Getting experience in data analyst work

[Undertown]

My son is 30 and has a very patchy career record, mostly bar work but lots of gaps where he pursued an arts career without much success. He recently retrained doing a 13 week data analyst “boot camp” and is now looking for work but getting no where. To be honest I’m not surprised since; although his cv has things like volunteering and studying plus some casual work it’s pretty thin and there’s nothing relevant to the work he’s looking for. The age old question is, how does he get experience? Does anyone know of a way of getting experience, even if it’s voluntary, as an entry level data analyst or similar? He’s feeling pretty low and has lost confidence even though he really enjoyed the course and came out with excellent comments from the tutors. Grateful for any suggestions.

You have my sympathies. This is the issue with lots of graduates across different industries at the moment.
Everywhere is asking for experience, even the junior jobs.
Their CV doesn't get through the screening as they don't have the "at least one year in a similar role" which is listed as an essential criteria.

Very few companies want new grads at moment so I don't know how they're meant to get experience!

Yes it seems impossible to get entry level roles now without experience, so frustrating.
If I were him I would exhaust online data analyst communities to get ideas. I’m sure there will be Reddit threads re how to break into data analysis with no experience, stuff on LinkedIn etc.
Surprised the boot camp didn’t give them more advice on next steps?

I would also scour all volunteering opportunities.

He should try and get some internships/work experience and work for free, for the benefit of his CV. It would be easier to do that and take the "free" route to help long term than sit at home looking for a job with a wage with no experience. He can then use those stints to help him get his first job even if its temporary while looking for perm, then go from there. He should reach out to people on Linked In, and attend free webinars/networking events etc where possible to build connections. Thats how most people get jobs. Get his name out there as much as possible is the way to succeed in corporate.

From what I've seen online though data analysts is a oversaturated market as so many people switched to it since COVID and lots of those firms hiring made cuts etc. He should look at getting a second related skill too - such as a particular industry so he becomes an SME, for example financial services. So he understands the work he is analysing better.

The reason i say that is because i work in financial services and we have a data analyst in our team who builds dashboards etc but some of us were saying recently she's good at what she does from a data perspective but doesn't understand the industry so it holds her back. Literally had that convos last week!

Try the police. They have lots of data analysts and the application/interview is competency based. As long as he can evidence why he can do the job the lack of direct experience is less of an issue.

another approach is to get any civil service/nhs/police entry level job, once you’re in it’s much easier to move to your desired position.

Can he look into apprenticeships in it?

Civil service is a good shout as you don't need experience in the field to get a role. Just able to apply any experience or knowledge to their behaviours.

Data Analyst covers such a huge array of jobs these days
What tools and languages is he experienced in? What types of data analysis is he interested in? For example someone that's doing data visuals in something like Tableau may have a very different CV and portfolio to someone that's more into programming.

He may want to try and apply for lower level jobs like Data admin assistant to get that experience and foot in the door

Try Universities - also often competency-based recruitment and frankly can’t afford to compete with private sector wages (although the benefits are great) so there is less competition from competent applicants.

He should also sign up with all his local temp agencies and be willing to do any data-related work (including data entry) to build up his CV.

We have data analysts in the NHS, including very newly qualified ones, if you keep your eye on NHS Jobs you may see something come up on there where he can get experience, there are good opportunities.

Thank you enormously for all these suggestions. Really appreciate people taking the time to help.