How To Hire Analytical Workers: 10 Traits To Seek
Companies competing on data need the right skill sets and mindsets in place to succeed over the long term. While more individuals are analyzing data as part of their jobs, their ability to do so varies greatly, even among peers. We've identified 10 key traits of an analytical mind, and explain what to look for in your next hire and what skills to cultivate in your own career.
Does your organization have more data than it knows what to do with? The race is on in corporations everywhere to make sense of all the information flooding in. Knowing this, businesses that are investing in business intelligence, Big Data, analytics, and data science are hoping to gain a competitive edge. But technology is only one part of the challenge. You also need the right people and processes in place.
While not everyone is expected to be a data scientist, modern organizations are, nevertheless, seeking and cultivating talented people who are analytical in nature.
"We see businesses of all sizes struggling to discern between people who talk the talk and those who walk the walk. The rapid growth in the number of available jobs in the data analytics field is exacerbating this problem," said Igor Oliynyk, director of analytics and predictive modeling at recruiting software firm Scout Exchange, in an interview. "An analytical mind is an asset, and each individual who possesses one should be prized."
How does one distinguish between those who only talk the talk and those who can walk the walk when it comes to hiring analytical minds? It's an important question for companies, not only when it comes to hiring job candidates and consultants, but also when it comes to assessing existing employees.
In an interview with InformationWeek, Raj Bandyopadhyay, director of data science education at mentor-led educational program provider Springboard, said he asks candidates to walk through a project they've worked on while he questions their approach and the trade-offs.
[Having trouble finding the right employees? Read Why It's Time to Dump Your Old-School Hiring Practices.]
Scott Zoldi, chief analytics officer of software company FICO, told us in an interview that he asks candidates to formulate a problem. Candidates are also quizzed on their knowledge of big data tools and software methods, as well as the algorithms they use, or propose to use.
"Very often, the best way to discern between [different types] of people is to understand how they think," said Zoldi. "Very often, those who are less experienced try to impress [us] by throwing around algorithms or big data-speak. It only takes a few questions to differentiate between those who are users of software or algorithms, and those who are masters of them."
Clearly, not everyone in the organization is going to be a unicorn, and it turns out that's a good thing. However, some important traits of the analytical mind will become even more valuable over time. Here's a look at 10 we believe will play a role in hiring decisions for a long time to come.
Once you've reviewed our list, tell us in the comments section below what traits you consider to be the hallmarks of an analytical mind, and why?
Some people are naturally curious about everything. Others passively consume the content contained in a dashboard, a newscast, or an infographic and accept whatever information is presented without question. While individual brains function differently, it is wise for everyone in an organization to think more critically than they may have done in the past.
"[One] key trait of analytical minds [is] an intense curiosity to find out what's going on underneath the surface. This can take a couple of forms," said Raj Banyopadhyay of Springboard. "One is finding out what is going on in a complex dataset. Another is understanding why something happens, rather than just what happened and how it happened."
Businesses are constantly faced with all kinds of problems to solve, large and small. From a data science and data analytics perspective, an entire problem or an entire result is affected by many things, the details of which may not be considered by abstract thinkers or those who lack the training necessary to perceive the problem in its more complicated forms.
"[Analytical minds have] the ability to break down a result into the components that impact it, whether those components happen at different times, as in a process, or between different entities, as in a transaction," said Mike Finley, cofounder in charge of natural language processing and machine learning at BI and data analytics solutions provider Answer Rocket, in an interview.
Historically, the average business person has been trained to seek and exude a degree of certainty that does not exist in fact. Given the accelerating pace of change and disruption today, organizations -- and the people within them -- have to embrace change and get comfortable with the idea of uncertainty.
"Ambiguity [is important] because multiple factors can trigger the same results, so it's important to tease them apart," said Mike Finley of Answer Rocket.
An analytical mind is hungry for details. It wants to understand what should be included in an analysis and why, as well as the details of what affected an outcome and why. The universe of details is fascinating -- useful on one hand, and an obstacle (analysis paralysis) on the other.
"[A]nalytical people can become paralyzed and unable to make decisions," said Merrick Rosenberg, author of The Chameleon and a personality style expert, in an interview. "Their accuracy can translate into perfectionism, and they can miss deadlines and opportunities. They can also get so caught up in the task, they can detach from people."
This quality is also a blessing and a curse. On one hand, a person needs the confidence to put forth a hypothesis, test it, analyze it, pivot as necessary, and present it. On the other hand, overconfidence can lead to mistakes and interpersonal challenges.
"A lot of very smart analytical minds get carried away and start believing in their infallibility," said UCLA Professor Vwani Roychowdhury in an interview.
One danger of pushing analytics out to the masses is the tendency of some to act on insights without first understanding whether those insights are reliable and relevant to the problem at hand. Conversely, analytical minds tend to think more critically than their workplace counterparts.
"People with analytical minds are detail oriented, accurate, questioning, thoughtful, curious, and critical. They have a deep inner need to follow a process and ensure quality outcomes. They plan before they act, and do it right the first time," said personality expert Merrick Rosenberg. "Those with a highly developed analytical mind think before they speak. They don't blurt out uninformed ideas."
UCLA professor Vwani Roychowdhury thinks the analytical mind is actually composed of five "minds" or traits:
The logical mind, which believes in and cultivates the principles of logic.
The persistent and observant mind, which stays alert, perseveres, and stays motivated until the logical mind figures things out.
The predictive mind, which organizes evidence and data into patterns and can parse the different situations in which a system or environment behaves differently.
The strategizing mind, which assimilates and processes the first three minds to create a cognitive model and understanding of the processes and factors that generate the observed data and evidence.
The open mind, which acknowledges that all of models of understanding reality are deficient and most likely to be proven wrong under certain conditions.
According to his theory, the person who possesses a medium level of the first three traits has a good grasp of a situation. The real distinction comes from the fourth trait, which enables one to create a good model of what's driving what one observes -- the potential causal factors and determinants -- and what would happen if things were set up differently.
"I would want a person who wants to be analytical to be constantly hungry and motivated to figure things out, and not stop until things make sense," said Roychowdhury. "I would always look for the last trait, where one is forced to change one's assumptions because of new evidence."
Left-brain/right-brain theory states that the left and right hemispheres of the brain have different characteristics. "Left-brainers" tend to be analytical, naturally good at math, and logical, among other things. "Right-brainers" tend to be creative. Individuals have a unique combination of the two, although in most cases, one set of characteristics tends to be dominant. Hence the popular "geek" and "creative" distinctions. However, analytics is not limited to the realm of left-brain dominant people, and for good reasons.
"Although we all tend to have left-brained folks focused on solving our analytics problems, it can be helpful to throw in a few right-brainers," said Jay Laabs, managing director of the performance management and analytics practice at Huron Consulting Group, in an interview. "A right-brained individual's creativity might lead to considering external events that could dramatically impact a business. The left-brainer simply could not contemplate [a] line of thinking [that] is not necessarily analytical, but could actually be more important."
Context is critical, in other words. Also, right-brainers tend to be good at visualization. According to Kwan Lin, data scientist at agile analytics solution provider Lavastorm, left-brained individuals may be better at analyzing structured databases, while right-brained individuals might be better at data analysis dealing with unstructured data such as graphics, geospatial shapes, or bodies of text.
Analytical minds love problem solving, sometimes to the point of wanting to understand far more than is relevant to a problem at hand. When this happens, they may lose sight of the business problem they're trying to solve, or even the human context of why something is happening.
"Analytical scientists who favor one area too strongly and ignore the others will often miss the forest [for] the trees, and ultimately negatively impact business understanding and, consequently, value," said Scott Zoldi of FICO.
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