Data Analyst Resume Example & Writing Guide

Learn how to create a data analyst resume with zero stress by studying this exhaustive guide packed full of expert tips and examples.
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Data Analyst

If you’re a data analyst, your job is to collect, clean, and interpret data. That’s exactly what you’re going to do while creating a data analyst resume once you start looking for a job.

The best way to land the job of your dreams is to show your professional prowess right from the get-go by creating a captivating application document. Since you should be good at looking over data and putting it in a way that makes sense, you should also do that in your resume and stand out from the crowd.

We’re not here to teach you what you already know. The goal of this article is to simply nudge you in the right direction through guidelines and tips and help you create a riveting resume. Let’s jump in!

Key Takeaways

  • You should include your professional and academic accomplishments in the reverse-chronological order for optimal results.

  • Most resumes should be one page long. An elegant resume layout will ensure you fit all the necessary sections and potentially optional ones in that amount of space.

  • Using data-related words and numbers when writing your resume and matching cover letter will help you authenticate your skills and make your work experience more memorable.

What is the Right Format to Use for a Data Analyst Resume?

resume format

As a data analyst, you can easily extract useful information from a cluttered source. Recruiters, on the other hand, are likely not as skilled as you in that area, which is why your data analyst resume needs to convey information in the simplest and most efficient way possible.

To ensure that, use the chronological resume format. It’s the neatest and most popular option, and the recruiters favor it over the other formats. Moreover, it’s ATS-friendly, which means there’s no risk of having your application documents discarded automatically by software before they even reach hiring managers.

The main benefit of this format is that it emphasizes the essential and most recent professional accomplishments in your career before listing the rest in reverse-chronological order. This way, recruiters get a precise timeline of your work history.

However, if you don't have any work experience to showcase, a functional resume format will make up for it by putting the focus on your skills. This format might run into issues with the ATS, but it’s ideal for a data analyst resume of entry-level applicants.

On the other hand, industry veterans with a lot of work experience could use the hybrid or combination format. It mixes chronological and functional formats to highlight skills first and then back them up with relevant professional achievements.

Resume Layout

resume layout

Presenting data is just as important as organizing it, which is why you want a clean and professional resume layout.

For starters, you want to keep your data analyst resume to one page. Having everything concisely presented that way ensures that hiring managers will see all the important information as quickly as possible.

To achieve that while keeping your resume legible and professional, follow these guidelines:

Resume Layout Guidelines

  • Margins. 1-inch margins on all sides make a document look clean, professional, and legible. Combine them with white space between sections to get a desired look.

  • Font Size. Consider using 10–12 pt size for the body of text and 14–16 pt size for section headings to create a visual hierarchy.

  • Bullet point lists. Bulleted lists convey more information than blocks of text while being shorter and more concise.

What Sections Should a Data Analyst Resume Contain?

resume sections

There are 5 must-have sections for your data analyst resume, and they are:

Must-Have Sections

  1. Contact information

  2. Resume summary or objective

  3. Work history

  4. Education

  5. Skills

After adding all that, consider the following optional sections to dress up your resume and stand out among the competition:

Optional Sections

  • Certifications

  • Languages

Now, keeping track of all that information shouldn’t be a big deal for a competent data analyst such as yourself. Nevertheless, if you want to create a resume in a matter of minutes while being certain it’s professional and ATS-proof, use our resume builder. You’ll find plenty of top-tier templates where you only need to fill in your information and you’re good to go.

Let’s take a look at one of our expert resume templates to give you a general idea of what we’re going to talk about further in the article.

Data Analyst Resume Template

Name and Surname

Phone number: 000-000-0000 | Email: namesurname@gmail.com | Location: City, State

[Adjective] [your job title] with [years of experience, if applicable] in [your area of expertise, if applicable] looking for a [position] job at [company name]. Eager to apply [relevant skills] gained through [work/volunteer/other experience] to help [company name] [mention what you can do for the company].

Work Experience

Most Recent/Current Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]

  • For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities

  • Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out

  • Add numbers to quantify your achievements

Previous Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]

  • For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities

  • Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out

  • Add numbers to quantify your achievements

Oldest Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]

  • For older jobs, use 2-3 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities

  • Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out

  • Add numbers to quantify your achievements

Education

[Degree] in [Major] [University/college name] [Start date] - [Graduation date]

Skills

Soft Skills

  • Skill #1

  • Skill #2

  • Skill #3

  • Skill #4

  • Skill #5

Hard Skills

  • Skill #1

  • Skill #2

  • Skill #3

  • Skill #4

  • Skill #5

Additional Sections

  • Add any relevant additional sections (languages, licenses, publications, hobbies, etc.)

Data Analyst Resume Contact Information

resume profile

Adding your contact information to your data analyst resume is fairly straightforward. You should put it at the top of the document as part of the resume header, and state the following about yourself:

Contact Information Essentials

  • Full name

  • Professional title

  • Phone number

  • Email address

While resumes used to feature full candidates’ physical addresses some time ago, that’s an outdated practice nowadays. Still, you could add your city and state if required by the job posting or if you’re applying for a job abroad.

In addition to the required information, you can also add your LinkedIn and GitHub profiles, which are not required but highly recommended.

Avoid unrelated social media accounts, odd job titles (you're a "Data Analyst," not a "Data Wizard"), and unprofessional email addresses.

Here’s an example:

Contact Information Example

Keith Atkinson

Data Analyst

+ 111 555 3333

keithatk@example.com

linkedin.com/in/keithatk

github.com/keithatk

Data Analyst Resume Objective or Summary

Imagine you ran into your potential employer in an elevator, and you only had a couple of sentences to grab his attention before he got off. That’s what a resume objective or summary aims to accomplish.

These are usually short paragraphs at the beginning of your resume that sum up your career and serve to spark recruiters’ interest, but each is used in different circumstances.

A resume objective is written by entry-level candidates with no prior work experience. You can use it to display drive and ambition by talking about your future career goals. Furthermore, you could include a couple of your imposing, position-specific skills.

On the other hand, if you have a lot of experience in your field, you should use a resume summary to impress recruiters by mentioning the greatest accomplishments in your career.

Junior Data Analyst Resume Objective

resume summary

A professionally written data analyst resume objective will show that a junior candidate with little to no work experience shows promise.

What you should do here is emphasize your key skills that would benefit the company you’re applying to the most to grab their recruiters' attention. Furthermore, if you have any relevant achievements from your internships, college projects, volunteer work, or similar activities, this is the time to mention them to make a bigger impression.

Let’s take a look at a good example:

Good Example

"Innovative data analyst with strong attention to detail. 450+ hours of training in SQL. Built 3 interactive Power BI dashboards. Seeking a challenging junior position at your company to grow into a revenue reporting data analyst.”

Now, check out a bad example for comparison:

Bad Example

“Attentive data analyst looking to join your company to learn and improve my skills.”

While it’s perfectly fine—even desirable—for a candidate to want to learn and develop, that alone isn’t enough to grab the recruiter’s attention. You want to show them that you already bring something to the table.

Senior Data Analyst Summary

resume objective

As a senior in the industry, you want to bring your A-game when writing a data analyst resume summary. To do this, you should select a few of your most prominent achievements and feature them in your resume to give recruiters a preview of what you’re capable of. Here’s what this may look like:

Correct Example

“Systematic and driven data analyst with 5+ years of experience working with programming languages such as SQL, Python, Tableau, and R. Redefined and tracked marketing KPIs at [previous company] to boost conversion rates for a landing page by 43%. Looking to bring my knowledge and experience to a highly effective, data-driven team at [your company].”

Compare that to a bad example below:

Incorrect Example

“Experienced data analyst competent in programming languages looking for a senior position. My leadership skills and years of practice analyzing all types of data make me an excellent candidate.”

You can’t just say you’re a great candidate—you need to show it with results and achievements. Give recruiters concrete data based on which they can evaluate your skills and workplace proficiency.

Data Analyst Resume Work Experience

work experience resume

Your work experience section is the go-to one for recruiters. Out of every section in your resume, this one describes your workplace competence most accurately, which generally makes it the most important.

General Tips

Before we get into the details, let’s define what information goes into your work experience section. For each position you worked in, you want to include the title, the name of the company you worked for and its location, dates of employment, and a bullet-point list of your responsibilities, achievements, and results.

When listing several jobs, add them in reverse-chronological order. It’s recommended to include as much important detail as possible, but you must be concise. There’s usually no need to add more than 3–5 bullet points per job.

Similarly, don’t add every job you ever did to your resume. Your experience waiting tables in college part-time doesn’t mean much when applying for a data analyst position.

Also, while it’s fine to mention your responsibilities, be sure to emphasize your achievements and results more. To do that properly, use numbers and percentages in combination with action verbs and power words. The more details you provide about your successes, the more convincing your work history will be.

Action verbs and power words make this section more memorable by introducing catchy, memorable alternatives to overused terms that everyone puts in their resumes. For example, the next time you want to use "predicted,” try “forecasted” instead.

Data Analyst With No Experience

no experience resume

We talked thoroughly about how your professional history should be the focal point of your application document. But what happens when you’re creating a data analyst resume with no experience?

Actually, the process doesn’t change too much. You could opt for a functional resume format, though you can still write a clean and professional work experience section by following all the general tips we discussed previously.

Let’s take a look at the example:

No Experience Resume Example

Work Experience

Data Analyst Intern

Datacom

Northbrook, IL

November 2021–March 2022

  • Co-developed a predictive modeling algorithm that realized 87% accuracy in forecasting sales trends.

  • Identified key drivers of customer satisfaction through analysis to increase customer retention by 13%.

  • Regularly tracked KPMs through dashboards, updating leadership and boosting decision-making time by 25%.

The candidate made the most of their internship to show that they were skilled and able to do well in the workplace. The achievements written in bullet points are concise and information-packed. There are also some numbers to quantify the results obtained for a bigger impact, as well as several effective action verbs.

Senior Data Analyst Experience

If you’re crafting a senior data analyst resume, you likely have plenty of professional experience to add. More often than not, you should trim some of the achievements down to focus on the most impactful ones and declutter your work history section.

Let’s see an example of the work experience section on a senior data analyst resume:

Senior Data Analyst Resume Example

Work Experience

Senior Data Analyst

ABCorp

Little Rock, AR

August 2020–Present

  • Conducted analysis on large datasets with over 5 million records to identify trends and patterns using advanced mathematical and statistical techniques.

  • Collaborated with cross-functional teams on developing data-driven solutions, resulting in a 15% revenue increase.

  • Established and managed data pipelines to ensure data accuracy, reducing errors and inconsistencies by 94%.

Data Analyst

XYCorp

Little Rock, AR

April 2017–August 2020

  • Participated in team meetings and assisted in implementation of 7 successful strategies.

  • Visualized complex datasets with more than 50 million records.

  • Developed a predictive algorithm that achieved 90% accuracy.

Data Analyst Resume Education Section

education resume

The goal of an education section is to give you more credibility and put weight behind your skills. In this part, you should list your highest degree, the institution that issued it, and the years attended. 

Also, if you have notable achievements to showcase (GPA of 3.5 and above, extracurricular activities, exchange programs, etc.), add them to a bulleted list that should be placed below the basic information.

Here’s what that looks like:

Education Section Example

Education

Bachelor of Science in Data Analytics

Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA

2015–2019

  • Magna cum laude

  • GPA: 3.7

If you want to include multiple degrees, list them in reverse-chronological order. However, don’t add your high school diploma unless it’s your highest one.

Here are some more tips you can use when creating an education section:

Education Section Tips

  • If you're still studying and have an anticipated graduation date, just add “expected” next to it. (e.g., “Expected in October 2023”)

  • When you’re in the middle of your studies, include a degree but omit a graduation date and put “current” instead.

  • Even if you dropped out of college, you could include that you “completed XY credits towards a BA degree.”

Data Analyst Resume Skills

skills to put on a resume

The point of your entire resume is to show your skills and competence to potential employers. With that in mind, when you actually get to adding data analyst skills to your resume, there’s a bit more to it than simply creating a list and calling it a day.

For starters, you want to research the job posting to find out what the potential employer is looking for. As a data analyst, you likely have a vast and diverse skill set, but not every skill needs to be mentioned on your resume. Figure out which skills recruiters want to see, match them with the ones you have, and include those in your resume.

Another important thing that you need to know before writing this section is that there are stark differences between soft skills and hard skills. Because of that, you want to list the two separately after your education section, starting with hard skills.

Hard skills are taught and learned in school through classes, courses, and other reputable sources. They are job-specific and often easily proven with diplomas and certifications.

Soft skills are broad, transferable, and usually obtained through life experience. They affect the way you interact and get along with other people and influence your effectiveness, organization, time management, etc.

Hard Data Analyst Skills

As mentioned, hard skills make you specifically competent in the field of data analysis. Depending on the position you’re applying for, you might list some of the following abilities on your resume:

  • Mathematics (statistics, probability)

  • MySQL

  • Data mining and data QA

  • Tableau

  • Relevant programming languages

  • Logic and analysis

  • Pattern recognition

  • Data warehousing

  • Advanced Microsoft Excel

  • Quantitative methods

Soft Skills

While soft skills come second to hard skills, they can sometimes be the deciding factor in standing out among the competition. Highly sought-after soft skills for data analysts are:

  • Critical thinking

  • Attention to detail

  • Risk assessment

  • Organization

  • Teamwork

  • Project management

  • Leadership

  • Efficiency

  • Time management

  • Communication

Data Analyst Resume Optional Sections

combination resume

One of the easiest ways to score bonus points with recruiters is through optional sections. They allow you to highlight more of your skills and accomplishments and show that you strive to go the extra mile.

Certifications

Certifications serve to demonstrate that you have acquired specific skills and knowledge in the field of data analytics. Listing them in your data analyst resume adds further credibility to your competence. Some of the certifications you could list in this section include:

Certifications Section Example

To add relevant certifications to your resume, include their names, the names of the institutions issuing them, the dates when these were obtained, and (optionally) the dates of expiration.

Languages

Although the language section is optional, it can be very beneficial to your resume. It may even be mandatory if your job requires you to communicate with clients or coworkers from other countries. Keep the section brief and concise, and list languages based on your proficiency levels.

Should You Submit a Cover Letter With Your Data Analyst Resume?

cover letter

Not every job posting asks for a cover letter, which is why many don’t bother writing it. As a result, those who send a position-specific cover letter that matches their data analyst resume immediately get ahead of the competition.

Data Analyst Cover Letter Guidelines

For best results, write a new cover letter whenever you’re applying for a new position by following these guidelines:

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Expert Tips for Creating a Data Analyst Resume

To ensure that your data analyst resume is truly top-tier, here are several expert tips:

  • Before submitting your resume, proofread it thoroughly and, if possible, ask a friend to review it for you.

  • Keep mentioning your skills throughout your resume. In addition to creating a separate section, include several of your key skills in your resume summary or objective and your professional history section.

  • Highlight your technical skills and emphasize your work experience through data-driven language. Use numbers and concrete results to show that your information is supported by data and evidence.

Here are some job-winning data analyst resume samples to give you inspiration and help you visualize everything that we’ve talked about so far.

Closing Thoughts

A strong resume is essential in job-seeking endeavors. If you’ve read this far, you have learned that you must emphasize your technical skills, highlight relevant experience, use data-driven language, and write a tailored cover letter to make your data analyst resume attention-grabbing.

The information in this article will lead you every step of the way until you’ve created a clean and professional application document. And if you need any help, our resume-building tool is just a click away!

Kervin Peterson
Kervin Peterson
Career Coach
Whether you need help preparing for an interview, optimizing your LinkedIn profile, or creating a resume, you can rest assured that our dear Kervin Peterson can help! Kervin is a man who can turn obstacles into experience with his eyes closed, always striving to bring the most to the table. Other than being a career coach, he’s a new dad and loves nothing more than hitting the gym and spending time with his family!

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