Three different sources on what makes a good analyst…

From one of the most influential books I have ever read,  the Accidental Analyst… An ANALYST is a person who analyzes and skilled in analysis. Four Character Traits that most analysts have:

• PASSION for helping people solve real problems
• KNOWLEDGE of the business being analyzed
• EXPOSURE to thinking analytically and problem solving tools
• EXPERIENCE using data to solve problems

Certain personality types most analysts have:

• reflective
• intuitive
• deep-thinkers
• and able to make quick judgments

In addition, the International Institute for Analytics and Vendor Talent Analytics, Corp. surveyed 302 analytics professionals in 2013. Curiosity came out as the top skill in a study of the characteristics of analytics pros.

And finally from KDnuggets.com:

“The Analytics Professionals in our 2012 Study are very creative and curious. They have an insatiable thirst to learn; wanting to look everything up on the Internet immediately because they simply “have to know.”. When something doesn’t work, they’ll assume there is a rational explanation and jump in to find and solve it.”

file:///C:/Users/Dan/Desktop/CHED%20CMO-No.-11-s2013.pdf

This is pretty school stuff! To the best of my knowledge, no other government body anywhere in the world is taking such an active approach to updating college curriculums to implement analytics training.

Recent innovations “have developed new tools and techniques enabling business management and public institutions to adopt business analytics into their organizational processes and information ecosystems. Necessarily, from such innovations emerged corresponding demand for human resources with skills and competencies defined by users of business analytics and translated by CHED into industry led curriculum.”

DMAI has been actively taking part in both awareness building around the demand for analysts and in training on business analytics for over 2 years now. The time is NOW to take things to the next level!