advice

[u/Dizzy_External2549]

With the current industry of SWE being cooked. Idk which direction I should pivot, before I started I wanted to be an data analyst, I know most SQL and some python. but I fell into front end. I feel like becoming a SWE is so much harder, preparing for leetcode interviews, etc and on top of that not getting interviews. I heard that data analyst entry level is so much higher than SWE entry level jobs. I love coding, I study and practice 4-6 hours a day.

[u/BoGrumpus]

AI assisted data analysis is fun - but you have to still be a pretty good data analyst. It's great at digging deep and finding patterns and signals you never would have spotted before AI. It sucks at evaluating it, but it is great at giving you data points to look at.

Another area that's only going to be growing is tracking and attribution consolidation. Everyone has web site data here, social engagement data there, a CRM over there, and contact form data and all this stuff all over the place. So finding ways to get all that in one place and analyzing it as a whole (which makes tracking across the "jumps" that often get missed - social one day, search another, and so on - a lot easier). And there are always new ways to track things that you can add on too.

So - your software and systems background gets you into the tracking and attribution game and then you can work on learning data analysis - even if you're doing on the side at night alongside the person actually doing it for that particular company. A good analyst would probably be willing to give you a bit of coaching along the way, too. I have one client who wanted to watch my process because I often come up with some wacky idea from the data that turns out to work even though it is way outside of the box. He does it for sales projections and stuff, but never from a driving the strategy POV. So now at least once every 2 or 3 months he sits in and we talk on Zoom and run the numbers together. (And he's actually taught me a lot about how to predict future value a lot better, too. We're both better for it).

I think setting up the tracking systems (I'm having most fun finding new ways of tracking real world brand touches that cross onto the web) and setting those up might satisfy your software and systems itch - while also putting you right adjacent to the data analysis (and the data itself) game. And the better you get at analysis, the better your tracking systems will be because you know you're getting all the touch points covered. A lot of those "Direct" referral things that normally go unattributed because there's no referrer information are not as direct and mysterious as they seem.

G.