A fictional person: the names, employers and numbers are invented.
Hannah Clarke
Data Analyst · SQL, Power BI, Excel
Leeds, UKhannah.clarke@example.com
Summary
Data analyst with four years' experience in retail and healthcare reporting. Turns messy sales, stock and waiting-list data into clear Power BI reports that managers actually open, and backs every number with tested SQL. Recent work on store stock levels freed £410,000 of cash tied up in slow-moving lines.
Experience
Data Analyst · Pennine Home Stores, Leeds
2024 – Present
Built a stock-cover model in SQL and Power BI for 86 stores that cut slow-moving inventory by £410,000 in nine months.
Replaced 14 weekly Excel packs with one self-service dashboard used by 120 managers, saving the trading team around a day a week.
Analysed a loyalty-coupon trial across 20 matched stores and showed it lost money on two of three offers; the trial was redesigned before rollout.
Wrote a data dictionary for the sales warehouse that halved "which number is right?" questions to the analytics inbox.
Junior Data Analyst · Calder Health Insights, Wakefield
2022 – 2024
Produced monthly waiting-list reports for three NHS trust clients, checking every figure against national submission rules.
Automated outpatient data cleaning with Power Query, cutting a two-day monthly task to two hours.
Mapped referral bottlenecks for a dermatology service; the client added a triage clinic that shortened median waits by five weeks.
Education
BSc (Hons) Economics · University of Sheffield
2019 – 2022
Upper second-class honours; dissertation on regional house-price data.
A/B and matched-store testing, forecasting, data quality checks
Certificates
Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate (PL-300) · Microsoft2023
Languages
English — Native
Additional information
Organiser of a monthly Leeds data-visualisation meetup with about 40 regular attendees.
Three summary options
Start from the one closest to where you are now.
Entry level
Mathematics graduate moving into data analysis, with a twelve-week placement in a council's performance team. Built an Excel and Power BI report on bin-collection complaints that helped reroute two crews. Strong in SQL basics, careful with data quality and keen to learn from senior analysts.
Senior analyst
Senior data analyst with seven years in e-commerce and subscriptions. Leads a team of three, sets the metric definitions the business reports on, and runs pricing and churn analysis for the board. Work on cancellation flows reduced monthly churn from 4.1% to 3.4%.
From finance
Management accountant of five years now focused on analytics. Already fluent in budgets, variance and stakeholder questions, now adding SQL, Power BI and Python. Rebuilt the month-end reporting pack as an automated dashboard that went out three days earlier.
Keywords to include
Use the ones that are true for you, inside real sentences.
SQL
Power BI
Excel
DAX
Data visualisation
Data cleaning
Stakeholder management
KPI reporting
Power Query
Python
What recruiters look for
Tips for this role, with the kind of numbers that count.
Lead with the decision, then the tool
"Built a Power BI dashboard" describes a task. "Showed a coupon trial lost money on two of three offers, so it was redesigned" describes value. Put what changed first and mention SQL or Power BI as the means.
Count the people who use your work
Reports matter when they are used. Numbers such as "120 managers each week" or "replaced 14 Excel packs" prove adoption, which many analysts forget to mention and hiring managers care about a lot.
Show you can be trusted with numbers
Data quality is half the job. Mention reconciliation checks, data dictionaries or metric definitions you wrote. In healthcare or finance, add any reporting rules you followed, because accuracy is often what gets an analyst hired.
Name your Excel skills precisely
Every CV says "advanced Excel". Be specific instead: Power Query, pivot tables, XLOOKUP, dynamic arrays. It helps ATS keyword matching and gives the interviewer something concrete to test.
Give one example of real analysis
Beyond reporting, include one piece of work where you answered a question: a test, a forecast, a root-cause study. State the method in a few words, such as matched stores or regression, and the outcome.
Keep the time saved believable
Automation is a great selling point, but round numbers that sound invented hurt you. "A two-day monthly task down to two hours" is credible and easy to explain if someone asks how.
Make this CV yours
Answer one question at a time; the assistant fills each section and never invents numbers.
Should a data analyst CV include a portfolio of dashboards?
It helps, especially early in your career. Share one or two reports built on public data, because client or patient data must never leave your employer. Add a line on the question each report answers so a reviewer understands it without opening the file.
How much Python do I need to mention as a data analyst?
Only what you really use. Many analyst roles are built on SQL, Excel and Power BI, and Python is a bonus. If you have used pandas to clean files or automate a report, say so with one example; don't list machine learning libraries you have only seen in a course.
How do I describe confidential work, such as NHS data?
Describe the type of data, the scale and the result without naming patients or sharing figures your client would not publish. "Monthly waiting-list reporting for three NHS trusts" is enough, and it signals that you understand information governance.
