What skills should a Data Analyst put on a resume?

O*NET rates Reading Comprehension, Active Learning, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, and Speaking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Data Analyst list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes Actuate Eclipse BIRT, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe ActionScript, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Advanced business application programming ABAP. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Data Analyst work?

O*NET records 30 titles for this occupation, including BI Analyst, Competitive Intelligence Analyst, Intelligence Analyst, and Market Intelligence Consultant. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Data Analyst need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 68% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Data Analyst role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Data Analyst resume example

Built from the O*NET occupation Business Intelligence Analyst, which is how this job is recorded officially.

A resume for a Data Analyst needs to show the work itself: produce financial and market intelligence by querying data repositories and generating periodic reports. Day to day that means work like this: generate standard or custom reports summarizing business, financial, or economic data for review by executives, managers, clients, and other stakeholders; maintain or update business intelligence tools, databases, dashboards, systems, or methods. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

BI Analyst
Competitive Intelligence Analyst
Intelligence Analyst
Market Intelligence Consultant
Business Analyst
Business Intelligence Consultant
BI Consultant
Business Intelligence Coordinator
BI Coordinator
Business Intelligence Specialist
BI Specialist
Market Intelligence Analyst
EDI Analyst
Analytical Data Miner
Business Consultant
Business Data Analyst
Business Database Analyst
Business Information Analyst

O*NET records 30 titles for this occupation in total.

What people in this job call themselves

Titles reported by people actually doing this work, which is often not the title on the job posting.

Business Intelligence Analyst (BI Analyst)
Business Intelligence Consultant (BI Consultant)
Business Intelligence Coordinator (BI Coordinator)
Business Intelligence Specialist (BI Specialist)
Strategic Business and Technology Intelligence Consultant

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Generate standard or custom reports summarizing business, financial, or economic data for review by executives, managers, clients, and other stakeholders.
Maintain or update business intelligence tools, databases, dashboards, systems, or methods.
Manage timely flow of business intelligence information to users.
Provide technical support for existing reports, dashboards, or other tools.
Identify and analyze industry or geographic trends with business strategy implications.
Document specifications for business intelligence or information technology reports, dashboards, or other outputs.
Create business intelligence tools or systems, including design of related databases, spreadsheets, or outputs.
Collect business intelligence data from available industry reports, public information, field reports, or purchased sources.
Disseminate information regarding tools, reports, or metadata enhancements.
Conduct or coordinate tests to ensure that intelligence is consistent with defined needs.
Synthesize current business intelligence or trend data to support recommendations for action.
Analyze competitive market strategies through analysis of related product, market, or share trends.

17 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Generate standard or custom reports summarizing business, financial, or economic data for review by executives, managers, clients, and other stakeholders, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Maintain or update business intelligence tools, databases, dashboards, systems, or methods, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Manage timely flow of business intelligence information to users, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Provide technical support for existing reports, dashboards, or other tools, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

Actuate Eclipse BIRT
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe ActionScript
Adobe Dreamweaver
Advanced business application programming ABAP
Airtable
AJAX
Alteryx software
Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2
Amazon Redshift
Amazon Web Services AWS software
Apache Ant
Apache Cassandra

200 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Computer servers
Data warehouse appliances
Laser facsimile machines
Photocopiers
Scanners
Storage servers

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

Python
SQL
machine learning
statistics
pandas
data visualization
A/B testing
AWS
Microsoft Azure
Power BI

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Reading Comprehension
02Active Learning
03Active Listening
04Critical Thinking
05Speaking
06Writing
07Judgment and Decision Making
08Mathematics
09Complex Problem Solving
10Monitoring

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Computers and Electronics
Mathematics
English Language
Administration and Management
Customer and Personal Service
Economics and Accounting

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

68%Bachelor's Degree
23%Master's Degree
5%Associate's Degree

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Considerable Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Common questions

What does a Data Analyst do?: Produce financial and market intelligence by querying data repositories and generating periodic reports. Day to day that includes work like generate standard or custom reports summarizing business, financial, or economic data for review by executives, managers, clients, and other stakeholders and Maintain or update business intelligence tools, databases, dashboards, systems, or methods.
What skills should a Data Analyst put on a resume?: O*NET rates Reading Comprehension, Active Learning, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, and Speaking among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Data Analyst list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes Actuate Eclipse BIRT, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe ActionScript, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Advanced business application programming ABAP. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Data Analyst work?: O*NET records 30 titles for this occupation, including BI Analyst, Competitive Intelligence Analyst, Intelligence Analyst, and Market Intelligence Consultant. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Data Analyst need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 68% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Data Analyst role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.