If you’re in the market for a new job, you know how competitive today’s job search can be. Not only is it extremely competitive when applying for roles, but job openings also seem to outnumber qualified applicants. According to Forbes, “the existing talent shortage will reach its worst levels in 2030 when an expected 85.2 million job openings will go unfilled worldwide.”
It’s a race to see who can apply the fastest, set themself apart from other job seekers, and wow recruiters with a CV, LinkedIn profile, or portfolio.
One cause of the talent shortage can be attributed to the need for technical skills like data analytics. Harvard Business School reports the business and society potential created by big data is “disrupting a wide range of roles, from engineering to functional analysts to executives.” Across many organizations, functions, and industries, people will need to develop their data skills.
What do US campus recruiters want to see?
We asked the campus recruiter at Tableau about her point of view on skills that current or returning students should be acquiring to boost their professional profiles.
“We view data skills as more of a mindset than anything. Regardless of the information you’re analysing, we see someone with this skill set as naturally curious and passionate about solving problems. Whether you’re looking to solve a critical issue or you’re more interested in personal data, data analysis skills are extremely transferrable.”
Data skills are important for anyone starting their career. When LinkedIn reported hard and soft skills companies to need most in 2019, “Analytical Reasoning” was ranked number 3 under hard skills. Digging deeper into this conversation, I asked Kari what makes a strong candidate and she listed a few examples of skills that demonstrate competency:
- Transferrable skills like data skills! Recruiters like to see projects that demonstrate leadership, flexibility, and humility. Show us how you’ve applied data to make decisions.
- The ability to code in Java, C, C#, C++, Ruby, and other languages, as well as showing proven success and ability to meet deadlines with a project.
- Experience working with customers. Seeing that you have past success in customer-facing roles, possess technical aptitude with tools, and are goal-oriented tells us you’re an applicant to consider.
Whether you’re still in school or a recent graduate, it’s never too late to pick up data skills, learn how to code, or gain experience working with customers – all things that make you a more compelling candidate in the job search.
Hear from students – the Data Generation
One new Miami University graduate, Buchi Okafor, had a passion for sports and landed a finance internship at Under Armour where he first learned Tableau. Buchi quickly learned that “whatever job you’re doing you’ll be looking at data. The people that separate themselves from the pack are those who can gain insights from data pretty quickly and share their insights with others in a way their business partners can understand.” When a new analytics team at Under Armour formed, Buchi decided to focus on his love for data and now works as an analyst for the global pricing strategy and analytics team.
Another new grad, Harpreet Ghuman, began his data skills journey unconventionally. He saw a Game of Thrones visualization in Tableau Public which intrigued him, leading him to teach himself Tableau. At the time, Harpreet was in a master’s program at the University of Maryland for business administration and management.
Harpreet said, “Once I started making visualizations with Tableau, it didn’t matter to people that I didn’t have a background in data. Visualization, like curiosity, is a skill you can translate.” With his newfound love of data analytics, Harpreet decided to also pursue a master of science degree in marketing analytics. Now, he has his dream job as a senior consultant in data analytics at EY, putting his Tableau skills to use with his job’s focus on data visualization.
Check out more about Tableau Bootcamp training in the US for University students here
