Demonstrate communication skills in your data analytics project portfolio

Have your ever wondered, as a data analyst, is it possible to portray your communication skills in your project portfolio?

I recently got this question on my LinkedIn DM and I’ll explain how you can do that in this article. But before going to that, why are communication skills important for a data analyst?

Communication skills for data analyst

Communication skills (especially story-telling ability) are crucial skills that separate a good data analyst from an average data analyst.

A data analyst with extremely good technical skills but poor communication skills would find it difficult to succeed in his/her career, as business users don’t understand technical jargon when you are communicating the end insights from the data.

At the end of the day, whatever technical work you do needs to result in an actionable insight, using which the business would take a strategic decision. Hence, you need to support the insights with crucial inputs you derived from your data in a structured and simple manner.

A hiring manager would be happy to hire a data analyst with decent tech skills and good communication skills rather than a person with very good tech skills but poor communication skills.

Portray communication skills in portfolio

Now, coming back to the question. How to portray your communication skills in your portfolio?

You can simply record a 3–5 minute video where you share your screen and explain the crux of your portfolio project. This video should contain:

• The problem statement
• The approach you used to solve the problem
• The result that you obtained

You can record this kind of explanation video for every project in your portfolio and tag the URL to the corresponding project in your portfolio.

You can use a tool called OBS Studio to record your screen and add your voice over the video for a good quality recording. Alternatively, you can use Google Meet and record your screen.

After recording the video, do minimal editing, like removing background noise (or) adding texts at relevant timestamps, etc. Finally, you can post it on Youtube/Google Drive and place this URL in your project portfolio.

Pro tip: Use AI-powered video editing tools, if possible.

Pro’s of using video explanations:

• Using the project explanation videos, the hiring manager can assess your technical + communication skills in one go.
• Most people won’t put in this much effort in their portfolio and this helps your portfolio to stand out amongst the competition.
• This will help you in getting interview calls faster when applying for jobs through portals.
• If you’re seeking a referral, the person who is going to refer you will trust your skills and invest their time in referring you for a vacant role

Thus, a video explanation of your project is the easiest way to demonstrate your communication skills to the World using your data analytics portfolio. I hope this helps you answer the question that I posted at the start of this article!

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