Career Change: Automation Engineer to Power BI/Data Analyst

A simple 8-week roadmap to help automation engineers switch to a data analyst role using Power BI. This plan covers analytics basics, key skills, practical tools, and a showcase project.

  • Weekly Hours: 10
  • Estimated Weeks: 8

Phases

Understand Data Analysis Basics

Learn the foundation of data analysis, focusing on common terms, workflows, and basic statistics. Get comfortable reading and exploring datasets.

2 weeks

  • Understand the role of a data analyst
  • Learn data types and sources
  • Explore basic statistics
  • Practice using spreadsheets to analyze data
  • Identifying data types (numerical, categorical)
  • Calculating summary statistics (mean, median, mode)
  • Cleaning simple datasets (removing blanks from Excel)
  • Exploring data visually (creating bar charts in Excel)
  • Data Analysis for Beginners course
  • Basic Statistics online guide
  • Excel Fundamentals tutorial
  • Explain data analysis in your own words (200-word writeup)
  • Clean and summarize a simple dataset (Excel workbook)
  • Create two basic charts (Excel file)

Learn Power BI and Core Tools

Get hands-on with Power BI, Microsoft’s top data analytics tool. Learn to connect data, create reports, and use its main features.

2 weeks

  • Install and set up Power BI
  • Load and connect sample data sources
  • Build basic visualizations
  • Publish reports to Power BI Service
  • Importing data (CSV files into Power BI)
  • Building visuals (bar/pie/line charts in Power BI)
  • Creating dashboards (arranging visuals)
  • Using filters and slicers (Power BI controls)
  • Getting Started with Power BI tutorial
  • Sample Datasets Collection
  • Microsoft Power BI Documentation
  • Build and publish a sample Power BI dashboard (public workspace)
  • Create three interactive visualizations (Power BI report file)
  • Share your first report link

Develop Analysis and Communication Skills

Focus on asking questions with data, drawing insights, and telling stories using visualizations. Learn to structure findings for business users.

2 weeks

  • Analyze data for trends and outliers
  • Write clear summaries of findings
  • Design simple, readable dashboards
  • Practice presenting data insights
  • Question-driven analysis (find the top-sellers in a sales dataset)
  • Summarizing insights (write 5-point findings list)
  • Customizing dashboard layouts (group visuals by theme)
  • Using storytelling features (title, annotations in Power BI)
  • Data Storytelling in Power BI guide
  • Free Sample Reports Gallery
  • Effective Dashboard Design video
  • Write an executive summary for your dashboard (one-page doc)
  • Create a themed dashboard with annotations (Power BI file)
  • Give a 5-minute walkthrough (recorded or slides)

Showcase Project: Business Sales Dashboard (End-to-End)

Build and deploy a showcase dashboard with real or public sales data. Demonstrate your skills in data import, cleaning, report building, and sharing.

2 weeks

  • Collect or find a public sales dataset
  • Clean data and handle missing values
  • Build a multi-page dashboard (overview, trends, breakdowns)
  • Share project online and ask for feedback
  • Data cleaning (remove duplicates in Power BI editor)
  • Building report structure (separate tabs for state-wise, product-wise sales)
  • Adding interactive features (filters, bookmarks in Power BI)
  • Publishing to web and testing access
  • Public Sales Datasets Collection
  • Power BI Publishing Guide
  • Feedback Checklist Template
  • Deliver a working sales dashboard (Power BI link)
  • Pass project checklist (correct data, interactivity, documentation)
  • Publish demo and receive feedback (at least 2 comments)
  • Document your process (one-page readme or report)

Weekly Plan

Week Focus Why Tasks Deliverables
1 Core Data Analysis Concepts Understand what data analysts do and basic analytic terms. Read about data analyst roles (online article), List common data sources (spreadsheet), Explore a small sample dataset (Excel), Identify numeric and text columns, Calculate averages and totals (Excel) One-page summary on data analysis, Annotated sample dataset file
2 Basic Statistics and Excel Skills Learn to analyze simple data and create charts. Practice with sample datasets (Excel), Create basic bar and pie charts (Excel), Clean data tables (remove empty rows in Excel), Summarize findings in plain language Excel file with cleaned data and charts, Short findings writeup
3 Power BI Setup and First Report Start working with the main analytics tool. Install Power BI Desktop, Import a sample CSV dataset, Create simple visuals (bar, pie charts), Save and share your report First Power BI report (.pbix file), Link or screenshot of published report
4 Power BI Interactivity and Sharing Learn to make interactive and sharable reports. Add slicers and filters (Power BI), Arrange visuals into a dashboard, Publish report to Power BI Service, Share report link Interactive dashboard (Power BI Service link), Commented list of dashboard features
5 Analysis and Storytelling Techniques Practice finding insights and making reports clear. List 3-5 business questions (about your dataset), Use Power BI to answer each question, Summarize the answers in short sentences, Add titles and notes to your visuals Set of question-answer pairs (doc), Updated Power BI dashboard with annotations
6 Dashboard Design and Presentation Make your dashboards easy to read and presentable. Review and improve visual layout (Power BI), Group visuals by topic (sales, region, time), Draft a summary for business users, Record a 5-minute screen walkthrough Polished dashboard file, Executive summary document
7 Showcase Project: Data Cleaning and Setup Prepare your showcase dataset and set up the main dashboard. Find (or download) a public sales dataset, Clean and format data using Power BI Editor, Import data and check for errors, Draft dashboard outline (overview, details tabs) Cleaned sales dataset file, Dashboard outline (sketch or doc)
8 Showcase Project: Build, Test, and Publish Complete your end-to-end dashboard and share your work. Build full dashboard with multiple pages (Power BI), Add filters and interactivity features, Write short project documentation (steps, notes), Publish to web and request feedback from peers Final Power BI dashboard (public link), Project documentation file (readme or guide)

Daily Plan

Monday

  • Watch a learning video or read a short tutorial
  • Take notes on key concepts
Tuesday

  • Practice skills with a small dataset (Excel or Power BI)
  • Try a new visualization or chart
Wednesday

  • Work on the current week's main deliverable
  • Clean or organize data as needed
Thursday

  • Continue building or updating your dashboard
  • Write a short summary of your progress
Friday

  • Review your work for errors or improvements
  • Share progress with a peer or mentor
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