Data skills are in huge demand from employers in all areas of business. The ability to gather complex datasets, investigate important questions, and extract useful insight is a talent that can be applied to many different career paths. But where could a career in data take you?
If you think data analysis is all boardrooms and boredom, think again. Data is central to innovation across so many exciting industries. As a Data Analyst, you’ll have an amazing opportunity to blend your skills with your passion and take your career in any direction you choose.
In this article, we’ll showcase our top ten most exciting industries for aspiring Data Analysts and share how you can kickstart your career in this ever-expanding field.
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1. Journalism
The explosion of data produced by public organisations is a goldmine for journalists. Journalists use data analysis to explore trends, make connections, deepen understanding, and hold public bodies to account.
Data Journalists take numbers on a screen and transform this raw data into a narrative that resonates with readers.
The use of data in journalism has enabled reporters to tell stories that would have previously been impossible. Examples include The Sunday Times investigation into the widespread use of blood doping in world athletics, Buzzfeed News revealing hundreds of children were missing from care, and The Guardian uncovering flaws in official Covid-19 death tolls.
2. Sport
Whether you’re a new runner pushing for a personal best on a 5k, or an Olympic coach overseeing your athletes’ nutrition plans, smart use of data can drive better performance in sport at all levels of competition. In sport, data analytics has grown into an industry worth over $4 billion.
In this field, data skills can lead to exciting careers. Football teams including Manchester United hire data analysts to provide insight into football strategy, team performance and even transfer decisions. In sports medicine, biomechanics analysis can be used to optimise performance, and in sports manufacturing, data analysis helps create more effective technical clothing, footwear and equipment.
Data Analysts are also in high demand across related fields, such as sports marketing, nutrition, or the gambling industry.
3. Media & Entertainment
Behind the scenes of your Netflix, Spotify and YouTube accounts are a series of complex algorithms designed to offer you customised recommendations.
In media and entertainment, streaming activity creates a huge datasets of customer behaviour, and this creates big career opportunities. From conducting sentiment analysis and creating personalised content experiences, data holds a lot of possibilities in this sector.
Data analysis and predictive modelling could even help inform what kinds of content gets greenlit for streaming platforms, based on how customer viewing habits are changing, what worked well previously, and what cultural trends are emerging elsewhere.
4. Medical Science & Healthcare
Data is central to so many aspects of healthcare and medical science, including public health, hospital operations, pharmaceuticals, and personalised care.
In the NHS, information analysts perform an essential role in many hospitals, examining data and reporting on issues such as patient waiting times and bed capacity. With roles in NHS Digital or NHSX, data is used to develop technology that improves health outcomes and supports world class medical research.
5. Big Tech
Across the five big tech giants – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft – data analysis plays an important role in product development, operations, finance, and marketing. These global organisations have the resources and ambition to work at the cutting edge of data science, with highly technical roles covering everything from maintaining vast data centres to creating AI software.
6. Agriculture
Agriculture began around 12,000 years ago when hunter-gatherers began to cultivate the soil, but there’s nothing old-fashioned about data-driven agriculture. This is a hugely exciting time for farming: data has the potential to help increase food production, respond to the risks of climate change, and improve the health and welfare of farmed animals.
7. Energy & Utilities
Data is the key to efficiency in all areas of energy consumption and the use of natural resources – from optimising the use of renewable energies to conserving water, it’s important for utility providers to be able to track, monitor and predict demand for resources. In this sector, Energy Analysts are in high demand, measuring energy efficiency, uncovering insights on energy use, and making recommendations for improved services.
8. Automotive & Transport
Transport systems generate a huge amount of data, whether that’s a city bus route, local taxi service, global airline, or smart motorway. Managing these systems effectively requires people with the skills to process and take insights from these massive datasets.
In the automotive industry there’s a lot of scope for data analysts as part of the development teams for new technologies, including more efficient electric vehicles and the development of autonomous automotive systems that could eventually lead to self-driving cars.
9. Fashion
Did you know that data has also seen an explosion in creative sectors? As traditional high street shopping is replaced by online retail, brands have been experimenting with data-driven technologies.
One of the biggest problems customers face when shopping online is not knowing how a piece of clothing will fit, or whether it will suit them. Data has the potential to solve this problem, delivering personal style recommendations while reducing fashion waste and improving the overall shopping experience.
Style service Stitch Fix are one of the front runners combining fashion and data science; they have developed algorithms to select outfits based on customer’s style preferences and body measurements, delivering them to their door. More broadly in the fashion industry, data analysts are in demand to help pull insights from customer feedback, analyse sentiment, predict trends, and optimise supplies and inventory management.
10. Space & Satellites
If you think a career in space is lightyears away, think again. Just like data, space is a growing industry with some amazing career prospects.
The commercial space industry is growing, generating masses of data through satellites and sensors.
As a data analyst in the space industry, you could be working on research projects, developing software applications, or playing an essential business analyst role… all while working with technologies located outside of the earth’s atmosphere.
Start Your Career in Data with Baltic Apprenticeships
If you’ve been inspired to start learning data skills and kickstart an amazing career of your own, we’re here to help. At Baltic Apprenticeships, our Level 3 Data Technician programme offers an excellent route into the data industry.
You’ll learn advanced technical skills and build experience in industry, with opportunities to progress onto a Level 4 programme and further data qualifications.
To find out more, check out our programme details, or read our recent case studies from previous data apprentices.