To become a data analyst and earn a high income, you need to have the necessary skills and continuously upskill yourself to stay ahead of the curve. Several factors determine a data analyst’s salary, but their skills are the most important factor.
Let’s start by learning who Data Analysts are and about their job roles in an organization.
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Who is a Data Analyst?
Data Analysts are experts dealing with data who can translate numbers, figures, statistics, and other similar data into English so that every member of the organization can easily comprehend it.
Daily, over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated across the world, and it is the job of a Data Analyst to extract valuable information from that pile of data and present a comprehensive form of the same, like reports and visualizations, to the stakeholders. There is always room for improvement for Data Analysts as it is a fairly new field, and new advancements keep coming in day by day. It is the perfect career option for Data Analyst professionals who have a stronghold in statistics, math, and computer science.
What does a Data Analyst do?
Data analysts are responsible for collecting, storing, and interpreting data to extract valuable insights that can help businesses improve their operations and make better decisions. They also need to communicate these insights to stakeholders and other decision-makers in a clear and concise way.
Now that you have understood who Data Analysts are and what their role is in an organization, let’s move ahead. Before reading about the Data Analyst salary in India, you will read about the various skills necessary to pursue a career in this field.
Top Reasons to Choose a Data Analyst Career in India
Here are the top reasons for choosing a career in Data Analytics:
1. Data is a valuable asset today:
Industries and various sectors have realized the potential of structured and unstructured data. If not already, these organizations plan to employ big data initiatives. Big Data Analytics is becoming a core business practice to understand business and customers in fundamentally new ways.
Without data-driven insights, it is possible to lose one’s edge in the ever-competitive marketplace. As data holds more and more value, there will be limited to no growth for those with no data analytics skills.
2. Large number of unfilled Data Analyst jobs:
The supply-demand gap in the analytics market is wide. Over million-and-a-half managers and analysts with the ability to make data-driven decisions will be required. Currently, there are over 32,000 Data Analyst jobs available in India.
So, what happens when a job is in demand? Higher salaries are paid, the employee gets more perks, and their career paths are unmatched.
3. Data professional’s salaries are one of the highest in IT:
Believe it or not, Data Analyst salaries average higher than IT salaries. The annual average salary for these professionals is ₹600,000 in India. The salary has significantly increased over the years. This trend is expected to continue as the data industry evolves. As long as there is an innovative approach to data collection, storage, and increased usage, this salary trend will continue to be at the top of the pay scale.
4. Great potential for career growth:
Data Analysts and other data professionals are in huge demand across various industries and sectors. One can work in different domains, and due to the shortage of data analytics skills, they can quickly move up the career ladder or move to a strategy-related role with more experience.
5. Work-life balance
The data domain has ranked the highest, in a study conducted by Glassdoor, on work-life balance. On a 5-point scale, the data domain received a 4.4 rating. The domain offers a challenging and stimulating work environment.
Every project assigned to a Data Analyst is different. They get to look at all kinds of data and find unique ways to generate informed insights to be presented in visually stimulating ways.
Data Analyst Responsibilities
Key responsibilities of a Data Analyst include the following:
- Analyze and extract data for businesses to identify patterns, insights, and other correlations.
- Create and deploy custom models to answer questions on business strategies, performance, patterns, etc.
- Write SQL queries to extract data from Data Warehouse for finding solutions to complex business issues.
- Solve business problems by mapping and tracing data from several systems.
- Personalize individual requirements by working with customer-centric algorithms.
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Data Analyst Job Roles
- Data Analyst
- Data Scientist
- Data Engineer
Data Analyst
Data Analysts in an organization extract data for businesses and convert them into meaningful insights, patterns, trends, etc., to better communicate the data collected to form a business strategy, tactics, and support decisions.
Data Scientist
Data Scientists have to deploy various algorithms to pull up actionable insights like trends, and relationships in datasets after collecting data, analyzing it, and interpreting large amounts of data. They must have a good grip on Maths, Statistics, and programming knowledge to get the job done.
Data Engineer
Data Engineers have the responsibility of designing and engineering a reliable infrastructure that Data Scientists can use. These professionals convert raw data and structured and unstructured data for more operational and analytical uses.
Data Analyst Skills to Learn
To become a successful Data Analyst, you need to have all the necessary skills and knowledge. The skill set that you need to acquire to get into this profession is mentioned further in this blog.
Expert Knowledge of Data Analytics
To get into any domain, you must have in-depth knowledge of it. The same goes for Data Analytics. You need to be thorough with business variables, the ability to make business decisions, etc. You must have a good knowledge of business and its processes as it is the most crucial skill to have to become a Data Analyst.
Skills in Math and Statistics
It is necessary to have a strong background in mathematics and statistics. This will help you make important business decisions logically and objectively. This skill will also help you come up with solutions for various business problems. You must be able to extract valuable data and find trends that will allow you to make predictions based on past business data. Moreover, you need to make use of numerous predictive and clustering algorithms, classification techniques, etc., which will help a great deal.
Technical Knowledge
You need to have the required technical skill set and excellent skills in languages, such as Python, R, SQL, etc. It is not enough to know mathematical concepts and techniques since you need to understand complex datasets and use the necessary techniques to get information out of them.
Other Skills
One of the main skills that you need to have is communication. You must be skilled enough to communicate your solutions to the respective members of the organization in a simple yet effective manner. Also, you need to be able to make the best use of various visualization tools, such as QlikView, Tableau, etc., to convey your findings.
You have read enough about the roles, responsibilities, and skills of a Data Analyst. Let’s now answer the most important question that you want to know, ‘What is the Data Analyst’s Salary in India?’ and How much does a Data Analyst make in India?
Data Analyst Salary in India: Factors Affecting
Starting salary of a data analyst in India is not fixed everywhere. Several factors are considered before deciding on and negotiating a salary. The following are some of the most important factors that are taken into consideration while recruiting Data Analysts:
Based on Experience
Experience is one of the most critical factors that play a deciding role in finalizing the salary. One’s experience in the field adds the ability to come up with more practical solutions and have more extensive knowledge, working agility, and stronger leadership skills.
A Data Analyst who has worked for more than three years in the industry will get a higher salary than the salary of a fresher.
According to PayScale, the average pay structure, based on experience, for Data Analysts is as follows:
- Entry Level (<1 yr of experience): ₹3,56,363 p.a.
- Early Career (1–4 yrs of experience): ₹5,20,000 p.a.
- Mid-career (5–9 yrs of experience): ₹8,50,000 p.a.
- Experienced (>10 yrs of experience): ₹9,94,031 to ₹14,00,000 p.a.
Based on Skills
A Data Analyst who does not have the experience to secure a high-paying job can negotiate their salary based solely on their skills. Therefore, upskilling is very important for getting a good career opportunity rather than simply getting a degree.
Some skill sets that can directly influence the pay scale of a Data Analyst are:
Based on Location
Location is another factor that directly affects the pay scale. It mostly comes down to the cost of living in a city or state as well as the demand of the profession. A Data Analyst who is a fresher in Mumbai might earn equal to somebody in Kolkata with 3–4 years of experience.
Let us take a look at some Data Analyst salaries based on location.
- Bengaluru: The average salary of a Data Analyst in Bengaluru is ₹6,00,000 p.a.
- New Delhi: The average salary of a Data Analyst in New Delhi is ₹ 5,87,500 p.a.
- Mumbai: The average salary of a Data Analyst in Mumbai is ₹5,44,938 p.a.
- Chennai: The average salary of a Data analyst in Chennai is ₹6,16,779 p.a.
Based on Industry
Different companies and employers across different industries have different requirements when hiring a Data Analyst. So, quite understandably, the salary is affected based on the company’s position in the market, the role, and the skills required.
The following are the top companies in India that hire Data Analysts:
- Tata Consultancy Services (IT)
- Accenture (IT)
- Tech Mahindra (IT)
- Capgemini (IT)
- Flipkart (E-commerce)
- Cognizant (IT)
- Infosys (IT)
- Genpact (Professional services)
- LatentView Analytics (Data and analytics)
- Novartis (Pharma)
The average base salary for Data Analyst in India based on the employer is:
Data Analyst Salary in India
Data Analyst is one of the most sought-after career options and among the highest-earning professionals in the IT industry. A large volume of data is generated every day in companies, which is why there are several job opportunities available for these professionals.
As per PayScale, the average salary of a Data Analyst in India is ₹4,64,928 p.a. However, as mentioned above, the salary may vary due to various reasons.
Future Scope as Data Analyst in India
Companies have to ensure that their data does not become obsolete. This requires constant updates, awareness, and understanding of large amounts of data. Professionals who have expertise in advanced analytics are crucial when it comes to adjusting the business models of an organization, helping it to stay ahead of the competition.
The scope of data analytics in India includes numerous sectors such as banking, policing, healthcare, e-commerce, energy, telecommunication, fraud detection, and risk management.
Companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Ernst & Young, Wipro, Adobe, Accenture, Flipkart, AIG, Vodafone, and Deloitte have a huge number of openings for Data Analysts.
Conclusion
In this ‘Data Analyst Salary in India’ blog, you have read in detail about who Data Analysts are, their responsibilities in an organization, the range of salaries these professionals earn depending on numerous factors, and so on. To pursue a career in this domain and become a successful Data Analyst with a high-paying salary, you must sign up for Intellipaat’s online course for Data Analysts today. This course will help you start from scratch and become an expert in the domain within a few months.