Data Analyst Roadmap — From Beginner to Hireable
Data analyst roadmap from beginner to hireable: SQL, statistics, Python analysis and presenting findings. Kaidoro adapts it to your background and deadline.
This is a starting point — make it yours
Use this goal to build your own roadmap — tailored to you and starting fresh.
SQL
The single most-used skill in the job.
Learn SQL to an interview standard~20h
Joins, aggregation, subqueries, window functions, CTEs. Window functions are what separate junior from mid.
Done when: you can write a running total and a rank within groups from memory.
Analyse a messy real dataset~12h
Find one on Kaggle with genuine problems — missing values, duplicates, inconsistent categories. Clean it and document every decision.
Done when: someone else could reproduce your cleaning from your notes.
Statistics that matter
Enough to avoid confidently reporting noise.
Learn descriptive and inferential statistics~14h
Mean vs median, variance, distributions, sampling, confidence intervals, p-values and what they don't mean.
Done when: you can explain why a p-value isn't the probability the hypothesis is true.
Run and interpret an A/B test~10h
Set up the hypothesis, work out the sample size, run the test, decide honestly.
Done when: you can say 'this result is not significant' and defend it.
Learn regression as an explanatory tool~12h
Linear and logistic regression for understanding relationships, not just prediction. Interpret coefficients.
Done when: you can explain what a coefficient means in plain English.
Tools and visualisation
How the work gets done and shown.
Get fluent with Python for analysis~16h
Pandas for manipulation, matplotlib or seaborn for charts, Jupyter for exploration.
Done when: you can go from CSV to a clear chart in ten minutes.
Learn to build charts that don't mislead~8h
Choosing the right chart, truncated axes, colour that survives colourblindness, labelling.
Done when: you can explain why a dual-axis chart is usually a bad idea.
Build a dashboard~12h
Power BI, Tableau or Streamlit. Make it answer a specific question rather than showing everything.
Done when: a stakeholder can answer their question without asking you.
Communicate it
The part that gets analysts promoted.
Write up an analysis end to end~10h
Question, method, findings, limitations, recommendation. Lead with the answer, not the method.
Done when: a non-technical reader knows what to do after the first paragraph.
Build a portfolio of three analyses~20h
Different domains, different techniques. Public, readable, with the code available.
Done when: each one stands alone without you narrating it.