Things I HATE About Being a Data Analyst

Key Takeaways

there are things that i hate about being a data analyst and i normally don't mention them but today i'm going to talk about them [Music] now i hope you guys know by now i absolutely love data analytics you could say i have a passion for it but there is definitely a part of this job that i absolutely hate and i don't say hate super lightly some of these things i absolutely hate and some of these things i'm going to talk about today are more a very strong dislike and so i'm gonna kind of start with the ones that i just really dislike and i'm gonna go all the way to the ones i absolutely hate and i cannot stand and let's not waste any time let's jump into with number one and this is one that i think a lot of people can understand and that's why i'm starting off with this one this one again i strongly dislike which is the social interaction piece of being a data analyst i love my co-workers i really do but the social interaction piece of it is something that really affects me personally something that i personally strongly dislike is the category that i would put it in because i have a meter like i get filled up by being by myself i recharge right and then when i go into meetings and i spend six seven hours in meetings during a day and i have to smile and laugh at people's jokes i mean it is exhausting and my meter gets drained so quickly like probably within the first like three or four hours and then the last two or three hours i just have to like push past and just like kind of put on a face because i'm supposed to be happy but my goodness uh it is really genuinely tough to endure the social interaction sometimes and some of you may not understand that my wife genuinely could be around people all day every day and she gets fueled by that but me by nature i am more of an introvert and being around people genuinely drains me and unbeknownst to me when i first started as a data analyst they have to communicate a lot and so i really had to learn how to get better at this and i genuinely have gotten better at this it used to drain my entire tank in like two hours talking to people genuinely now i'm up to like five i can make it till five and then after that i'm like guys why are we still meeting i was like let's let's end this meeting and i will start i won't say get cranky but i definitely start getting like unfrustrated or annoyed and it's something that i genuinely i don't think i'll ever like i don't think that's ever something that i'm going to enjoy and so again that is something that i do not like or i strongly dislike about being a data analyst now number two is one that i think some people actually be surprised by but it's how grinding the work can be specifically around data cleaning and i will be the first person to say i love cleaning data i actually really do love it but it reaches a point where i start to like absolutely hate it and and i i reach that level after like a certain point i can't really explain it but i will spend a week maybe two weeks even cleaning data and it's interesting and you have to transform and you have to you know create calculations you have to clean it up and you have to do all these things and it's really interesting and then there will hit a point in that process where i am just over it i hate going back to database engineers database developers changing this changing that it it becomes so monotonous and it becomes so frustrating that i'm literally like just keep it how it is i don't even care i'm done i was like we've done 95 of the work i don't want to do the last five like i'm truly done cleaning this data it's just it's not worth it anymore it's not worth my sanity and i think a lot of people on the outside looking in or who are trying to become a data analyst think a lot of the job is creating visualizations it's creating dashboards it's really interesting and you know that is a part of the job i would say about 10 of it but you have to have clean data to do those visualizations and sometimes you get the messiest worst data sets you've ever seen and it is just it's it's terrible it's very tough and that is something that i genuinely hate now we're going from dislike to hate because i reach a threshold where it's not even a dislike it's like i just hate doing this and so again it's a very fine line between i love this and i hate this and and there is a point and if you are a data analyst out there who cleans data i hope i'm not the only one who feels that way i hope you can understand where i'm coming from when i say that number three is people who are always asking for revisions on work now look maybe i made a mistake or i made a spelling error or i i changed something in the dashboard that i shouldn't have and i need to fix it that's on me and i that's my fault i genuinely apologize that's not what frustrates me that's not what i absolutely hate what i absolutely hate are the people who come to you and they say oh let's just start working on this right let's just start let's just start with what we have and we can always change it later that to me is one of the worst things you can do and it happens all the time they'll come to you and they have this some somewhat idea semblance of an idea and they say well let's just go with what we have now and then if we need to we can fix it later and 10 times out of 10 you have to fix it later because they didn't wait or they decided to go too quickly we didn't have all the data and then you have to completely redo everything and it's like this never ending project where the scope of the actual work just keeps expanding and changing in different data sets and different visualizations and all these things it's like it is a never-ending project because they have no idea what they actually want or need and they're just kind of throwing things that they have at you now with absolutely no forethought into the fact that you were gonna have to do 10 times the amount of work because they did not plan ahead or have what they needed when they came to you all right i'm getting heated i'm going to try to calm down for this next one again i don't talk about things i hate that much um and i genuinely it is like raising my heart rate to talk about these things but i'm gonna try to keep going for the sake of the video number four the very last one the one that i hate more than anything else we've discussed today this is one that makes my blood boil when i really think about it and in the moment it absolutely does it's when somebody asks for a project and it takes a month two months to complete and there is a sense of urgency behind it they're asking you like updates when is it going to be finished when is it going to be done hey have you finished this part and you do that extra work you go above and beyond and you get it done quicker than you probably could have or should have given that you thought this was you know an important project and then nobody and i mean nobody uses it looks at it or touches it in any way that to me is probably one of the biggest things that i hate about being a data analyst because sometimes the work you do will just never ever be looked at and genuinely it is made to seem like is very important for that client stakeholder whomever and then you work on it you finish it and you feel really good about it you're like man this is a three month project i finished in two months i'm happy about this i'm happy how it looks the client is happy and they're like all right we've signed off the project's done wonderful you close it out then like a month later you go and check it and nobody's looked at it and you're like oh okay you know okay maybe they just you know they don't need it yeah they need it next month you check it two months later they still haven't looked at it and then i'm like oh let me email them hey do you have access to this yeah i have access it's it you know i just haven't needed right now you know i'll check on it next chance i get i'll check on that like three six months later and i can see i can tell if people are using at it looking at it the click-through rates how long people are spending on it i have all the analytics for it and i'm telling you there is nothing more frustrating than spending months on a project and working really hard to clean the data get things done and they are pushing you they're rushing you and they don't use it there there is nothing worse it is so frustrating it is genuinely one of the things that i would say that i hate about being a data analyst and this happens in other careers i understand that this happens in other jobs i get that but for me personally that is just it is it gets me every time it gets me every time and i don't tell people i'm not going to get mad at them i'll do the next project for them i understand how this line of work works right i get it but on on the inside i am just like i'm i'm done like that's it like i i hate this that was the worst thing that's ever happened to me all right that's an exaggeration but you get the point so that's my list all right it's only four things and i i think you can understand where i'm coming from with most of them i don't think they're so outlandish and so like alex how could you feel that way i think they're pretty understandable right and like i said do not take this out of context do not say alex hates analytics alex is not like being a data analyst that is not true i would say 98 of the time 95 to 98 depending on the week i love being a data analyst i truly do i love the work i like the people i like just the the tech that i get to work with and learn and improve on i love all of those things but these things specifically are things that i truly truly hate so thank you for hearing what i have to say i know at some point that may have sounded more like a rant but i tried to keep it as concise as i could i didn't want to ramble on too much but i genuinely just get very frustrated even talking about it because it just hits it hits this like nerve in the back of my head that i don't know i can't explain it i can't explain it but i appreciate you listening i appreciate you joining me if you like this video be sure to like and subscribe below check out all my other videos they're pretty good i will see you in the next [Music] you