Mike McKee

If you want to land a data analyst job, don’t be like me. It’s the truth. I’m the last guy you want to copy.

Why?

Because my journey wasn’t 100% hard work like most people on LinkedIn say. There are a lot of data creators trying to help you land a data job, and they’ll tell you things like:

“If you follow my blueprint, you’ll land a job in X months.”
“Landing a job is easy once you do X, Y, and Z.”
“I’ve cracked the secrets to the data job search. Here’s what you need to do…”

These posts are nice and all, but they won’t help everyone. No blueprint can guarantee you success. So, iIf you’re trying to land your first data job, remember that hard work is only one contributing factor.

My data job search journey was 70% luck and 30% hard work.

I’m not afraid to admit it.

And in this post, I’ll share the ways luck helped me land a data analyst job in six months.

Even though you can’t plagiarize my journey, you can learn from it.

So, let’s dive into the juicy secrets.

We’ll start with the first piece of luck…

Finding the Job Posting

Like most people, I scoured sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Google for job openings. Despite finding hundreds and thousands of jobs, I didn’t apply. Instead, the professional procrastinator in me said, “Ehh, I’ll save this one and apply for it tomorrow.”

In the end, I applied for less than 20 jobs. Although that’s a story for another day.

You want to know how I found my current job.

Well, this is where the first stroke of luck came into my life…

I didn’t find my current job. The job found me.

When I created my Indeed account, the platform allowed me to make my resume visible to recruiters. I figured, “Eh, why not? What’s the worst that could happen?”

I still don’t know what the worst thing that could happen is, but I know what the best thing that could happen is - a recruiter offers me a job.

Whaaaaaat? No way.

I’m not joking. I found my current role because an internal recruiter saw my resume on Indeed and contacted me first.

Who would of thought that still happens? See why you can’t copy my journey now?

If I told you to sit back, put your feet on your desk, and wait for a recruiter to drop the perfect job onto your lap, you’d call me crazy. You’d unfollow me on LinkedIn, leave my blog, and report me to the Data Police.

Okay…

Now, you’re probably wondering…

“Mike, why did the recruiter reach out to you compared to the thousands of other applicants across the country?”

The answer is simple…

Job Location Matters

Everyone wants to work a remote job. I did, too. Of the 15-20 jobs I applied for, nearly all were remote.

Only 3 were in-person or hybrid.

And here’s the funny thing I just realized writing this…

Out of all the jobs I applied for, I landed three interviews. And all of those interviews were the in-person/hybrid roles. Ahhhh, but it must be a coincidence, right?

Nope.
Not at all.

When you apply for remote roles, you compete against data dorks nationwide (or worldwide). But do you know who your competition is for those less sexy in-person and hybrid roles?

Data dorks within about a 40-mile radius of you.

It’s much easier to stand out to recruiters and hiring managers when competing against a smaller pool of applicants.

That’s basic math right there.

That’s why the recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn.

She had to find applicants within commuting distance. Lucky for me, I happen to live 15 minutes away from the office. Don’t be fooled by the “New York City Metropolitan Area” label on my LinkedIn profile. Yeah, the city is an hour and a half train ride from my sweet, suburban town. But I didn’t apply for in-person roles there.

I wanted to stay local.

And “Michael Luck McKee” found a company 15 minutes away hiring at the perfect time.

That’s luck.
Not hard work.

Now let’s move onto the third way luck helped me, which is all about the most nerve-racking part of any job search…

The Interview

Ugh…

Interviews suck… Am I right?

I did one with another company, where the two managers on the call with me had no enthusiasm. Even though they were hiring for the role, it didn’t seem like they wanted to be the ones talking to candidates. There were moments of hope, and there were good nuggets of the convo. Don’t get me wrong.

But overall, the interview felt like a 45-minute one-sided conversation.

And the worst part of interviews is that it’s never just one interview…

You go through multiple rounds of sweat-inducing chats.
You talk to multiple hiring managers with different views on the role.
You go through a technical interview where someone stares down at you while you try writing an “easy” SQL query.

But I didn’t go through any of that.

Luck befriended me the day of my interview and made things as easy as possible. Ultimately, all I needed to land the role (aside from the phone interview with the recruiter) was a 25-minute chat with my now boss.

I was a one-and-done interviewee.

It was super informal.
We dorked out over data.
There was no technical interview.

And we happened to have a few things in common, which helped build some early rapport.

All in all, my interview experience was easy.

I happened to talk to the right person at the right time.
It was all out of my control.

Okay, we’re almost at the end.

How are you doing? A little sleepy? I hope I’m not boring you because it’s time to talk about the final piece of luck I thought I could control but can’t…

Passion

While on a call with my boss a few weeks into my job, he asked me if I still wrote on my blog. He told me that Dorky Data played a major role in his decision to hire me.

Honestly, I didn’t know why at first.

But the answer was so obvious…

The biggest reason I built Dorky Data was because it was a way for me to keep my writing passion alive as I transitioned into the data field.

But what my boss told me changed how I view the data job search now…

He said that my blog showed I was passionate about data and the nature of the work we data analysts do. People on LinkedIn glorify the data analyst job (I’m guilty of it sometimes, too) and make it seem like an absolute thriller fest.

But being a data analyst is boring.

Most of our work isn’t as fun as LinkedIn portrays. But I love it. I enjoy what I’m doing every damn day.

(That’s the passion talking)

Since the work is boring, few people are motivated and eager to do it. They may think they are, but once on the job, the truth comes out. So, it’s difficult to find people who truly want to do data analyst work.

Again, I was lucky…

Had I not built Dorky Data, I could have been in a completely different situation than I am in now.

You wouldn't even know my name.

So, what’s next…

Like I said at the start of this post…

“If you want to land a data analyst job, don’t be like me. It’s the truth. I’m the last guy you want to copy.”

Everyone travels their own path into the Dorky World of Data, so I try giving specific advice on what to do. I won’t sit here and say, “Do X. Then do Y. Then mix things up and do A.”

Some people love doing that, but not me. Maybe one day - after learning more about the job search process - I’ll have more evidence to support a claim.

But until then…

I hope this post resonates with you and teaches you something about the data job search.

And…

If you’re not already following me on LinkedIn, what the heck is wrong with you?

Go over there now (I’ll make it easy and include the link righhhhht… HERE). I’m always sharing the lessons I learn as I set out to conquer the Dorky World of Data.

There’s never a dull moment in my comments.

Conclusion

Do I really need a conclusion? Eh, maybe. Or maybe not.

I originally wrote up this fun and witty ending to call out all the scrollers who don’t actually read posts and instead look for the conclusion at the end.

But guess what…

I’m a scroller sometimes too.

So, I’ll include a boring summary section. Here are the four ways luck helped me land a data job:

1. A recruiter reached out to me first and encouraged me to apply for the job. You wish that happened to you.

2. My job is basically in my backyard with how short the commute is. I couldn’t control which companies in my suburban area were hiring at the time.

3. I didn’t go through rounds upon rounds of tough interviews. Like a high school basketball prodigy, I’m a “one-and-done” interviewee.

4. Passion. I don’t control my love and lust for data. It’s built into me. I can’t help it. So, yeah, I call it luck.

There you have it, you lazy data dork.