Data Analytics and visualization is a way of representing the data in an understandable manner so that even a non-technical person can understand the complex datasets. There are thousands of companies around the world using data analytics to improve their business operations and product performance, and tableau is their first choice.
Tableau as a data analytics and visualization tool allows the user to connect raw business data from different sources and convert that data into valuable insights. According to Statista, there are more than 62,000 companies worldwide that use tableau software tools for data analytics and visualization. And this number is only going to increase in the future.
This growing number of Tableau users has led to the rise in demand for skilled tableau analysts and data scientists. So, in this blog, we’ll discuss the learning path of becoming a successful analyst. Let’s quickly go through the topics we’ll be covering in this blog:
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Introduction to Tableau
Tableau is a collections data analytics and visualization tool that allows the user to connect the data from multiple sources, convert it into actionable figures, and share it with other users in the form of dashboards.
It simplifies the process of generating valuable insights from the raw datasets through features such as data blending, collaboration, and real-time analysis. It’s also used to manage metadata and translate your queries into visualizations.
Tableau is also used to collaborate with other developers and stakeholders and create live dashboards showing the Key Performance indicators for better understanding.
Moreover, measure names and filters help a user create views and get specific insights based on their departments. Moreover, you aren’t required to have any technical knowledge or programming skills to operate the software and create dashboards.
Why Tableau?
Following are some of the reasons why Tableau is the best choice for data analytics and visualization:
Data Analytics
For small datasets, you can use Microsoft Excel to perform basic calculations and generate simple stats. However, you need efficient data models to analyze heavy datasets from different sources.
Tableau makes it easier to connect huge datasets and analyze them to build models and find hidden patterns inside them. Tableau allows you to integrate models built in various scripting languages and get a 360-degree view of your business.
Data Discovery
With Tableau, you can follow a drill-down approach and blend the datasets to discover the relationships between different data variables and get the latest trends. You can leverage tools like Tableau online and server to connect live data sources with the dashboards and extract valuable insights in real-time.
Mobile Support
Tableau also comes in the form of mobile clients where the users can view and interact with the live dashboards. With touch-optimized control and voice assistance, you can easily find out the insights from the dashboards streaming in live datasets.
Easy to Use
Compared to other Business Intelligence and Data analytics tools, Tableau has a simple yet feature-packed interface that allows you to create rich visualizations, calculated fields, and KPIs by using the simple drag-n-drop options.
Customer-focused innovation
Tableau invests a lot of resources in research and development to meet customer requirements. Driven by customer feedback, Tableau provides the necessary tools to implement analytics and BI capabilities. It has a huge community that continuously adds new features and has a deep impact on a business.
Intuitive UI
Data Analytics is about asking the right questions from your data and getting meaningful information, not learning a software application. Therefore, tableau has a simple yet efficient user interface that allows even a non-technical person to easily connect the data sources and perform data analysis. Also, you can explore the relationship between different data sources in the form of visualizations.
Mobile-Friendly Dashboard
Dashboards created tableau shared and viewed on devices such as personal computers, laptops, mobile devices, and tablets. As an author, you don’t have to customize the dashboard for each device, tableau will automatically the device interface and create a perfect-sized dashboard.
Now that we’ve discussed what tableau is and its features, let’s gather more information about the tableau analyst’s job description and the responsibilities he/she needs to fulfill.
What does a Tableau Analyst do?
Being an Analyst requires you to be strong in data analysis, visualization, and designing quality solutions for the existing business requirements. You should have a creative mindset and sound knowledge of data gathering, mining, and predictive analytics.
Also, you must have impeccable communication skills, because tableau analysts have to interact with different users and stakeholders to understand the business requirements.
Below are some of the important responsibilities that you need to fulfill as a tableau analyst:
- Design, develop and deploy Tableau dashboards on different platforms
- Coordinate with the development team and other stakeholders to understand the requirements and create a data-driven strategy
- Structure ambiguous problems in various business operations and recommend solutions in the form of visualizations
- Creating documentation that contains all the details of business goals, technical requirements, client requirements, development process, and other nuances
- Collaborate with managers of different departments and stakeholders to create customized visualizations and Key Performance Indicators(KPIs) for detailed analysis
- Run SQL queries on the databases for better performance
- Automate the key areas of various business processes like software testing in order to improve and reduce the time consumed in the development process
Now, let’s discuss the salary for tableau analysts in various countries and discuss some of the trends associated with it.
Tableau Analyst Salary
Starting a career in Tableau is beneficial as demand for tableau professionals is booming every day as more companies are using Tableau for data analysis and making data-driven decisions.
According to International Data Corporation(IDC), the rapid growth in Cloud Solutions and Data Science resulted in an increased demand for tableau servers and other tools in various countries around the world.
By the end of 2021, 80% of enterprises are predicted to shift their applications to a cloud-centric infrastructure to make them twice as fast, resulting in a growing demand for Tableau services.
Therefore, it’s inevitable that the demand for skilled Analysts and Tableau developers will be higher in the coming years. Also, Tableau Developer Salary will be higher in comparison to other IT professionals.
However, your salary may differ based on the location, type of employer, and years of experience you bring to the table.
To give you an idea, below are the three major countries with the average salary for tableau Analysts based on different factors:
Tableau Analyst Salary: United States
The United States is home to some of the biggest technology companies in the world. Around 121 out of the fortune 500 companies are US-based, followed by China, Japan, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and more. And, more than 70% of these companies are using Tableau for analyzing their data and sharing the results with their users and clients.
Thus, the average salary of tableau analysts in the US is much higher than in any other country.
Below is the salary list of the tableau analyst in the United States as the PayScale:
| Experience Level | Salary |
| Entry-level (less than 1 year) | US$59,000 |
| Early-career (1–4 years) | US$66,000 |
| Mid-career (5–9 years) | US$77,000 |
| Late-career (10–19 years) | US$79,000 |
| Experienced (20+ years) | US$97,000 |
Tableau Analyst Salary: United Kingdom
As we have discussed in the above section, the United Kingdom is the sixth country with the largest number of fortune 500 companies. According to Statista, the United Kingdom has seen steady growth in the market of revenue IT companies of around 3-4 billion dollars. Resulting in an increase of more than US$15 billion between the year 2016-2021.
This growth also had a positive impact on the data analytics field and raised the demand for skilled data analysts by 20%. Companies pay anywhere from £27,000 to £40,000 in order to hire skilled data professionals. Below is the average Tableau Analyst salary in the UK as per the Payscale report:
| Experience Level | Salary |
| Entry-level (less than 1 year) | £27,000 |
| Early-career (1–4 years) | £30,000 |
| Mid-career (5–9 years) | £32,000 |
| Late-career (10–19 years) | £35,000 |
| Experienced (20+ years) | £40,000 |
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Tableau Analyst salary: India
India is a developing country that saw thousands of IT-related startups in the past few years. Based on a report from Statista, the number of internet users in India was around 700 million in the year 2020 and is expected to grow up to 974 million by the year 2025. In fact, in the year 2019, India was ranked as the second-largest market after China, worldwide. PayScale calculated the average salary of Tableau professionals by taking different factors into account.
You see their average Tableau analyst salary in India based on their years of experience:
| Experience Level | Salary |
| Entry-level (less than 1 year) | ₹4,05,000 |
| Early-career (1–4 years) | ₹5,22,000 |
| Mid-career (5–9 years) | ₹6,38,000 |
| Late-career (10–19 years) | ₹7,55,000 |
| Experienced (20+ years) | ₹9,89,000 |
Tableau Analyst Learning Path
Becoming an analyst requires you to learn a lot of skills and acquire certifications in various tableau software like tableau desktop, tableau server, tableau architecture, and tableau online. Compared to other BI and analytics tools, Tableau has a steep learning curve and requires more effort to master its tools.
However, with a smart strategy and certain certifications, you can excel in Tableau and flourish in your career.
Below are the four main stages that you need to cover in order to become a skilled Tableau analyst:
Learning Fundamentals
Learning fundamental concepts is one of the key aspects you need to master any technology. You first have to learn the basic concepts in
Computer Science, Programming, Data Structures, Database Management, Networking, and Cloud Computing. Also, probability and statistical analysis are widely used to build various data models and calculated fields.
These are some of the reasons why companies prefer candidates with a degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Computer Applications, and other equivalent backgrounds.
Data Analytics
The next step in your tableau learning path is data analytics. It refers to the process of gathering raw data from different sources and analyzing it to produce meaningful results and finding answers for the questions asked for business development.
To perform data analysis in tableau, you should be familiar with the basic concepts of Data Science, Machine Learning, and Statistics. Once you’ve learned these terms, analyzing data in Tableau software would be much easier.
Data Visualization
After analyzing and driving valuable information out of your data, now it’s time to convert that information into visualizations and share it with other users in the form of dashboards.
Once you’ve created some basic visualizations, you can expand your horizon by applying filters, calculated fields, and measures to make your data visualizations more informative. Although you can learn the basics of data analytics and visualization from various tutorials, blogs, you have to take a dedicated training course and tableau certifications to advance your skills and become a successful tableau analyst.
Tableau Analyst certification
Now, based on your level of education, projects, and experience in tableau, you can apply for the following certifications and move a step ahead in your career:
Desktop Specialist Certification
This certification validates your skills like data gathering, exploring, data analysis, and converting them into visualizations. There are no prerequisites for this certification and has no expiration whatsoever.
Before taking the certification exam, you need to have a minimum of three months of experience with tableau desktop, so that you can learn all the fundamentals. Once you’ve cleared the certification exam, you’ll become a certified tableau desktop specialist.
Tableau Desktop Certified Associate
For the associate level certification, you need to have at least five months of learning experience on the tableau desktop. The certificate is valid for two years and helps you develop a comprehensive understanding of the tableau desktop and its functionalities.
However, you have to score more than 75% on the certification exam and the certification is also valid for only two years. After that, you’ll give a retest for the renewal of your certification.
Tableau Desktop Certified Professional
This is the highest level certification that you can get on the tableau desktop. The main requirement for the professional certification is that you must have the active certification of the tableau desktop associate certification.
The exam is valid for three years and tests your expertise in tableau desktop, data restructuring. After earning this certification, you will be considered an expert in tableau desktop and various techniques used to create interactive dashboards.
Tableau Server Certified Associate
This certification aims to check your ability to run the Tableau Server in a single-machine environment and configuration. This certification too will be valid for 2 years and a minimum of six months in tableau products. With Tableau server Associate certification you can apply for different roles such as consultant or system administrator.
Tableau Server Certified Professional
It’s the highest level of certification you can get from the tableau. In order to give the certification exam, you must possess an active Tableau server, certified associate.
Also, you must have hands-on experience with the Tableau servers. The typical roles you can apply for after getting the certification include System Architect, System Administrator, IT Representative, Implementer, and Consultant.
Conclusion
So, that was all about the learning path and certifications for tableau analysts. Becoming a skilled analyst requires you to learn multiple technologies, programming languages like Python, and Data Science. In general, you need to be a more skilled and effective communicator in order to make a great career as a certified Tableau Analyst.