The New Grad’s Guide to Landing a Data Analyst Role

In partnership with

There's nothing artificial about this intelligence

Meet HoneyBook—the AI-powered platform here to make every client relationship more productive and prosperous.

With HoneyBook, you can attract leads, manage clients, book meetings, sign contracts, and get paid.

Plus, HoneyBook AI tool summarizes project details, generates email drafts, takes meeting notes, predicts high-value leads, and more.

Try HoneyBook for free

Hello everyone and welcome to my newsletter where I discuss real-world skills needed for the top data jobs. 👏

This week I’m discussing the minutia behind preparing for a data analyst role.   👀

 Not a subscriber? Join the informed. Over 200K people read my content monthly.

 Thank you. 🎉

For most new grads, the data analyst role is the most accessible entry point into the data world. While roles in data engineering and machine learning often require advanced experience, data analysis offers a practical starting path—with strong industry demand.

Still, many people don’t fully understand what a data analyst does. There’s a lot of misinformation online. To cut through the noise, we’ll use Microsoft’s definition—one of the companies that helped shape the modern data analyst role.

That’s a bit much, so let’s simplify:

A data analyst uses tools like Power BI to build dashboards and track KPIs. They use SQL to pull the data behind those visuals.

What Sets You Apart?

In one word: knowledge. The more technical your skill set, the stronger your edge in a competitive job market. Focus on learning the basics of tools and skills like:

• Power BI or Tableau (for building dashboards)

• SQL (for sourcing and querying data)

• Understanding metrics like KPIs

Quick Definitions:

• Dashboard: A visual interface that shows key metrics and trends in real time to support quick decisions. (See the Power BI example below.)

• KPI (Key Performance Indicator): A measurable value that reflects performance. On the dashboard below, the number 20,960 is a KPI.

The data for these visualizations can come from many places. However, at most companies it will come from a relational database or data warehouse. Both of those data stores speak SQL.

When we distill the job down into the core technical skills, we come up with three.

• SQL

• PowerBI

• Fabric(Azure)

That means you’ll need to know the basics of all three of these skills well enough to ace a technical interview. 

While Microsoft’s ecosystem (Azure and Power BI) is our primary focus in this guide, it’s worth noting that other ecosystems—like those built on AWS or Google Cloud (GCP)—are also viable. That said, Microsoft Fabric, which is part of Azure’s data platform, has rapidly gained traction. As of recent reports, it's used by over 70% of Fortune 500 companies.

Why is this important? Because Azure’s integrated data tools—including Fabric—are considered among the most robust in the industry, offering seamless connections between data storage, transformation, and visualization.

Clarifying the Data Analyst Role

Before we dive into a detailed learning path, it’s important to understand what a data analyst is and isn’t—especially when working within the Microsoft ecosystem.

A strong data analyst is expected to:

• Use tools like Power BI to develop dashboards and reports

• Write SQL queries to extract and analyze data

• Collaborate with stakeholders to turn data into insights

However, some job descriptions include responsibilities that traditionally fall under the data engineer’s domain—like building data pipelines or managing Snowflake workflows. While analysts may occasionally interact with these systems (e.g., pulling data from Snowflake), pipeline design and orchestration are typically handled by data engineers.

Understanding these boundaries will help you focus your learning and prepare for realistic expectations in the role.

Here’s a live job post. This will give you some insight into what companies are looking for.

There are many data sources within PowerBI. However, most reports will be sourced from a relational database or a data warehouse. Microsoft’s relational database is called SQL Server. It’s one of the most used databases on earth. There are many data warehouse options but SQL Server is an industry heavyweight. SQL is the language.

SQL is an acronym that stands for structured query language. As a data analyst you’ll need to know how to use the language, SQL and a good deal about the application called SQL Server.

Take a course on SQL Server. Take a lot of notes. Interviewers expect you to know foundational concepts of relational databases as well as you know your phone number. It’s not complicated but there is a voluminous amount of information. Keep in mind you need to know the language, SQL and the basics of the application called SQL Server.

For example. SQL Server has two core services. You’ll need to know what these are. These services aren’t related to knowledge about the SQL language, however; you’ll need to know them.

Important Insights

• Learn the basics of the SQL language. There are a lot of similarities between vendor offerings. Microsoft’s flavor of SQL is called Transact-SQL.

• Microsoft’s relational database is called SQL Server.

• Take notes and used spaced repetition.

• The basics of the SQL language and of SQL Server can be learned in a month of serious study. Three hours a day should do it.

• I highly recommend industry certification for every skill. However, Microsoft has deprecated most of their relational database certifications. Please don’t get certification confused with those worthless certificates of completion. They are not the same thing.

• SQL is the top skills for any data professional. Learn these skills now, you’ll be using them for the rest of your life if you’re going to be a data professional.

How do you know you are ready to move on to the next skill? I’ve created a GPT for preparing for the SQL Server technical interview. When you can answer all those questions at 90% or more, you’re ready to move on.

Power BI is a business analytics tool developed by Microsoft that helps you visualize your data and share insights across your organization or embed them in an app or website.

It’s the tool you’ll be spending most of your life in. Its core purpose is to be able to create dashboards and KPIs. We’ve already defined what these are. There are other interface tools like Tableau, however; none of them are a mature or as well built as PowerBi. Here’s a comparison ChatGPT provided for me and it’s fairly accurate and honest.

PowerBI is a central part of the Fabric ecosystem. Why is that important? Because as we’ve already noted, Fabric is now in 70% of all Fortune 500 companies.  

Important Insights 

• There is more than one version you’ll need to learn. You can’t learn the latest version because most companies wait six months to a year before upgrading to the most recent versions of a technology.

• There is a desktop version that’s used more often than the online version. However, this is changing quickly so focus on learning the online version if you a taking courses that focus on the desktop version.

• Focus on learning the vernacular. What are slicers and filters? How do you publish a report? What’s a report? What’s DAX?

• Do you know the best approach to learn anything? If not, check out this article. Please implement this approach. I promise it will make a difference in your concept retention.

• On LogikBot, I’ve included a cheat sheet for PL-300. This is the PowerBI certification I recommend you take. I also have an interview preparation guide on my platform.

• Understand data moerding in the context of PowerBI.

Microsoft Fabric is an end-to-end, unified data and analytics platform designed to simplify how businesses collect, manage, analyze, and act on their data. It's built on the Azure cloud and combines tools from Power BI, Azure Synapse, and Data Factory into a single Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) environment.

I recently noted that 70% of all Fortune 500 companies are currently using Fabric. Think of Microsoft Fabric as “one platform for your entire data journey”—from raw ingestion to data engineering, real-time analytics, and business intelligence.

Important Insights

• Fabric sits on Azure. You’ll need to know the basics of Azure.

• Fabric is new. This is good for you. You’ll be ahead of the game with a Fabric certification and basic Fabric skills.

• Fabric uses a unified data lake called OneLake, similar to OneDrive, but for data. All data is stored in open Delta Lake format, which ensures compatibility and avoids silos.

• LogikBot has a complete Fabric course. The course includes the exam cram for DP-600. If you’re new to certifications, most have a hard time passing them without exam crams.

• This skill is the one you should focus the least amount on. Learning PowerBi is far more critical and so is SQL.

• A data lake is the foundation for all Fabric workloads. In Microsoft Fabric, this lake is called OneLake. It's built into the platform and serves as a single store for all organizational data.

• PowerBI is full integrated into Fabric.

We have three core skills all entry level data analyst preparing to work on the Microsoft ecosystem need to know. They are SQL, PowerBI and Fabric. Sure, there’s always more. However, as a data analyst most of your job will be working inside of PowerBI. You need to become very comfortable with this interface. Additionally, you need to speak the nomenclature of the tool.

Thanks and have a great day. 👏

I’ve created the courses, study guides and a GPT for preparing for this role. All you need to do is follow directions.

STEP 1: Take the Transact-SQL course. Download the must know interview questions for data roles study guide and fill it in. (Included in the course) Download and install the GPT and learn all the top SQL interview questions. A GPT is a model I created that is part of ChatGPT to help you ace the SQL Server interview. (Included in the course)

STEP 2: Learn PowerBI. Take the PowerBI course. Study the exam cram guides included in the course for PL-300. Use the interview prep sheet for acing the interview. Attain PL-300. That’s the PowerBI certification. I know it works because almost every one of my students has passed the exam on the first try.

STEP 3: Learn Fabric. It’s Microsoft new data centric cloud ecosystem. Take my Fabric course and pass DP-600. That’s the Fabric certification. Yes, I’ve included the cheat sheet for that certification also.

🥳 Here’s a code to receive $20 off the first month. Yep, that means the first month is only $30 dollars. This price includes all the courses, the study guides, the GPT and the exam crams.

CODE: MEMDAY25

Take control of your future. Nobody else is going to. If you don’t fail often you are doing something wrong. 👏