202: I'll Admit: Becoming a Data Analyst Isn't Sustainable Now

I gotta admit that becoming a data analyst in 2026 is no longer sustainable. It honestly feels impossible and burnout is pretty much all but inevitable. You could be working so hard and honestly doing everything right, and yet the dream of actually becoming a data analyst still feels so far away. And if you've been wondering if other people feel this way, yes they do. And it's honestly not just you. It's the whole system is really weird and broken right now. It's just not possible to learn everything that you need to learn because there's a bajillion things you need to learn to be applying to a hundred jobs a day because that's how much everyone else is applying and all these remote data, honest jobs are getting flooded with thousands of applicants. It's just not sustainable to be doing those things while you have a full-time job, while you have a family, while you have a dog, while you have hobbies, like how the heck are you supposed to have time for all these things? You're not. And that's why it's not sustainable anymore. But in today's video, I'm gonna be giving you five things that you can start today to make this whole process feel sustainable. These five things will help you put this process kind of in easy mode and take 10 times less time than it has been previously. So let's get into it. Number one is to consider an internal pivot. Stop thinking that in order to become a data analyst, anything has to actually change externally. It can all change internally. The job you're at today, you can start, give yourself the title of a data analyst and start thinking about your job from a data perspective instead of the normal perspective that everyone else thinks about it. Data analyst is more of a mindset than it is a title, and so you could actually start today and just be like, Hey, I'm a data analyst at my job today. My boss doesn't know it, my coworkers don't know it, but I'm gonna start doing data analytics at my job. And if you start being more data driven in your actual job, what that can actually lead to is what I call an internal pivot where you have the chance to become a data analyst. At your giving company, you don't actually have to switch companies to switch titles. And if you could actually find a data analyst role within your company and switch into that role, or even create that role out of thin air, that's gonna be so much easier than pivoting externally. Because the number one thing when it comes to hiring is trust. And to be honest, you're a complete stranger to hiring managers and recruiters. Like why should they trust you? They don't know you, they don't know anything about you, but your current company, your current team, your current manager, those people know, like, and trust You already. So it's gonna be way less of a stretch to, you know, go into a new position where you literally have no experience in when they already know, like, and trust you. That's gonna be way easier. So if you can figure out how to change your current job into kind of a data analyst job and then figure out how to pivot internally into an internal data analyst position at your company or your organization, that's gonna be way easier and take way less time than doing it externally. And all of this is to say really what you. Actually need to do is you need to figure out how to get paid to learn. Right now you are learning for free or you are even paying to learn, but this process is only sustainable. Becoming data analyst is only sustainable if you can figure out how to get paid to learn. And when you pivot internally, when you take your job today and you make a data analyst job. You actually are learning on the clock. You're starting to think about data analytics on the job, and now you're getting paid to learn in that internal pivot, you'll also get paid to learn on the job. So really the key here is, is to just get this first data roll as quickly as possible so you can get paid to learn. Now the second thing I'm gonna give you right here is really key for getting paid to learn, and that is stop just reaching for data analytics roles. There's actually a bunch of roles that are. Underneath data analyst roles that are a lot easier to land because one less people know about them. Two, they often have lower requirements. Often it's just like you have to know Excel and you just says you don't even have to have a college degree. You just have to have a high school diploma. So these jobs are less known about and they're easier to get. They don't pay as well. But the point here is you're not going for the money. You're going for, how do I get paid to learn so I can make the money one to two, to five to 10 years down the road, have some foresight like, like let's say you're making $50,000 right now. Well, yeah, a data analyst job's gonna pay like $80,000 when you land that data analyst job. But what if you could get into a role that's $50,000 but it's data, or it's $55,000, but it's data and then you're in that role for six. 12, 18, 24 months, and then all of a sudden you're gonna be at $80,000. That's a much better financial decision than struggling to become a data analyst for months and even years and never getting any salary bump whatsoever after three years of trying and in the market. Right now, it's just not sustainable to try to become a data analyst. From scratch without any of these five things you have to be doing, at least one, if not multiple of these five things, and this is something that all of us can do. So what are these job titles? Well, there's a lot of 'em. I've actually made a different episode about these five job titles or six job titles in the past. Some of them are data governance jobs, data entry jobs, data janitor jobs. Data stewardship jobs, data specialist jobs, there's a bunch of different titles. It's for a different episode to go into the depths of these. But just know that there are roles below the data analyst role that will get your foot into the data world. And then once you're in the data world, you can pivot really easy into the data analyst position. Once you have data on your resume and your LinkedIn applying to these data analyst jobs, you're gonna have more experience. The recruiters are gonna trust you a little bit more 'cause you're less of a risk and you're gonna get more interviews and then you're gonna get more offers and then you're gonna land your dream job. So stop reaching for the data analyst role if it feels unsustainable, and reach a little bit lower and get your foot in the door. Very quickly. My third piece of advice is to try to stop learning everything. There's so much to learn in the data world, you guys, like literally, there is so much freaking things to learn in the data world, and the secret is you don't have to know them all. You literally don't have to know everything about everything. You don't, even though like that's what the course is, they'll make you feel, because that's how they make money, right? Like of course they want you to learn all these different skills because that's how they literally make money, but. The point here is you don't have to learn all of them. In fact, I don't know everything. Like I literally don't know everything. I don't know a lot about Databricks, I don't know a lot about sas. Uh, you know, I don't know a ton about Power BI even. Like I've used it at work, but I'm not like a complete master at it. Like my point here, guys, like you don't have to know everything. So my example from this is someone on LinkedIn that I follow. Her name is Morgan, and she is a data visualization specialist and she made this post on LinkedIn the other day. She has 33,000 followers. She's worked for Google about data visualization. And she's never touched Power bi. She's never touched Tableau. She's never touched Looker. She's just done Excel, Google Sheets, and she's a data V specialist and I'm, I don't know her salary, I don't really know her personally, but she works for Google. She has to work, make over six figures. So like, think about that. You can work for Google, make over six figures. You don't have to know if Tableau Power bi, like you just have to know Excel. So stop. Feel like you have to learn everything. Just start with the basics. I think Excel is worth learning. I think sequels worth learning. I think some sort of data visualization tool like Power BI and Tableau are learning. Just do three things. That's it. Forget everything else. Forget the noise. Just say, I will learn that on the job. I will get paid to learn those things on the job. Python, don't even touch it. Get paid to learn Python, get paid to learn tableau. Don't worry about everything right now. Focus on getting your foot in the door first and then learning everything later. The fourth thing you can do to make your job hunt feel more sustainable is you need to be networking more. You need to be talking to more people. And I know, I know it sounds cliche, but I wanna give a quick example. So, um, if you're watching on YouTube, you might have noticed that some of our edits have changed and that's because we're trying to hire a new editor. We've had the same editor for about a year with an agency and we decided to leave. And so we've been trying different editors and so that's why some of the videos. Look a little bit different here on YouTube. Now, I had a really interesting experience where I literally looked at hundreds of editors portfolios and I interviewed some, and I've tested some, but one of my current employees friends was an editor and he didn't really have a portfolio. Uh, the few things he could send me weren't amazing, but I actually did a paid trial with him anyways because I really like my employee and my employees good recommendations, and I wanted to help my employee and my employee's friend out. It didn't work out, but my point here is. They were able to get an interview because of who they knew. And you know people, I promise. You have neighbors, you have friends, you have cousins, you have people at the dog park. You just need to open your mouth and actually start talking to 'em about what you're trying to do and what they do. And talk to people more like get off the phone, myself included, like, I want my phone so much. Like, get off of Instagram, get off of X. Hey, get off of YouTube, right? Like take your your headphones out, stop listening to this podcast and actually get out there and talk to people and you'll be so amazed what opportunities. Might come that you would never expect. And do they come immediately? No. Do they come every time? No. But the point here is if you network enough, you will eventually get lucky. I promise you that you will get lucky and that luck will change your life, so. So take out your headphones, put down your phone. Start talking to humans and talking about your job, what you're trying to do, and ask for help. And you'll be amazed what happens. The fifth thing you can do that'll make your job hunt feel more sustainable is you need cheat codes. You have to get lucky and you wanna make it easy on yourself. So there is cheat codes available, but there is a trade off for all of them. So, for example, I think a cheat code is posting on LinkedIn, but it takes guts to post on LinkedIn. People are gonna think weird things about you, but the trade off is you can get really lucky and you know, get an interview off of posting on LinkedIn. That is a cheat code. Does it cost something? Yes. Is it worth it? In my opinion, yes. You need a cheat code, if not multiple cheat codes, and it's up to you to decide what cheat codes are worth the price for you. So for example, I talked about posting on LinkedIn. Another thing that I think is a cheat code is really good mentorship. So for example, we run the data analytics accelerator. I think it's a cheat code to landing your first data job. We actually had one of our students literally say that, and in a, in a review, it was so much easier to land a data job. With our program and then without it, she felt like it was a cheat code. Now, is this cheat code free? No. It costs money. It costs time, but is it worth it? That's up to you. That's only something that, that you can decide. But my point here is if you're just gonna try to tough it out on your own with no. Additional like weapons or, or armor, so to speak, right? Like if you're just gonna try to go fight, you know, with your bare hands and no shield, you're not gonna survive. You're, it's gonna be unsustainable. You're gonna burn out. You need something that's gonna make you faster, it's gonna make you stronger. That's gonna tell you which ways to go. Now you have to go out there and figure out what. Is right for you, but you'll need something. If you want something and you're curious, I recommend checking out the accelerator. This is my 12 week data analytics program where we teach you from zero to landing your first data job using the SPN method. We'll teach you Excel, sql, Tableau, we'll build projects, we'll put 'em on your portfolio, we'll help you with networking, and we'll try to help you find your first data job that. Is one option. There's lots of options. I think this is a good option. If it's curious, you can find a link in the show notes. Send below or go to data curve jumps.com/daa. You guys, it's really hard to land a data job in 2026, but I promise you can do it with these five things. I hope this helped. If it did, I'll see you in the next episode.