Anyone here work as an Analyst?

[Naresh]

To be more specific - a data or information analyst. I'm going for a new role and needed some pointers on what to revise on for the testing phase. They're asking for experience in actual data analysis but my current role is limited to alot of data extraction and conversion using using pivot tables, rather than actual analytical work.

If you can give me some pointers or PM some actual test papers/examples that would be a huge help, as a starting point on what I should expect.

 

[Nickynibbles]

Analyst can mean a million & one things........can you be more specific than data/information analyst? For instance my job title is Financial & Planning Analyst for a division of a well known cable tv/phone/mobile/broadband provider beginning with the letter "V"! Im really an accountant though so number crunch stats & performance data for the division.

Being general though, there's not a lot to get concerned about in fairness, your excel skills you talk of are critical as presentation of data is one of the key things you'll no doubt be doing. The basics of an analytical job is to look at some data, look for trends, look for good & bad things, compare data against a budget or other forecast, investigate anything you dont understand, and then present it to end users in a logical way so they can understand it quickly. These are the kind of skills to talk about at interview.

Im being a little general here but hope it helps in any case.

 

[smitch]

a well known cable tv/phone/mobile/broadband provider beginning with the letter "V"!

Would that be Verizon by any chance?????

 

[Nickynibbles]

Would that be Verizon by any chance?????

Nope, here's a clue..........my mate Richard B is the chairman!!

 

[Naresh]

Hi thanks for the reply - I should have been more specific. Basically I work for the government to produce crime statstics for the Met and Home Office. The figures are extracted from a central database where officers input crime records. We then extract these, input into access databases and convert via pivot tables into meaningful reports. Alot of the work I do is therefore data processing and report production rather than Analyst job title we're given.

This new role is looking for specific Analytical experience so is there anything you can suggest that I can "brush up on"? I've seen a statistical tools option in Excel but never used it before.

 

[Nilz]

Nicky is it the opposite to a $lag????? lol?????

 

[Nickynibbles]

Hi thanks for the reply - I should have been more specific. Basically I work for the government to produce crime statstics for the Met and Home Office. The figures are extracted from a central database where officers input crime records. We then extract these, input into access databases and convert via pivot tables into meaningful reports. Alot of the work I do is therefore data processing and report production rather than Analyst job title we're given.

This new role is looking for specific Analytical experience so is there anything you can suggest that I can "brush up on"? I've seen a statistical tools option in Excel but never used it before.

Ahh ok, its basically number crunching as well then. Being an analyst is a very transferable job type in that you can work for pretty much any company as numbers are always just numbers, it dosent matter what they represent your still looking for the same trends, variances to targets etc! Essentially its a very generic job type so given your already familiar with access & excel to a high level your mostly there already i'd say! The key to a numerical analyst is as i've said before, look at some data, look for trends, look for good & bad things, compare data against a budget or other forecast, investigate anything you dont understand, and then present it to end users in a logical way so they can understand it quickly. You've already got most of the skills in terms of manipulating data, you just need to be able to talk about examples of where you've reviewed some data and made some conclusions about it. Sit down and do some thinking of clear concise examples you can talk about confidently at an interview. Its not really rocket science so dont get worried!


@Nilz18t - Yes your correct with your guess!!

 

[dbm]

Hi Naresh,
I work in software testing for a consultancy company, so if you are moving from 'traditional' analysis in to testing analysis then I can offer some experience.

As a data analyst, you might be called on to analyse input data to predict expected system behaviour, or to analyse system outputs and see if these are as expected for the tests being written. The way you would go about this is by identifying the critical data which influences system behaviour and checking the input data for these important values.

As a system analyst, you might be called on to analyse the system itself, usually from the specifications, to identify what behaviour the system should have. As a test analyst you would then design tests where by the inputs and actions should cause the system to exhibit specific, predicted behaviour. If it doesn't, there is a defect!

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Dan