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A data analyst performs the process of analysing, processing and transforming organisational data. This process helps organisations to discover useful information, suggest recommendations and make objective decisions. Often these roles require considerable time using MS-Excel. Typical skills involve producing tables and charts to draft the information. Therefore, a data analyst must have proficient excel skills. In order to ensure that the candidate's excel skills are adequate for the job, the employer requests candidates to take excel assessment tests during the hiring process. A candidate applying for a data analyst must possess the following traits: -Numerical reasoning and strong analytical skillsKnowledge of excel formulae and functionsAbility to work on advanced excel chartsWorking knowledge of numerical patterns, worksheets, and operations.An Excel test prior to interviewing candidates checks the above-mentioned skills of the candidate during the hiring process.

Don’t use a sledgehammer to hammer in a nail.We’ve all dealt with the Nick Burns character that Jimmy Fallon plays on SNL. He’s the uber-computer geek that scoffs at your lack of enthusiasm for the biggest, nerdiest and best technology out there. He wants to set up servers and load up the beefiest database technologies on there to manage any job, big or small. He gets off on nerding out in databases and want to always use his database-sledgehammer no matter how big of a nail you got. He will roll his eyes if you mention Microsoft Access to him.If anyone tells you that Microsoft Access isn’t useful anymore, turn your geek radar on. I’ve been developing with Access for over 20 years and have seen it’s role in technology change. There are things I wouldn’t recommend using Access for but there are plenty of other scenarios where Access would be my first tool to use.Here are five areas where Microsoft Access leads:Small business applications: Access comes with dozens of pre-built database templates for managing employee and customer lists, business inventory, time sheet tracking, finances, budgets, sales, events, and projects. These templates can be used as is but the real magic comes from customizing these databases to the exact needs of your business. Also these templates are free so the only expense is your time customizing the database. No monthly costs for hosted software either. Many people already have Access on their computers and you don’t have to hire a geek to set up a server and load it with database software. There is no setting up needed with Microsoft Access.Custom software applications: When businesses have unique software needs that can’t be fulfilled by off the shelf software they have a choice of hiring a software firm to build them a custom solution costing five figures and more or they can build a custom solution in Access themselves. Access provides forms and reports with automation features to connect with other Office applications like Outlook and Word to automate business tasks. Access can also import and link to data files from other applications to serve the needs of any industry.Data analysis: Much of my job requires me to do data analysis for medical research using small data sets. Small for me is less than 200,000 records. The tools I have loaded on my computer are Excel, Access, SAS, and JMP. Hands down, the tool I use most is Microsoft Access, followed by Excel, SAS, then JMP. Access is great at number crunching. The combination of using queries and writing Visual Basic code lets me summarize, iterate and perform statistics quicker and easier than the other programs I have. (Excel’s Data Ribbon is a fantastic 2nd choice).Personal databases: Most people use Excel or Google Sheets to manage their recipes, contacts, or media collections. These spreadsheet programs do an OK job but if your needs are a little more sophisticated, then you need your spreadsheet tabs to interact with each other which essentially is a Microsoft Access database. The worksheets are tables in Access and sorting and filter in worksheets are saved queries in Access, but even better. Excel doesn’t have reporting or forms that Access provides and you don’t have to worry about losing unsaved data since Access saves entries as they happen. Finally Access has free pre-built database templates to organize recipes, contacts or your book collection.This next bullet is where Microsoft Access’s future shines the brightest.Big Data for small and medium businesses: Big Data is all the rage today. Large corporations who are dealing with millions and millions of records of data employ Data Scientists to manage and mine this data using Hadoop and other similar programs. However, medium and small businesses can rely on Microsoft Access to manage and mine their data. Microsoft’s Office team states: “Access is a great database management solution for small businesses because it makes collecting and storing data accessible on the desktop—without requiring support from an IT administrator. Access enables users to develop business applications, collect and analyze data from multiple sources, and track any kind of data, from a customer contact list to robust asset management.”[1] Microsoft has added data connectors for Salesforce, Amazon Redshift, OData Feed, Dynamics CRM and others. You can integrate your data from different business applications and mine this data to get insights on your business.Footnotes[1] Microsoft Access now included in Office 365 Business and Business Premium with new enhancements - Office Blogs

Having hired a number of high quality (good and great!) Tableau developers (and interviewed quite a few more) I can share my approach…“Show me examples of your work / your Tableau Public portfolio”Every Tableau developer who wants to demonstrate his/her capability should have one or more examples of their work (on any subject) available, or on Tableau Public. Anyone without work on Tableau Public is either:Incompetent - they don’t have any work worth publishingLazy - they haven’t taken the time to produce a showcase viz or dashboarda + b“Show me your Tableau Community profile, and how you work with the community”Every competent Tableau developer has both posed and answered questions on the Community - even if this is infrequent.“Talk me through your design and build process”All good Tableau developers can explain their work in several phases, using terminology like:Exploration = establishing data syntax- rapid fire worksheet creation and destruction, exploring the nature / shape / scope of the dataSense-making = establishing data context- comparison of data elements, combining dimensions and measures, exploring change over time, experimenting with relationshipsBlending = combining data- joining multiple source ‘tables’, blending across data sourcesVisualisation = conveying information visually- experimenting with visual forms to best represent observed patternsInteractivity = encouraging audience exploration of information- combining visualisations to encourage the intended audience to explore the data in some way, helping them develop their own understanding“Show me all of this, by working with this data set”The acid test is watching someone work with an unfamiliar data set, to see whether everything described above is real. If you have a data set that you know well, ask your potential Tableau developer to work with it:Poor candidates will looks concerned, flounder a little and make a series of excuses as to why the data is different from that which they are used to. Avoid.Adequate candidates will wade in, create some standard visualisations (misinterpreting some of the data), connect a few together and show potential dashboard content… my advice = again, avoid.Good candidates will engage with the data, ask questions to develop a contextual understanding, suggest options and ask for your preference, build interesting and thoughtful visualisations which the can combine, fairly quickly, into interesting prototype dashboards… the look and feel may be a little rough, but the thought process will be solid and the visual approach strong and interesting - consider hiring.Great candidates will smile, with a glint in their eye - suddenly, they are in their element as their inherent curiosity is unleashed. They will explore and challenge the data. They will highlight inconsistencies and issues (some of which you may have been unaware of!). They will create visuals at speed - keeping some, discarding others, often with a running commentary. They will assemble dashboards in a way that makes you smile - either because it apes your style, or because they show you a new way of tackling a problem which you hadn’t considered. You will know inside 15 minutes of watching them work that they are a Great Candidate. Hire immediately!I hope that helps?!