Want to hire the best data analyst? Here’s a list of the top 20 data analysts, the skills you must look for, and how to hire them!
A brief intro on hiring freelance data analysts
Data analytics is on the rise in companies across the world. Organizations of different sizes are hiring data analysts. They want to examine historical transactions.
Additionally, these organizations use data analytics to predict emerging trends in the market for the future. A statistical analysis firm is hired to collect the data for the analysis work.
Many people are pursuing their careers in the data analysis field to get all the benefits and benefits in the full-time job role. The others desire to get freelance data analyst work so that they can get work flexibility.
Data Analytics and Data Science are always combined. Still, they are two different things. Data Science is a macro field that includes statistical and programming data analysis. On the other hand, data analytics involves the data’s statistical analysis to find actionable insights so that it is easy for organizations to take business decisions. You can become a data analyst.
It provides you independence and you can become your boss and work whenever you want. Data Analytics freelance offers you to maintain work/life balance. However, there are certain challenges in the freelance workflow that includes unpredictability of workflow. Therefore, you need to make your strong online presence to search for data analyst jobs.
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Market for freelance data analysts
The organizations have realized the operational advantages of using data analytics that is helpful for their business in the future. They will get opportunities to explore new things and target new customers to increase sales and earn a good amount of profits.
Therefore, the companies are using enterprise-grade security, cloud-based models, and other governance solutions offered. A statistical analysis firm is hired to do this job of freelance statistical analysis.
In 2018, the data analytics market valued at $168.8 Billion. By the year 2022, it may grow by $274.3 Billion. The data analytics market had generated revenue globally $189 Billion.
According to a study that revealed the key markets impacting data analytics include the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT), data fueling, machine learning, AI, data strategy, and data proliferation. We are looking at the rapid expansion of IoT. Furthermore, it is a new field to study for freelance data analysts.
Now, the app and web patterns are enjoying data analysts’ full attention. IoT analyst provides users to explore more data for freelance data analytics purpose. Youngsters who plan to become a freelance data analyst then they have the best opportunity now.
They can visit the job portals Linkedin, Upwork, and Fiverr to search for the freelance data analyst job. You are checking for the jobs then do not forget to read the job description of a freelance analyst carefully.
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Things to note while hiring freelance data analysts
Let us face it that data analytics has made our life easier. The right data analyst can bring one version of the truth from the predictions. Are you thinking about how to hire a data analyst for your company? Here are a few things to note while looking for a suitable candidate for a data analyst profile.
- Why do you need a freelance data analyst for your company? You should be aware of the need to hire an analyst for our company. Is your product sales are decreasing? You are not able to target potential customers.
- What is the need for data analytics for your business? You need to identify the value of analytics for your business then only you can hire a data analyst. It is not a good idea to spend a million bucks to solve a problem that costs you half million money. You are doing so in your business. Then, you will face huge losses in the future.
- As a business owner, you should checklist of problems your present staff is unable to solve. Then, you can search for a candidate that can suit the data analyst profile of your company.
You go to interview a candidate for a data analyst job. Then, you should first tell them about the company and your team. After that, brief up the data analyst tasks to the candidate in the interview. At the time, of data analysts hiring these things should be clear.
As an interviewer, you have to access the candidates on the soft and hard skills in them. Here are the two things that should include in your job description of the data analyst list.
- Does the candidate have critical thinking and visualization skills? Your data analyst should able to understand the graphs and charts. Then, he or she can make do analytics of the data available to them. The person can do the deep freelance statistical analysis.
- Is the candidate able to collaborate with the team? As an interviewer, you are asking data interview questions. Do not forget to check the important thing is the hard and soft skills of the candidate. The person who came for the data analyst job interview is capable to coordinate with the team and submit timely work.
You should remember these things while looking for a suitable candidate for a freelance data analyst job.
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Qualities for best freelance data analysts
Are you proceeding to hire a data analyst? Planning for the interview round you should check what all qualities a data analyst freelance must-have for the data analytics freelance job.
- Cleaning and Preparing Data: In the 80% work schedule of a data analyst, profile, data cleaning and preparation are the two important things. The data analyst is required to retrieve the data from different sources. In data cleaning, an analyst must handle the missing information.
- Data Exploration and Analysis: It may sound funny that knowledge of data analysis is one of the important qualities a data analyst should have. To conclude, you need to transform and analyze the data available. Then, the data analyst has to look for interesting trends that are useful to bring value to the business of the company.
- Strong Statistical Knowledge: The data analytics specialists should have a strong command of their statistical knowledge. Understanding the statistical data will ensure that your conclusion is valid without any errors.
- Creating data trends and visuals to make things clear: Doing data visualizations make things easier to understand. Many people will not able to understand excel sheet data. Humans are visual creatures and they will refer to the data visuals presented to them.
- Communication Skills: The ability to prepare conclusions from the data available is the duty of a data analyst. On the other hand, the ability to communicate with the team is an important quality for data analyst freelance should have.
An interviewer, you are heading for an interview to get a suitable analyst. You have a list of interview questions for data analysts. Do not forget to judge a candidate on the above qualities mentioned. It can help to choose the best talent for your organization.
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Freelance data analysts rate per hour
A freelance data analyst used his analytics skill to improve the business decision-making process. Maximum data analysts are doing freelance analytics work. They charge the hourly fee to do the data analytics work.
The minimum fee is around $50. Furthermore, it depends on the company-client discussion, work experience, and location. In the countries like the UK and USA, the people involved in data analytics and have a STEM degree then, the base hourly rate is $100.
It is the minimum rate that data analysts charge. On the other hand, in western countries, the base rate is $150. Therefore, the companies looking to hire data analysts should check to discuss the rates while asking data analyst interview questions with the candidate.
Still, the rate per hour of freelance data analysts depends on the country in which they live in. Things will be different when you are living in a developing country.
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Places to find best freelance data analysts
You are looking to hire a data analyst then you should be aware of the data analyst profile and tasks. The Data Science field is growing at a fast pace. The employers can go ahead and search on these online websites to find a freelance data analyst for their company.
- Upwork: Upwork is a popular and trustworthy freelance online marketplace. Around 10 million data analyst have registered their profiles here. The companies are posting their data analyst job requirement here. It is the best place to hire data analysts.
- Toptal: It is among the most popular place to find freelance analysts. As an employer, you can go through the profiles of the freelancers available on the website.
- unremot.com: On Unremot, the employees looking for jobs post their profile. Employers that are hiring people for their organization can contact them.
- Fiverr: Like Upwork, Fiverr emerged as the top online marketplace for freelancers. The freelancers can bid for the gigs available and get the job.
- Guru: It is an online marketplace best for employers and employees. Both of them can post their requirements on the website. Guru acts as a connection bridge between the employees and employers.
- Glassdoor: One of the largest recruitment websites is Glassdoor. It is the mass job board site from where the recruiters can find qualified data analysts for their company.
- Hired: The freelancers build their profile on the online job board Hired. Then, the companies that are hiring post their jobs and connect with suitable candidates.
- ZipRecruiter: Founded in 2010, ZipRecruiter became a thriving marketplace on the internet in the USA and UK. It lists the jobs of small business houses and charges minimum fees from them.
- USAJOBS: USAJOBS is a government official website of the USA. People from all over the world can check the various government jobs posted on this website.
- Buildin: An online community for startups and tech companies. These companies post their job requirement. The build has designed seven location-specific pages for Austin, Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle.
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Steps involved in hiring best freelance data analysts
In the past years, data analytics have grown beyond tech companies. Analytics freelance became the foundation for every business house to succeed. With the increasing demand for this job role, companies want to hire candidates who have clarity of concepts. It is not easy to get a qualified data analyst. You should follow a data analyst hiring strategy.
1. Post data analyst job posting on the online platforms
An accurate job description of a data analyst can attract qualified people who have proper technical knowledge and skills. The right candidate for your company should include these qualities like communication, preparing appropriate documents, and conduct proper data enquires. Before posting the job, do not forget to refer to the data analyst job description sample.
2. Check the educational qualification needed
Data analysts should understand the use of correct tools in their jobs. They should know the following software,
- RapidMiner
- Knime
- Tableau
- Google Fusion Tables
- SAS Sentiments Analysis
- Apache Hadoop
3. Check the certifications needed
A few certifications the freelance data analyst should have,
- CCA Data Analyst
- SAS Certified Data Scientist
- Data Science Council of America Certification
- Microsoft MCSE: Data Management and Analytics
4. Data Analyst Interview preparation
You will have to make a few determinations while making the list of interview questions for the data analyst. Does the candidate have all the skills required for the job role?
He or she is suitable to establish proper communication and take crucial decisions for the company on time in their data analytics freelance job. In the interview process, the candidate is providing appropriate examples while explaining things to you.
Then, he or she has experience in the analytics field can handle things smoothly. You can give them some tasks that can include data questions, data visualization questions, and data mapping interview questions. It is useful to assess technical knowledge.
Most data analyst knows their skills are high in demand. The employer should follow a purposeful approach while looking for a data analyst. The recruiter needs to do analysis the answers to questions asked in the interview round. Everything goes well according to you then, you can hire the person as your company’s data analyst.
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Top 10 data analyst interview questions
We are looking at a few data analysis interview questions and answers. The two flourishing fields in the industry is data analytics and data science. To check the deep analytics skills of candidates, you can ask these data mappings questions and statistical analysis questions in the interview.
1. What are the requirements to become freelance data analyst?
List of skills required to become a data analyst are,
- Knowledge of programming languages include (XML, Javascript, or ETL frameworks), reporting packages and databases (SQL, SQLite, Db2).
- Analyze the big data efficiently.
- Candidate should have proper technical knowledge in fields like database design, data mining, and segmentation techniques.
- Statistical packages sound knowledge.
2. What are the responsibilities of data analyst working in a company?
Most common data analysis interview question asked to the candidate by the recruiter. The data analyst handles the following duties,
- Collect all the data from different sources.
- Interpret and analyze the data collected.
- Offer support at every data aspect.
- Do the analysis of complex data sets.
- Ensure that all the databases have kept securely.
3. What is data cleaning? List the best ways to practice it.
The employer checks the technical knowledge by asking data cleaning interview questions. Data cleaning is conducted to detect and remove errors from the data collected. It is done to improve the quality of data collected from different sources. Different ways to do the data cleaning are,
- According to the attributes, segregate the data.
- Break the large data chunks and prepare small datasets to remove the errors.
- Do the statistical analysis of each data column.
- Create utility sets dealing with common cleaning tasks.
- Keep proper tracks of all data cleaning operations that happened in the company.
4. List of tools used for data analysis.
The most common question asks in the interview round to test the knowledge skills of the candidate. The tools useful in data analysis are,
- Tableau
- Google Fusion Tables
- Google Search Operators
- KNIME
- RapidMiner
- Solver
- OpenRefine
- NodeXL
- Io
5. Explain the difference between data profiling and data mining.
Data profiling is to analyze individual datasets. It provides valuable information. Data Mining aims to search and find out the unusual record and analyze the sequence discovery of data clusters.
6. Describe the KNN imputation method.
The KNN imputation method is to find the missing attributes in the data. The analysts use the distance function to find the similarity between the attributes.
7. What does the data analyst need to do with suspected or missing data?
In the case of suspected or missing data, the analyst can do the following things,
- To find the missing data use the following methods deletion method, single imputation methods, and model-based methods.
- Prepare a validation report of the missing data found.
- Assess the validity of the missing data.
- Use the proper validation code to replace invalid data.
8. What are the different data validation methods used?
The data analyst uses different methods by which they can validate the datasets are,
- Field Level Validation
- Form Level Validation
- Data Saving Validation
- Search Criteria Validation
9. What is clustering? Mention its clustering properties algorithm.
The clustering method is used to classify data into clusters and groups. Properties of clustering algorithms are,
- Hierarchical or flat
- Hard and soft
- Iterative
- Disjunctive
10. What is collaborative filtering?
Collaborative filtering is an algorithm system that creates a recommendation system based on behavioral data. Example: The recommendations for your list has prepared based on the shopping history on the online eCommerce sites.
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Top 10 tools to use while hiring freelance data analysts
The recruitment software’s capabilities changed rapidly in this digital era. To highlight the best tools in the market, we have prepared a list of 10 tools required to hire a freelance data analyst.
- Indeed: Recent surveys revealed that indeed.com has a $100 million database. This recruitment portal credited for 72% of interviews and hiring 65% of people in the United States.
- CareerBuilder: According to the industrial surveys, CareerBuilder is the second biggest source for staff external hiring. It has well known for job seeker surveys.
- Ideal: By analyzing the candidates’ information, Ideal uses AI to shortlist the suitable candidates the resume and experience details provided.
- Zoom.ai: Zoom.ai wants to simplify and improve the employee experience through its automation software system. The features of this application include meeting scheduling, calls transcribing, creating knowledge, and departmental bases.
- Bullhorn: It functions both as an applicant tracking system and candidate relationship management. 90% of the larger companies are using Bullhorn for keeping the track of the recruitment process.
- Greenhouse: This is the fastest-growing application tracking system. It is popular among the users for its features interviewing approach and structured hiring process.
- Smashfly: In terms of content marketing, one of the strongest CRMs is Smashfly. The software is helpful for the companies in maintaining a constant branding on the company’s career site.
- Yello: Some of the features of Yello are video interviewing and employee referrals. It received $31 million in funding in 2017.
- ConveyIQ: Video conferencing is becoming an integral part of the recruitment process. Use ConveyIQ for video interviews. Other feature of this tool includes text messaging and email sending.
- Self Management Group: One of the most science-based assessment tools in the market. Science Management Group is available in more than 40 languages.
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Dos and Don’ts while hiring freelance data analysts
Now, the world is realizing the importance of data analytics and need to hire a data analyst for their company. During the time of hiring an analyst for your company, keep certain dos and don’ts in mind.
Dos while hiring freelance data analysts for the organization,
- Do proper planning while hiring candidates: The Company should do proper planning with the team before hiring the data analyst.
- Transparent about the job roles: Provide a list of data analyst tasks that the person needs to perform for your company. The flexible job nature is to communicate clearly with the employee.
- Manage Non-Technical Employees Expectations: It is not directly linked with the hiring process. You need to face certain unrealistic expectations that the team members might face with this hiring.
- Encourage data-driven culture in the company: Most of the organizations started fostering a data-driven culture in their organization. It enhances employees’ creativity by diverting their mindset.
List of Don’ts to remember while hiring freelance data analysts for the company
- Action without a purpose: The companies start the recruiting process without knowing the actual purpose. A vision to do something is the first important step. It is lacking then it is impossible to get the suitable staff.
- Looking for perfection in data analyst: You can lose a suitable candidate if you follow an unrealistic approach to hiring a data analyst.
- Unrealistic interview techniques used: Organizations prepare the data analyst selection process to find suitable employees that can become an asset for their company. However, unrealistic approaches are used then the company can lose the potential people in the interview process.
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What are the top 3 skills for data analyst?
Now, the majority of organizations across the world realized the need for data-driven business strategies that are helpful for the growth and development of their business. Here are the three essential skills that a freelance analyst must have,
- Critical Thinking: You should improve your critical thinking skills to get a freelance data analyst job. Use the data to find out the answers to the related questions.
- Microsoft Excel Knowledge: Using Microsoft Excel does not mean to add data to the spreadsheet. You need to work on many things to do data analysis.
- SQL: SQL is Structured Query Language is an industry-standard database language. It is the most important skill that a data analyst must have to do the data analytics work properly.
How much does a data analyst cost?
The consultancy companies pay at an hourly rate of $200-$300 to freelance data analysts. On the other hand, the annual salary structure of a full-time data analyst is $54,000-$140,000. These are the average numbers. The cost of hiring a data analyst depends on the requirements, experience, client budget, project scale, and location.