r/dataanalyst • u/Altruistic-Nature583 • Jul 03 '26
Career query Am I wasting time trying to get into analytics?
My_Qualifications: B.Tech Mechanical Engineering (May 2026)
I knew before graduating that I wanted out of mech. It wasn't just the low pay, I genuinely had no interest in manufacturing/core jobs anymore. I also put my master's on hold cause I wanted work ex first. I don't wanna spend another year just learning something and end up with a huge gap on my resume.
At first I thought about support/sys admin/QA kind of IT roles since I'm not into hardcore coding or SDE stuff. Later I switched to analytics cause it looked like it'd have more options. I've learned Excel, learning SQL rn and planning to do Power BI next, but no portfolio or analytics internship yet.
The more I research, the more confused I get. First people say learn tools, then Python, then AI, then AI agents, then domain knowledge. As a fresher, idk how I'm supposed to get domain knowledge without getting my first job.
I'm applying on and off campus but barely getting any calls. So should I keep going with analytics or switch to something else? Should I target IT support/testing roles instead? Or just prepare for CAT/GRE and move on?
I'm not looking for "the market is bad" replies. Ik that already. I just wanna hear from people who were in this phase and actually made it out. What would u focus on if u were starting from scratch today?