So, a lot of people entering analytics feel they need to excel at everything immediately. And I’m not gonna lie, I was exactly the same when I started my career too.

Within my first week, I wanted to be that person who could automate everything, fix all outdated reports, uncover every data quality issue and present them to management, sit in leadership meetings, ask questions like a journalist, challenge managers openly, and prove that I was the real authority when it came to numbers…..you get the gist.

But hey, let me tell you, this belief is not only unrealistic, it’s very harmful. All it does is turn analytics into something intimidating and overwhelming, when in reality it’s a craft that needs time, patience, and repeated exposure to real business problems.

It took me a while to realize this, but there’s only one ultimate truth in this field: analytics expertise grows gradually. You can’t expect it overnight. Some skills take months to develop. Others will take years. Yes, years! And many will only become stronger through hands-on experience in a real business environment. This is not a role you can walk into fully formed from day one.

A few weeks ago, I published an article about 10 things that nobody tells an analyst. This piece is an extension of that - another 10 lessons, especially for those who are new to analytics or early in their career.

Hopefully, it will help you reset your expectations, reduce pressure, and grow sustainably in analytics.

1. Start by Understanding the Business, Not the Tools

As you enter into analytics, you might initially feel proud that your most valuable skill is SQL, python, dashboards, or automation etc…but you seriously need to come out of that mindset. When you enter the role, the first thing you need to do is be curious about how the business works. Try to learn:

• How the company actually makes money

• What success looks like for different teams

• What problems leaders actually care about

  
  

Analytics exists to support decision-making. Without understanding business context, even the most technically impressive analysis can completely miss the mark by miles. Focus first on why the work matters, worry about perfecting the execution later.

2. Talk to People and Learn Their Workflows

Analytics is not a solo sport. Early on, spend time talking to people across different roles & functions, like marketing, sales, operations, product, finance…etc

Ask them about their daily work, challenges, and decision-making processes. Learn where data helps them and where it doesn’t. These conversations will reveal the reality behind the numbers and help you understand how data fits into real workflows, not just theoretical ones.

3. Get Comfortable in Your Environment Before Trying to Change It

The excitement and subconscious pressure to “add value” immediately - Yeah, I know that feeling. You want to be the one in the team who impresses everybody with a new initiative. And you want your manager to tell others about your accomplishments.

Initiative is good. Just make sure you don’t rush to change processes before you fully understand them, because otherwise it can backfire horribly. Instead, slow down and focus on understanding existing processes first.

• Learn existing dashboards and reports

• Observe how decisions are currently made

• Understand historical constraints and past failures

  
  

Patience builds confidence. Once you get a good understanding of the environment and how certain processes are, you’ll be able to improve things far more effectively.

4. Allow Yourself to Make Mistakes

You will misunderstand a requirement.

You will choose the wrong metric.

You will present something that doesn’t land.

Relax. This isn’t failure, it’s training.

Mistakes are how you learn:

• What questions to ask next time

• How to clarify ambiguous requests

• How different audiences interpret data

  
  

Every misstep sharpens your judgment for the future. So, focus on learning and improving first. Worry about perfection later.

5. Actively Seek and Welcome Constructive Feedback

Feedback is uncomfortable, but it is also one of the fastest ways to grow. So, if you have a strong ego, put it aside, and ask your managers for feedback on:

• Your analysis

• Your presentations

• Your communication style

  
  

Don’t treat feedback as a judgment of your intelligence or potential. Treat it as information. If you already suppressed your ego, then this should be fairly easy to handle.

6. Experiment With Different Analytical Approaches

There is rarely one “correct” way to analyze a problem. Try:

• Different visualizations

• Multiple metrics for the same concept

• Various storytelling approaches

  
  

Some will fail. Some will resonate. Over time, you’ll develop intuition about what works in different situations. That intuition can’t be taught, it can only be earned through lots and lots of experimentation.

7. Learn to Ask Better Questions Over Time

Don’t pressure yourself to sound like a journalist from day one. Great questions only come with exposure and experience. At first, your questions might feel basic, and that’s totally okay. As time goes on and you become familiar with the work environment, people, processes, and mindsets, the experience will teach you how to:

• Clarify vague requests

• Identify hidden assumptions

• Push back diplomatically

• Reframe problems in more useful ways

  
  

Question-asking is a muscle. It takes time to develop. The more you use it, the stronger it will become.

8. Develop Communication Skills Gradually

Many new analysts believe they need to communicate insights perfectly to every audience immediately. In reality, communication is one of the longest-developing skills in analytics.

As you become better at communication, you will start getting a better understanding of:

• How much detail is too much

• When visuals help, and when they distract

• How executives think versus operators

• How to tell a story without oversimplifying

  
  

This takes time. Focus on clarity first, polish later.

9. Build Technical Depth at a Sustainable Pace

I can’t stress on this anymore than I already have with my own team, from my time back in corporate - You can’t expect to learn every single tool, language and framework all at once. The enthusiasm is certainly impressive, but chasing everything too quickly will only lead to burnout.

Instead, focus on building strong fundamentals and only go deeper where your role demands it. You don’t need to stop learning, just make sure the pace is sustainable.

Technical skills grow through consistency over time. Also, with constant access to Google and AI, honestly, do you even need to know everything upfront, from day one?

10. Accept That Growth in Analytics Is a Long Journey

Okay, now the ultimate one….just know that analytics is not a destination, it is a career-long evolution. As you grow into the role, you will:

• Relearn certain concepts at deeper levels

• Outgrow tools and methods

• Change how you think about data

At every stage of your journey, you’ll add something valuable. Early confusion will build empathy. Struggles will build resilience. And experience will build wisdom. You’ll not visibly see this progress day to day, but just know that it is always happening.

Final Thoughts

Back in corporate I often had colleagues approach me asking if they could join our analytics team simply because they knew a bit of Tableau, Power BI, advanced Excel, or even something like mail merge. From the outside, analytics can look straightforward. But in reality, it’s a deep discipline - one that requires patience, curiosity, and constant reflection.

Every conversation you have, whether good or bad, every mistake you make, every experiment you try with your analysis and visualizations, it’ll all contribute to your growth. Even when it doesn’t feel like progress in the moment, it’s still moving you forward.

The internet often creates the illusion that you need to be perfect from day one, but that sort of pressure usually comes from people who haven’t spent much time with their feet in the mud.

If you’re a new to analytics, give yourself permission to grow at a human pace. Mastery doesn’t arrive instantly, it develops step by step, exactly as it should. You don’t need to be exceptional at everything from the start. You just need to be willing to learn. That’s it!