Computing & Data
How to become a Data Analyst
Also known as Business Intelligence Analyst, Reporting Analyst. Everything below comes from the same database our assessment scores against.
The route in
1. Undergraduate
3 years- Qualifications:
- B.Sc. Statistics, B.Com, BBA, B.Tech any branch, BCA
- Entrance exams:
- CUET, University merit
- Typical cost:
- ₹90,000 to ₹9 lakh
What does a Data Analyst earn in India?
Entry level
₹3 lakh – ₹8 lakh
per year
Mid career
₹9 lakh – ₹25 lakh
per year
Indicative. These bands are an editorial estimate assembled from public reporting, and have not yet been reconciled against a named dataset. Treat them as a shape, not a promise — the same title pays very differently across a service company, a product company and a start-up.
Outlook
Hiring demand
High growth — one of the faster-expanding areas in the country.
Exposure to automation
High. A substantial part of what this role does today can already be done by software. It is not a reason to rule it out, but it is a reason to aim at the judgement-heavy end of it.
What does a Data Analyst do?
What this actually looks like
A day as a Data Analyst
Written about this role. The references behind it cover computing & data as a field rather than data analyst specifically.
What you would actually be doing
- Answering a question somebody asked badly, after working out what they meant
- Cleaning data that arrived in a state nobody warned you about
- Building the dashboard a team will look at every morning
- Explaining to a manager why the number moved, and what it does not prove
- Checking a result twice before anyone acts on it
Who you work with
- Business teams who need an answer for a meeting on Thursday
- Engineers who own the systems your data comes out of
- Finance, when the question is about money
- Whoever will make the decision, briefly and at the end
What you work with
- SQL, all day
- Spreadsheets, still, and at a level most people never reach
- Power BI, Tableau or a similar dashboard tool
- Python or R, once the questions outgrow a spreadsheet
Where and when: An office or remote, at a desk, with a steady flow of requests. Deadlines follow the reporting calendar — month end, quarter end, board meetings. The work is quieter and more predictable than most computing roles.
Working conditions
- Typical hours
- 9 hours
- Remote possible
- Yes, at least partly
- Travel
- low travel
- Physical demand
- low physical demand
Reality check
Before you choose data analyst
A report that only lists what is appealing about a career is an advertisement. This is the other half. Written about this role. The references behind it cover computing & data as a field rather than data analyst specifically.
What people like about it
- The entry route is short, and any degree can lead here
- You learn how a business actually works, from its numbers
- It opens doors into data science, analytics engineering and product
- The work is measurable, and good work is visible quickly
What is genuinely hard
- Much of the week is cleaning data rather than analysing it
- People sometimes want the number that supports a decision already taken
- Routine reporting is being automated faster than in most computing roles
- The title spans very different jobs, and some of them are report production
- Who tends to enjoy this work
- Enjoy finding out why a figure changed, are sceptical of a number that looks too neat, and can explain a finding to somebody who dislikes it.
- What the education journey is really like
- There is no required degree, and this is one of the shortest routes into computing work. B.Sc. Statistics, B.Com, BBA, BCA and engineering degrees all lead here. What gets interviews is SQL you can demonstrate and two or three analyses you can walk through. Certifications help a little; a portfolio helps more. Teachers, accountants and operations staff move into this work regularly.
Other legitimate ways in
The first route does not always work, and it is not always the best one. These are real alternatives, not consolation prizes.
Sideways from any desk job
- Any degree, and a role that already touches numbers
- SQL and a dashboard tool, learned in months rather than years
- Analyst in the function you already understand
The most reliable route, because domain knowledge is the scarce part. An accountant who learns SQL is more useful than a graduate who knows only SQL.
From statistics
- B.Sc. Statistics, Mathematics or Economics
- Analyst work, with the statistics already in place
- Data scientist or analytics specialist
You start ahead on the reasoning and behind on the tooling, which is the easier of the two to fix.
Analytics engineering
- Analyst work with heavy SQL
- Data modelling, pipelines and transformation tools
- Analytics or data engineer
A route out of report production and toward building the systems the reports rest on. Better paid, and further from the business conversation.
Who may not enjoy being a Data Analyst?
Nothing here is a judgement about you — it is what the job is like, listed so you can decide whether it is what you want.
- The hours look like this: 9 hours.
- More of this work is exposed to automation than most, so the parts of it that are valuable will move during your career.
- Entry pay starts low — from about ₹3 lakh a year — and rises with what you can show rather than on the day you qualify.
The four hardest things about the work itself are listed above, under what is genuinely hard. If those and the points here describe things you would rather not sign up for, that is a real answer and worth having before a stream or a degree is chosen around it.
What skills does a Data Analyst need?
What the job actually asks for, split four ways. The assessment tells you which of these your own scores already speak to.
Technical skills
- SQL, to the point of writing joins without thinking
- Descriptive statistics, and knowing when a difference means nothing
- Cleaning and reconciling data from sources that disagree
- Designing a chart that answers the question asked
People skills
- Turning a vague request into an answerable question
- Presenting a finding in one slide and one sentence
- Saying that the data cannot answer this
- Checking your own work before somebody else does
Digital and AI skills
- Power BI, Tableau or a comparable dashboard tool
- Advanced spreadsheet work, including pivots and lookups
- Python or R for what a spreadsheet cannot hold
- AI assistants for writing queries, with the output checked before use
Industry knowledge
- Which numbers your organisation is actually run on
- Where each dataset comes from, and what it leaves out
- Data privacy rules that apply to what you are querying
If Data Analyst appeals, also look at
Chosen by how far the interest pattern and the weighted activities of each one overlap with this. The reason is printed so you can disagree with it.
Computing & Data
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use quantitative.
Computing & Data
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use computing & systems.
Finance & Commerce
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use quantitative.
Business & Management
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use quantitative.
Computing & Data
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use quantitative.
Streams this is reachable from
Exams worth knowing about
Where an exam has its own page, it lists every other career it opens — useful if this one turns out not to fit.
- CUET
- University merit
Where this qualification also leads
The degrees on this route open other doors too. Worth knowing before you commit to one destination.
Where you can study for this
Institutions in our database with a course that is a recognised route into this work. Fees shown on each page are indicative until checked against the institution's own published structure.
Who tends to be happy here
People who rate these highly tend to stay in this work. If none of them sound like you, that is worth taking seriously.
- Achievement
- Working conditions
Are you sure Data Analyst is the career you want?
Everything above describes the job. None of it tells you whether it fits you. So it is worth asking plainly, before a stream or a degree gets chosen around it.
- Not sure? Then this is exactly the question the assessment exists to answer. It compares you against Data Analyst and 196 other careers, and shows the arithmetic behind every score, so you can see why rather than being handed a verdict.
- Quite sure? Then double-check anyway. Being certain is not the same as having checked, and the cost of finding out late is counted in years rather than in the 45 minutes this takes. If it confirms what you already think, you carry on with a reason instead of a hope — plus the education route, the entrance exams and a ninety-day plan.
And if it does not line up, nothing closes. Data Analyst stays on your list with the gap named and a route attached, next to the careers your profile already reaches — so the answer is something to act on either way.
Other Computing & Data careers
Last verified 2026-08-01. This is a career-guidance instrument. It is not a clinical or diagnostic tool. It does not measure intelligence, IQ, or a person’s worth. Its results are one input among several, and are intended to be interpreted with a trained counsellor.