I have a third interview with an organization as a Data Analyst.

Anonymous

February 13,2023 at 3:23PM UTC

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I have a third interview with an organization as a Data Analyst. I was asked to create a presentation with made up data over a large geographical area, creating slides of demographics, information targeted to programming, membership and fundraising and last to create a heat map which showed the underlying data. I dont know enough about the organization to create these reports. I dont know what the data fields are to create these slides and last of all I am being expected to create this on my home Chromebook that has Google Sheets and Google Slides while they are using a variety of Business Intelligence tools. How do I politely decline this offer? It isn't like I havent tried - I feel like I am being asked to present the conclusion of my work when I dont know what the work is yet.

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AnonymousFebruary 13,2023 at 4:04PM UTC
As someone who has hired data analysts myself, the point of this exercise is to see what you can do with limited guidance, tools and data. Can you be counted on to draw out conclusions for yourself or will theay always need to tell you exactly what they want graphs and data to present. If you are interested in the job and want to proceed with the interviewing process, I would encourage you to focus on what data and frame of reference they did give you in the request. If you struggle to make a conclusion due to lack of data you can always use assumptions you believe would be true. Just make sure to clearly call out those assumptions in the presentation. If your struggling to know what kind of visual representations to use try goggling presentations by MBA students that have similar topics and see if anything things seems applicable to the request.
In my experience in data analytics more often than not we receive messy imperfect data without clear explanations and direction, and we have to become skilled at finding the bread crumb path through it. We also challenge our applicants in a similar way. From my perspective I'm looking to see can they envision how to present data in a way that is easy for everyone to understand? Are they able to speak intelligently about what they prepared? And lastly, are they willing to make logical conclusions and decisions without guidance?
Best of Luck on your job hunt!
Hannah GoldbergFebruary 13,2023 at 5:40PM UTC
are you hiring?
AnonymousFebruary 13,2023 at 4:33PM UTC
Hi. As the previous anonymous stated, this is truly an assessment of your ability to handle information of ambiguous nature and draw logical conclusions or at least conclusions based on the data provided/ researched. What you have is less important than how you utilize it. I don't know where you are in your career, but this is a great opportunity to stretch yourself. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Your chance is always 50/50 for any attempt and 0% for not trying.
AnonymousFebruary 14,2023 at 2:26PM UTC
The others have made great comments so I just want want to say "You have already come this far so please see it through to the end". If you plan to work as a data analyst, you may not be able to escape interviews like these.
AnonymousFebruary 14,2023 at 3:16PM UTC
My question is, "why don't you know enough about the organization?" To see the target customers and the fundraising hot spots, it is easy to use the census data to get demographics. Check out the company's website and check out its programming. What demographic is the most likely to use its programs? Then use the census data to find concentrations of that demographic. The US Census website (Census.gov) has a lot of tools that allow you to pinpoint this type of information. It also has socio-economic information, so you can find areas more likely to generate significant fundraising results.
I used this data in a data analytics class while working on my doctorate to make predictions of the economic impact of the pandemic on specific demographics that turned out to be spot on, so with your skills as a data analyst, I am sure you can make this work. First, you need to scour their website for programming, mission and vision, and any other information that you might feel relevant to the presentation.
AnonymousFebruary 14,2023 at 6:11PM UTC
This is typical of how many companies now are assessing how you would approach the project. I think you should take it on. Create a list of assumptions, decide roughly what you can from the publicly available data about that company. Use the tools that you have. They are looking for your approach and how you would come up with solutions from your viewpoint. After all that is what an analyst does. Max the time that you spend on the project to a few hours. Maximum 3 in my opinion. Don't worry about making it pretty, make it substantive and be able to talk through how you got there. This is a terrific exercise for you even if you don't make it to the end of the hiring process. It will strengthen you.
Gaby CadenaFebruary 15,2023 at 5:10PM UTC
Here's some tools I found helpful in the past for presentations:
SeQL
Tableu
R Studio.
I agree with some of the comments; take on the challenge and do your best. The worst thing that can happen is you develop a portfolio for other companies to review in the future if they decide they don't want to make an offer. You got this! =)