I want to enter as an entry-level data analyst. I expect a salary in the $40-50,000 range commiserate with my skills. I want the opportunity for advancement if I work hard and prove my worth. I want to be on the management/executive track by the time I’m 30.
How would I accomplish this? Through working my butt off for however many years it takes to prove my worth.
Yet no employer will even consider me for a job because I don’t have 2+ years of experience for a basic entry-level data analysis job.
Instead I get offered “sales” jobs where I can “make my own living and be my own boss”.
Life is hard but this is friggin ridiculous. Why did I go to college and work my BUTT off learning statistics and mathematics when I could have bypassed it all and still be qualified for the same jobs?
You’re being satirical, right? You couldn’t possibly be serious, could you???
And have you researched this, and calculated the probability for this absurd chain of events?
With your background if you went into programming/design you would make a killing. Learning programming skills would take time but worth it. It is a lot of work and many are not willing to to do that.
I want to enter as an entry-level data analyst. I expect a salary in the $40-50,000 range commiserate with my skills. I want the opportunity for advancement if I work hard and prove my worth. I want to be on the management/executive track by the time I’m 30.
How would I accomplish this? Through working my butt off for however many years it takes to prove my worth.
Yet no employer will even consider me for a job because I don’t have 2+ years of experience for a basic entry-level data analysis job.
Instead I get offered “sales” jobs where I can “make my own living and be my own boss”.
Life is hard but this is friggin ridiculous. Why did I go to college and work my BUTT off learning statistics and mathematics when I could have bypassed it all and still be qualified for the same jobs?
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Are you joking?
twenty thousand or some no cost internships is where you start.
and you need to work for your grad degree.
I think you are expecting too much and need to take what you can get and get all the experience you can.
Black_Shark, let me give you a piece of advice on the open thread.
As the disclaimer on an open-source piece of scientific software used to say, "Careful! Anything free comes with no guarantee."
1) I expect a salary in the $40-50,000 range commiserate with my skills.
This comes across as demanding. It's an employer's market. There are people (as you say) with 2-3 years experience willing to take that much. Unless you have a hook (you're dating the CEO's daughter) saying what YOU want isn't a good move. It makes you look grasping and likely to jump ship as soon as a marginally better salary comes along.
2) I want the opportunity for advancement if I work hard and prove my worth.
In a field which is full of companies nearly going belly-up (think of the shenanigans to keep the banks from foundering), your individual contribution is of no value. You are a *COST*. Get on board and SHOW what you can do, and they may like you: or your entire division may get axed to cover the rear of someone trying to enter the C-level suite.
3) I want to be on the management/executive track by the time I’m 30.
Have you stopped to consider how many unemployed MBAs there are right now?
And again, you may think that you are advertising yourself as "serious" but there are other, less flattering, messages which might be read into that statement.
4) Life is hard but this is friggin ridiculous. Why did I go to college and work my BUTT off learning statistics and mathematics when I could have bypassed it all and still be qualified for the same jobs?
Where did you go to school? What is your GPA? In what discipline?
It may or not be impressive, but if the big picture is that your field is under the gun, the odds are against you.
Consider your learning as intellectual kindling, find out what area is hot (and likely to remain so), and see how you can springboard from your area to that.
Central_va's advice is not just gold: it's platinum.
Programmers are a dime a dozen; but programmers who understand the business rules and reasons behind the programming, who can contribute in a meaningful way to design, are priceless. Your econ is a good start to that, if you want to go to the financial industry.
On the con side, if you really want to go to management, programmers are considered "outside the loop" for *real* business operations.
Full Disclosure: depending on the situation, management is not all it's cracked up to be. It is mostly political; the pressure never lets up; you are being gunned at by other managers eager to absorb your department AND by those beneath you; and you usually have to work late (9 or 10 pm) most every night just to keep up. It can play hell with a marriage.
Which is yet another reason I did NOT opt for management track immediately.
Cheers!
I have no idea. You tell me.
I have no idea. You tell me.
“I want to enter as an entry-level data analyst. I expect a salary in the $40-50,000 range commiserate with my skills. I want the opportunity for advancement if I work hard and prove my worth.”
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It sounds as though you’re a senior already. Many of the recent graduates I’ve seen “get their foot in the door” in recent years did so by well placed (summer & holidays) internships. They had the opportunities to prove their worth and were picked up, as “known quantities”, upon graduation.
If you’re past the internship stage, then you might try getting on as a “temporary” in your line of work (even if it’s entry level work)—anything to be in a position to prove your worth.
By the way, welcome to the world of work and hustling. Nobody is getting anything handed to them in today’s economy (except perhaps for a handful of minority affirmative action folks). Wish you the best. Just don’t give up.