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Help on Excel "Data Analysis"

Amala

New Member
Hi All,

I am new to this group. I have found this group is an amazing platform to share Excel related queries. Please help me.

I am looking for a job as a "Data Analyst". I got an offer from an international bank in this field. They mentioned Excel will be the tool they are going to use. I didn't accept the offer yet. My doubts are

1. What can be the possible "Data Analysis" in a banking industry?
2. How can they perform large data analysis with the help of Excel?
3. What can I expect as day to day duties in a bank as a Data Analyst?
4. What is the capacity of Excel in the area of Data Analysis?

Please please help me. This is going to be my 1st job. I don't know the banking industry and how it is working in the area of Data Analysis with the help of Excel.

Thanks in advance to this blog for offering help..
 
Hi Narayan,

Thank you for the response.

I am a B.Tech Computer Science graduate. After that I did MBA in finance. Both are from normal colleges. I completed my MBA in 2012. After that due to some personal reasons I was not working anywhere. An year back I moved to Bangalore and then I realized about the problems due to gap in career.

I researched about my options and found out "Data Analysis" is a good area and I always love numbers and statistics. I did a course in Data Science with SAS. I learned the basics of R on my own.

But when I started applying for jobs, my lack of hands on experience in the Data Analysis field as well as with tools (SAS/R) became a problem. Now I got an offer in Data Analysis which is using Excel tool. I know Excel is a great tool and I am pretty OK with it. I don't have any problem in working with finance industry too. In fact I would like to start my career in industries like BFSI, e-commerce, FMCG etc.

My problem is, I am too afraid that, I don't know how the real world of Data Analysis is working. I learned many things during my course in Data Science with SAS. But as a fresher what will I do in Data Analysis? How banking domain is going to use Excel for Data Analysis? What will be my day to day life activities in this area? If I start a career in Excel, will I be able to move to SAS/R?

I am looking forward for answers from experienced people like you. I really want to be a part of Data Analysis world. But, I am not getting that career start.

Please help me.

thanks and regards,
Amala



Hi ,

You have not mentioned your educational background , and your own preference for the industry you would like to work in. Can you give more details ?

Narayan
 
Hi ,

Sorry , but I have no experience of data analysis in the world of finance.

To give you an idea of what a data analyst's job entails , see if this helps :

http://www.dataanalystbootcamp.com/the-data-analyst-job-description/

To give you an idea of the skills required of a data analyst , see if this helps :

https://www.bullhornreach.com/job/20904_data-analyst-role-heavy-vba-access-excel-usage-none

I would suggest that some experience , what ever field it may be in , is better than none ; you would do better to accept the opportunity which you have been given , and then see how you can bring your educational background and your keenness to learn to bear on your job requirements.

To answer your questions given my limited knowledge :

1. A banking organization is looking to do two things :
  • Eliminate non performing assets
  • Grow in those areas which are lucrative , which means identify the most promising investment options , and the most profitable customers
Both these aspects require you to go through a lot of data , and apply your knowledge of markets , to come up with interesting insights.

2. Excel alone may not be of much use in analysing such voluminous data ; however , with the coming of the latest Microsoft BI tools , PowerPivot being an example , this is no longer a constraint ; you might have to convince your management to invest in these BI tools.

You can find some good case studies here :

http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/server-cloud/solutions/bi-analytics.aspx

3. Finally , data analysis is useful to the extent it helps solve problems ; you might need to spend a lot of your time in dialogues with your end customers to identify their requirements and then see how you can leverage the power of Excel and other data analysis tools to give them solutions.

Some of the other members in this forum are already in the field of Data Analysis , and they might be able to help with much more information.

Narayan
 
Thank you so much for those valuable insights. :)

regards,
Amala


Hi ,

Sorry , but I have no experience of data analysis in the world of finance.

To give you an idea of what a data analyst's job entails , see if this helps :

http://www.dataanalystbootcamp.com/the-data-analyst-job-description/

To give you an idea of the skills required of a data analyst , see if this helps :

https://www.bullhornreach.com/job/20904_data-analyst-role-heavy-vba-access-excel-usage-none

I would suggest that some experience , what ever field it may be in , is better than none ; you would do better to accept the opportunity which you have been given , and then see how you can bring your educational background and your keenness to learn to bear on your job requirements.

To answer your questions given my limited knowledge :

1. A banking organization is looking to do two things :
  • Eliminate non performing assets
  • Grow in those areas which are lucrative , which means identify the most promising investment options , and the most profitable customers
Both these aspects require you to go through a lot of data , and apply your knowledge of markets , to come up with interesting insights.

2. Excel alone may not be of much use in analysing such voluminous data ; however , with the coming of the latest Microsoft BI tools , PowerPivot being an example , this is no longer a constraint ; you might have to convince your management to invest in these BI tools.

You can find some good case studies here :

http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/server-cloud/solutions/bi-analytics.aspx

3. Finally , data analysis is useful to the extent it helps solve problems ; you might need to spend a lot of your time in dialogues with your end customers to identify their requirements and then see how you can leverage the power of Excel and other data analysis tools to give them solutions.

Some of the other members in this forum are already in the field of Data Analysis , and they might be able to help with much more information.

Narayan
 
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