Stand Out from the Crowd and Conquer the Analytics Job Market

The job market is absolutely dismal. Shocker, right?

Recent data from sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows unemployment in August 2025 is at the same levels as October 2021, when we were navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

What does this mean? Thousands of applicants on every open role, creating a “sea of sameness” where resumes with similar skills and certifications all start to blur together.

Excel, SQL, Python, BI Tools like Power BI or Tableau. Everyone knows these skills are important to be an analyst. If you’re new to analytics especially, you’ve been told this is what you need, bare minimum.

But that’s just it… It’s the bare minimum. These skills don’t say anything about how your brain works or who you are as a person. As I’ve covered in previous articles, some of these skills can even be automated away.

Hiring managers need to understand that you’re more than a SQL monkey. So, how do you help them?

You need to build a professional identity that’s too compelling to ignore by highlighting how you utilize your skills to generate impactful outcomes. I’m not using buzzwords here. Impactful outcomes = a valuable employee, and that’s how you need to show up.

There’s a lot of strategies to do this, but I’m going to break down what’s worked for me and what I’ve seen work for the most successful analytics professionals that I know in a simple “Why it Matters, How to Do It, and Vision of Good” framework.

Building Things & Focus on Creating an Impact

Why it Matters: Anyone can list Python on their resume. Showing that you’ve built something tangible from scratch is impactful.

Creating a small app, a useful script, or a side project proves you have initiative, creativity, and the ability to think like an owner.

It doesn’t need to be anything crazy. Just pick a problem in your life that you have been needing to solve, and solve it. This shows that you’re actively seeking problems to solve, rather than waiting for work to come to you. This is the single best way to demonstrate business impact.

How to Do It:

• Start Small: Don’t try to build the next Facebook or big SaaS company. Automate a tedious part of your life. Build a script that scrapes pricing data for a hobby, or create a simple budget tracker (corporate America loves Sankey diagrams, after all) that works exactly how you want it to.
• Use Accessible Tools: No code, low code tools are great here to show you can build something without needing to spend hundreds of development hours. You can use Streamlit with Python to create interactive dashboards and web apps. Free = awesome.

Vision of Good: A finished (not necessarily perfect) project in a public GitHub repository with a clean README.md file explaining:

1. The problem you solved.
2. How you solved it.
3. The outcome.
4. Perhaps most important: what you learned and what you would do differently next time.

Basically, use the STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) method here.

Volunteerism is Beneficial to You

Why it Matters: While the hiring process often feels sterile, and companies don’t always do a good job of being “people first”, they are hiring a person, not software. I’m a firm believer that leading with your uniquely human characteristics is an advantage.

Volunteering for a cause you’re passionate about showcases critical soft skills like empathy, commitment, and collaboration and can show that you’re willing to put in work for things besides simple monetary reward.

It also provides a ton of unique stories and experiences for your interviews that other candidates simply won’t have. I have personally experienced this while volunteering as chair of my nonprofit, Wild Coast Trails Association, a trial stewardship group in southwest Oregon.

It may seem like this would have no direct tie to analytics, but when I analyzed statewide campground pricing data so we can make a decision on how to price a new campground near one of our trail systems, I was using those analyst skills. This is one of many examples of how I gained something beneficial from giving my time.

How to Do It:

• Align Skills with Passion: Find a nonprofit that needs your specific skills. A local animal shelter could probably use help analyzing adoption data. A community food bank might need help optimizing its inventory with your supply chain knowledge.
• Use Platforms: Websites like Idealist are great for finding volunteer opportunities if you’re not sure where to look or need some inspiration.

Vision of Good: Clearly articulate the impact you had using metrics! For example, “I analyzed the organization’s donor patterns to help them design a campaign that increased new donations by 15%.”

We’re going to talk about portfolios here shortly, but this would be a good thing to visualize and add to your portfolio, too.

Get Involved in a Community

Why it Matters:

Joining a community can signal that you’re a peer leader. You go out of your way to be a lifelong learner in your free time, and often there’s events that you can learn from or network in.

Did you win a community data viz contest? Were you a top contributor on technical tips or did you mentor others?

These are accomplishments that show leadership skills, technical proficiency, and storytelling and can absolutely help you land a job.

I am obviously a big believer in community since I run the GOATs community. I have personally seen the success stories of what being involved with our community has done for people. I’ve shared those stories too!

How to Do It:

• Be a Giver: Answer questions for people. Spend 15 minutes a week helping others solve problems you’ve already figured out.
• Participate Actively: Join a contest. Participate in a community-wide project. Offer to mentor others.

Vision of Good: A community profile that shows a history of constructive engagement, positive interactions, and a willingness to help. Prizes that you win through data viz contests or hackathons are really cool to highlight!

Establish Credibility through Content Creation

Why it Matters: One of the fastest ways to be seen as an expert is to teach. Creating content, whether it’s a blog post, a LinkedIn article, or a short video tutorial, forces you to understand a topic at a much deeper level.

It builds your personal brand and establishes you as a Subject Matter Expert (SME). Opportunities start coming to you because you’re the person who clearly explains complex topics.

How to Do It:

• Document Existing Pain Points or Learnings: You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Just document what you’re learning. Did you just learn about a new method for using SQL? Write a short post explaining it. Found a cool Python library? Make a 2-minute video showing how it works. Even things that seem simple to you may be extremely helpful for someone that is learning.
• Consistency over Perfection: One good post a week is better than one “perfect” post per month, especially if you forget to ever publish it or it loses relevancy. I know this can be hard if you’re a perfectionist (I re-write things ALL the time).

Vision of Good: A portfolio full of content that you have created designed to help others and share your expertise. A hiring manager can read your articles and understand exactly how you think and communicate, which is a massive advantage before you even step into an interview.

I’ve heard several stories of people who landed work because of the content they posted on LinkedIn.

Create an Interactive Portfolio

Why it Matters:

I’ve heard people say that the portfolio is useless to a recruiter. Nobody is going to look at it, maybe not even the hiring manager.

While that could be true for the screening stage, I personally have shared my portfolio during interviews and it absolutely made a difference.

When you get the question, “Tell me about a time you solved a difficult problem,” you can say, “Let me show you.”

It can help you stay on track in your explanation, but if they’re a visual person, it will make an impact more than just talking about something.

How to Do It:

• Keep it Simple: Use a platform like GitHub, Carrd, Notion, or even a personal blog. There’s also analytics-specific platforms like DataSciencePortfol.io.
• Focus on Impact: For each project, clearly state the Problem, the Action you took, and the Result. Use visuals, link to your code, and embed your content.

Vision of Good: A clean, easy-to-navigate site with your 3-5 best projects. It should tell a clear story of your skills and accomplishments. It’s okay to go deep into detail in additional pages or clicks, but make sure all of the highlights can be consumed in less than 60 seconds.

Get After It - Here’s your Challenge

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s okay… you don’t have to do all of this at once. Start small.

Here is a simple, four-week checklist to build momentum. Then, build your own tailored plan on how to keep it going all year by reviewing what you enjoyed about the first 4 weeks and what works best for your career trajectory.

• Week 1: Join a professional community and answer a couple of questions within the community. Write a short post on a topic you know well. It doesn’t need to be a blog!
• Week 2: Start a GitHub repo for one small, personal project (even if it’s just a single script). Write the first draft of your post to highlight this repo.
• Week 3: Publish your post about the Week 2 repo. Find one non-profit you admire and see if they have volunteer opportunities that fit your skills.
• Week 4: Create a simple, one-page portfolio using one of the tools I mentioned above and add your new project and your new blog post to it.

What’s something I missed? Let me know!