Insights into the Data Analytics job market in India (2023)

Dear Readers,

First of all, I’m delighted to inform you that I’ve recently joined the Ford Motor Company as a Data visualization and insights analyst. I’ll be working with the Global Data Insights and Analytics (GDIA) department at the Global Technology and Business Centre (GTBC) of Ford Motor Company at Chennai, India.

As a person who was available in the Indian job market in the last few months, I’d like to share some insights into the analytics job market. I hope this would help those who are looking to make a transition into a new role.

Job market insights

I started actively looking for new roles since Nov-2022 and ended my job search by Jan-2023. Here are my personal observations that I noticed during that period:

• The job market is pretty down compared to what it was in 2021 and early 2022. Hence there is little chance of getting insane salary hikes of 300–400%.
• You need to be really skilled at your technical tools to get a good offer. You can’t just build a few basic dashboards and expect a high salary, unlike how it’s being marketed by some companies/people who are trying to sell you data-related courses.
• The competition for data-related roles is intense, thanks to the hype around the role. Hence, you need to have a good to strong profile to overcome the competition. An average profile may get you an interview call but the chances of converting them into an offer are little.
• There have been multiple instances of people faking their experience to get into the IT sector during Covid period (2020–2022). Hence, some companies insist on having at least 1 round of interview (face-face) at their office to hire genuine candidates.
• Your last CTC plays a significant role. The HRs are willing to offer a new salary with a standard 30–50% hike from the last CTC (equal to pre-covid levels). You need to have counteroffers in hand to negotiate a better package.
• LinkedIn and Naukri got me the most interview calls compared to other job posting platforms.

A few insights may demotivate some of you, but I’m sharing my observations without any sugar-coating. So, it’s better to be prepared for such a job market.

What helped me get multiple offers?

I’m sharing some points that helped me grab multiple offers from reputed companies in this difficult environment. Hope you could take these points to your advantage during your job search as well.

✅ I was very good at Power BI, SQL, and MS Excel which were my core skills. So I was able to clear the technical rounds with ease, as most questions were asked from those tools. I had dedicated a month to preparing the interview questions which made a big difference.

✅ I had a strong digital presence on LinkedIn. My LinkedIn profile acted as my 2nd resume. Some hiring managers actually went through my work on LinkedIn and Medium and appreciated me for the work I’d done.

✅ I had a project portfolio link that showcased my sample work to the hiring manager even before sitting for an interview. It helped me stand out from the competition.

✅ I had a clean, ATS-friendly resume and a fully optimized Naukri profile which helped me get the interview calls.

✅ I had a very steep learning curve in my previous company, which was visible in the way I handled the technical questions. It also helped me justify my lesser years of work experience (<2 years) during the interviews.

✅ I have built a good professional network and people were kind enough to refer me to their companies, which also helped me get a few interview calls.

Conclusion

In short, you need to prepare well technically and build a good digital profile to stand out from the competition. Also, you need to patiently keep applying to get the right job you’re looking for.

The opportunities are abundant but the market expects you to be skilled to offer you the job.

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