The Data Analyst resume checklist

Posted on: June 4, 2024

Post Category: Data

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Needless to say, if you want to get the Data Analyst role you want, you need to write a good resume.

But to write a good Data Analyst resume, there are a few things you should include (especially if you’re looking for your first analyst job): your portfolio(s) and a projects section.

This post will go through some of the fundamentals when writing a good resume, and some of the specific things you should include when writing a good *analyst* resume.

(Note that the content that follows will be very similar to a resume checklist I produced earlier, for Uni students)

Things you should NOT do with your resume

• Do NOT use an infographic resume. Infographic resumes tend to use a lot of (unnecessary) colours, have an emphasis on aesthetics, and do not follow a standard structure. Because of this, they are harder to read and navigate. Some infographic resumes also use metrics/charts to measure how proficient a candidate is with a skill, and they are confusing to interpret. Ask people what a ‘five out of five’ Python user looks like, and everyone will say something different…
• Do not include a picture of yourself. A picture of yourself does not help highlight your skills and experience, and you do not want to introduce bias that might work against you. If a recruiter really wanted to see a picture of you, they will look at your LinkedIn profile.
• Do not write a resume longer than 2 pages, and try to keep it to 1 page. Recruiters do not spend a lot of time reading your resume. Based on industry research, a recruiter will only spend 6 to 8 seconds reviewing your resume. Hence, keep your resume short and concise. Note that, in the current job market, one page is the standard.
• Do not include links or share email addresses that are potentially offensive.
• Do not share an email address that might expire, like your student or work email address.

How to structure your resume

• Your resume must have the following sections: name and contact details, experience, and education. And if you’re applying for (entry-level to junior) analyst positions, you must have a projects and skills sections. You need a skills, experience and projects section that recruiters can skim through to easily determine whether you’re a good fit, given the requirements of the role. These are the sections that should contain the bulk of the job description’s key words, as this will help you pass the resume screening stage (if a machine is used to filter out applicants). Note some sections are optional and can be used on a case-by-case basis, including your career profile, extracurriculars, and certifications.
• Ensure all sections of your resume have a heading, except for your name and contact details.
• Put your most relevant section at the top of your resume – after your details and career profile. The rule of thumb is to start off your resume with content most relevant to the job requirements. For current (under)graduate students, or young professionals applying for an entry-level or graduate role, this would typically be your Education. For professionals who have been in the industry for a while or have some work experience, this would typically be your Experience.

How to write resume dot points

• Aim to write achievement statements to highlight both your skills and accomplishments. For most sections (especially your experience, career profile and projects), opt for achievement statements for your bullet points. Achievement statements can be written using a simple formula: [ACTIVE VERB] + [TASK] + [A PURPOSE OR SPECIFIC/QUANTIFIABLE OUTCOME]. For example, ‘Organised 15 technical workshops and industry-insight events that have reached more than 300 attendees’. You can find a list of active verbs you could use in your statements here. If you are struggling to quantify your experiences, this blog post may be useful.
• Be concise. For example: say ‘Automated [PROCESS]’ instead of ‘Enabled process automation for [PROCESS]’, and say ‘Documented [PROCESS]’ instead of ‘Wrote documentation for [PROCESS]’. Oftentimes you are saying things longer than they should – where you’re adding words that don’t contribute to the overall meaning. So try cut your sentences down – or get an extra pair of eyes to check this.

How to write about the common resume sections

Your Name and Contact Details section:

• Write your name in large font.
• Include your contact details (i.e., your email and phone number) and links to any online webpages that show your work or professional profile (e.g. your personal website, LinkedIn profile and links to your portfolio – if relevant).

Your Career Profile section (optional):

• Write 3 bullet-point achievement statements tailored to the position, highlighting your areas of expertise and experience.
• Use key words from the job description.

Your Education section:

• List the name of your degree, followed by the name of your institution.
• Write the commencement date (month and year) of your degree and the month and year of your graduation. If you have not graduated yet, write the expected month and year of your graduation.
• If relevant to your position, include your WAM, any relevant coursework, academic achievements/awards, scholarships or exchanges.

Your Experience section:

• For each role, write the name of the role, followed by the employer and the dates you have worked. For dates, specify the month and the year.
• List your roles in reverse chronological order according to end date (i.e., write the most recent role you had, or the most recent role you left, at the top).
• To be concise, write (at least 1 and) at most 5 dot point achievement statements for each role you list.
• Include any employer awards received to reinforce your dot point achievement statements.
• And if you took part in a data analyst bootcamp, share it. More detail will be provided later on this.

Your Projects section:

• For each project, write the name of the project, followed by its date of completion. For dates, specify the month and the year.
• List your projects in reverse chronological order.
• To be concise, write (at least 1 and) at most 2 dot point achievement statements for each project you list. We’ll go into this in more detail later, for Data Analyst positions specifically.
• Reserve your last (third) dot point for a link to your project. This can be a link to the repository or the app you built (if any).

Your Skills section:

• Create an unordered bullet-point list of your technical skills. For less technical roles, you may include interpersonal skills. But in my view, for data analytics, having your technical skills written down is the most important thing, in case your resume gets screened. Your interpersonal skills and culture fit will be assessed during the interviews that will happen later on.

Your Extracurriculars section (optional):

• Write it like your Experience section (i.e., share the name of the role, followed by the employer and the dates you have worked, and list your roles in reverse chronological order, etc.)

Your Certifications section (optional):

• Write the name of the certification, followed by the date you acquired it. 
• Following the name of the certification, specify who issued it.
• You may also outline what the certification recognises you for.
• You may also include a link for recruiters to see your certificate.

How to format your resume

• Ensure there is consistent formatting when you list your experiences, projects, extracurriculars, and references. For example, when listing out your experiences, you may have the name of the role and name of your employer, bolded and left-aligned, and the dates you have worked, right-aligned. Referring to some good examples will make this clearer.
• Create visual hierarchy using things like all caps, horizontal rules, bold font, colour, darker shades (i.e. black vs dark grey) and underlines.
• Ensure that font size does not vary much throughout your resume.
• Ensure that font style does not vary much throughout your resume. 
• Ensure that the range of colours you use is minimal, and use extra colours intentionally. I would not use more than three different colours. And I would not use any striking colours like solid red.
• Ensure that your content is consistently and neatly aligned.
• Check that spacing is consistent throughout your resume – between sections, bullet points, etc.
• Check that all bullet points (don’t) have a full stop at the end. Full stop or no full stop; use whatever, but keep it consistent.
• Check that there are no typos, and spelling or grammatical mistakes.
• Check tense. Past tense for previous achievements, present tense for current duties.
• (As mentioned, try) condense the content of your resume to fit onto a single page. Keep the most relevant experiences you have.

Now, let’s get into the important pieces of content you need for a Data Analyst resume…

How to write about your data analytics learning pathway

• If you took a graduate or undergraduate program: needless to say, put that in your Education section.
• If you worked in a data adjacent role (and are looking to further building your career in data analytics/science): tailor your past experiences to align more with the requirements of the data jobs you are applying for.
• If you took a bootcamp: talk about the experience in your Experience section. Talk about some of the cool projects you got to build – quantify your achievements and talk about the tools that you got to use. Here’s an example from ‘Build a Career in Data Science’ that I would follow:

• If you took the DIY pathway: try not to include online course certifications in your resume; showcase your skills through your projects instead. I’d also add some context in your career profile section, as to why you’re building your career in data.

How to write about your personal projects – for data analysts

You might be thinking that it’s just a personal project – what kind of achievement statements could I possibly write?

OR you might be thinking: I did a lot of things for this project, like data cleaning, statistical modelling and visualising the results… should I highlight my skills by writing down the steps I took to complete the project…?

Let me respond to those two concerns in order – by sharing what *I* would do:

1. Write up to three dot points: (1) share the (valuable) output you created and a bit about the steps/tools you used to get there, (2) share the accomplishments you had as a result, and (3) share a link to your project.
2. Avoid listing out the individual steps for each project. Keep your projects section concise – and be mindful that you also have your Experience and Skills section to reinforce your relevant skills.

When reviewing your own resume, it’s good to think from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about data analytics. Because it is possible that when you apply your jobs, it will come through a recruiter first – not the hiring manager.

Keeping your projects section concise (by applying the two points above), will help provide recruiters with information that aligns with the job description – without needless detail taking up space on the page.

For example: If the average person doesn’t know what Principal Component Analysis is, and it’s not mentioned in the job description, don’t bother putting it in your resume.

Miscellaneous nice touches – and points specifically for data analysts

• Make it obvious that your resume is tailored, by tailoring your headings. For example, if you are applying for a Data Analyst position, instead of having an ‘Experience’ and ‘Projects’ section, have a ‘Data Analytics Experience’ and ‘Data Analysis Projects’ or ‘Coding Projects’ section.
• As mentioned, use key words from the job description to ensure high likelihood of passing the resume screen.
• As mentioned, opt for personal projects to validate your skills, instead of writing about the certifications you took – this applies to all aspiring data analysts, even if you’re not going down the DIY pathway.

Closing remarks

Here’s the resume that got me into my current (Graduate) Data Analyst role:

It’s not perfect – there are a few filler words I could have removed, like ‘many different’, and I could have quantified my achievements a bit more (where applicable): ‘NPS results across 500+ merchants’, ‘five years of electricity demand data’, etc.

But in hindsight, it’s missing one important thing; if I had to apply again, I would add a Skills section.

And notice how this follows fewer guidelines than what I’ve mentioned in this post…?

You should kind of expect this when you’re new to data analytics – and applying for your first role. You will get to follow more and more of the guidelines as you get more experience.

If you would like to look other great resumes (not necessarily for data analytics), you can find them in my older resume checklist post here.