotta love that scope creep

superiors/departments asking you to manipulate or even forge data so that they look better. happened to me in a couple of companies.

not a data analyst... yet... but definitely feel on the last point. I have so many projects that I put together spreadsheets or PPT decks and end up never being used by anyone and it infuriates me.

hahah I can defo relate with some of this!

I'm looking forward to the follow up video to this after it makes it's rounds with your company 😂

Exactly!!!

6 - 7 hour long meetings?? Whyyyy 😩😩😩 I hate meetings but still wanna explore this field lol!

Hi Alex items 3-4 are, unfortunately, the reality for any kind of technical service for non-tech people - and yes it is extremely frustrating. I address it by saying to myself "if you want N revisions because you could not spend 1 Hr agreeing on what you wanted, I will bill you for each hour required to make the revisions". Before i let the revisions get to me because i saw that they could be avoided so easily and saw my time as "wasted" but now i say "if your laziness means I have to spend N*X hours fixing it, so be so"