215: I'm Begging You to Stop Applying to Data Analyst Jobs Until You Do This

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I'm begging you, stop applying

to data analyst jobs at least

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until you do this one thing.

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Look, if you sent out 50 applications,

100 applications, 200 applications, and

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you're getting absolutely nothing back,

I know what you're telling yourself, that

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the market is broken, that you're not good

enough, that the algorithm hates you, that

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recruiters are ghosting you on purpose.

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And actually, the truth

is, it's none of that.

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You're just skipping a step, and

it's a very important step, but

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it only takes about 30 minutes.

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And once you do it, everything changes.

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It's called the mirror test, and if

you're applying to data analyst jobs

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in 2026, you need to do this before

you send another application out.

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Let me explain what it

is and why you need it.

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But if you're new here, hello,

my name is Avery Smith, and

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I'm a senior data analyst.

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And I'm on a quest to help one million

people land their first data job.

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So if that is you, which, let's be

honest, it is since you're listening

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to this already, go ahead and hit

subscribe to follow the journey.

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All right, here's the thing that nobody

applying to jobs ever stops to think

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about, and that is, how does the company

see hiring from their point of view?

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And the truth is, hiring is absolutely

terrible for the company and for the hire.

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I mean, think what they're about to do.

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They're about to take a complete

stranger, someone they randomly found

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on the internet, they talked to a

few times, and then they're going

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to hand that stranger the car keys.

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They're gonna give that stranger a salary,

sometimes a big salary, six figures.

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And they're going to give them access to

sensitive company data, a seat in internal

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meetings, a spot on a team that has to

actually work with this person every day,

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like, you have to deal with this coworker,

and they have to make that call based off

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of a simple PDF and a few conversations.

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That's literally it, you guys.

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That is all they get.

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And that's kind of a stressful

job because here's the kicker.

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Hiring managers will get

blamed for bad hires.

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It will hurt their reputation.

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It will hurt their team.

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It eats into their head count budget.

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And honestly, a bad hire can take,

like, six, eight, 12 months to undo.

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And in the meantime, everyone around

them is miserable and pissed off at them.

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Sometimes it can even cost

the hiring manager their job.

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It's that serious.

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So when a hiring manager or a recruiter

look at your resume, they're not

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really looking for reasons to say,

"Oh, this is a good candidate."

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No, they're looking for reasons to say,

"No, this is not the right candidate,"

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because no is safe, and saying yes is

sticking their neck out on the line, and

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that is very dangerous for them to do.

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Kind of like Hinge or Tinder or whatever

dating app you've used, or maybe you're

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like me and you've been married for

10-plus years now, but regardless, you're

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playing this game, this dating game, on

this app to see who you're gonna spend

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the rest of your life with, or at least

you're gonna spend a lot of time with.

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And when you're swiping,

you're not rejecting people

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because they're bad people.

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They're probably decent people,

but you're rejecting them because

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they're not the one for you.

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Now, you're making that judgment off

of six seconds, three photos, and a

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one-line bio to make that decision, but

the point here is any red flag is enough

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to keep you swiping and scrolling on

to the next person, because there is

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always another profile to take a look at.

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And that doesn't mean you're being mean.

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You're not being judgmental.

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It's just you're on a big mission.

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Who are you gonna spend your

time with on a time crunch?

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And you're moving on to the next person.

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There's nothing wrong with that.

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But realize that's the exact same

scenario that your recruiter's in.

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That's what your hiring manager is doing.

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They're essentially swiping left

and swiping right on potential job

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candidates with their job on the line.

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And you see, here's where

most job seekers get it wrong.

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You're sitting there, thinking, "But if

they would just get to know me, they'd

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know how smart I am and how hardworking

I am and how good of an analyst I am.

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They don't know me.

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They don't know my story."

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And you're 100% exactly correct.

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They don't.

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And that is exactly your job as

a job seeker, is to help them get

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to know you, because think of it.

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You've been being

yourself your entire life.

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You know yourself the best out

of everyone on planet Earth.

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You know your effort.

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You know your context.

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You know your potential.

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You know your story.

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And all the hiring manager and

recruiter have is this- Piece of

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paper, PDF resume, and six seconds.

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It's not fair, but it's your job to

actually go out there and make a PDF,

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a resume, that is so compelling that in

those six seconds it's going to portray

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you in the best light possible to get

them to spend more time on you, to

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actually take the time to get to know you.

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And the mirror test

exists to close that gap.

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So what is the mirror test?

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Well, the mirror test is checking

yourself digitally with clean, fresh eyes.

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You basically look at yourself the

way that a stressed out hiring manager

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with only six seconds and their entire

job on the line would look at you.

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And there are three different surfaces

you need to check for this test.

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Number one is your resume,

number two is your LinkedIn, and

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number three is your portfolio.

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And the rule is dead simple.

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Pretend you've never met this person,

this person being you as the job

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applicant, and pretend that you are

actually going to be hiring you.

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And I know that's really meta, but

think about it here, like, you're

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trying to decide if you want to let

this person come into your life.

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If you look at this resume, if you

look at this LinkedIn, if you look at

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this portfolio, would you trust them?

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Would you want to spend time with them?

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Are there any red flags?

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And would you be willing to put

your job on the line based off

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of their performance once hired?

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Let's go ahead and go through each one,

starting with number one, the resume.

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So your resume is the number one digital

asset you have as a job seeker, and

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you need to start treating it that way.

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It is an asset.

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It is going to work for you, so it's worth

the investment to spend the time to get

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this right because if you get it right,

it's going to work for you your whole

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job hunt cycle, or the dreaded, dreaded

ATS, the applicant tracking system.

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So here's what you need to do

right now, and that is, step one,

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run it through an ATS checker.

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Once again, the ATS or the applicant

tracking system is basically a

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software that reads your resume

before any human ever reads it.

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It's the computer.

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It's the AI that stands between

you and the hiring manager.

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And honestly, most resumes are designed

to be read by humans, not to be readable

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by software, but most resumes are

only read by software, unfortunately.

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I wish it wasn't the case,

but it's just how it is.

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An ATS parser or a resume checker

will show you exactly what the

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ATS sees when you apply for a job.

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And I promise you, you guys, if

your resume has anything weird like

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sidebars, fancy tables, columns,

icons, weird formatting, it's going

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to fail the ATS and you're literally

going to be completely invisible to

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the system and not get an interview.

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I just promise you that's

how it's going to be.

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So you need to check your resume right

now before you apply to any more jobs

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and see what it actually is seeing.

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And if you're not sure where to

find one, I actually made one for

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you that you can use for free.

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It's at findadat job.com/resume.

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And this is my data analyst job board,

and we created this resume checker

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for you guys for this very purpose,

to make sure that before you apply

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for any jobs on findadatjob.com

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or anywhere else, that your resume

is up to snuff and you're ready to

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actually get seen through the ATS.

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Step number two is the six-second test,

and basically, you need to open up your

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resume on your phone and set a timer.

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You're literally gonna look at it for

six seconds, and now close your phone.

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Now, what do you remember

from your own resume?

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What jumped out?

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What did you read?

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And what was the most

important thing that you saw?

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Now, give it to a friend, your mom,

your cousin, your neighbor, and

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have them do the exact same activity

and report back what they noticed.

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If data analyst isn't one of the

things that you remember or that

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you saw, you have a big problem.

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And if a specific tool like SQL,

Python, or Tableau wasn't abundantly

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clear, you have two big problems.

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And if a number or a result or impact

didn't catch your eye, then you have

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three big problems, because that is

what the hiring manager wants to see in

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those six seconds, those three things.

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So update your resume to make very

clear who you are, what your title

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is, what your skills are, and what

impact you've had in the past.

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Step number three is to match your

resume with a real job description.

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So you can pull up any job that you

actually want to apply to, bonus

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points if it's from findadayjob.com,

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and copy the job description and paste

it into Claude or ChatGPT alongside

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your resume and ask, "Hey, what is

this actually missing in my resume?

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What's a stretch?

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What would a manager see as

suspicious or as a red flag?"

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Or heck, you could even do it the

old school way for all I care.

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Print the job description out,

highlight every keyword and required

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skill, and then go to your resume

and highlight every match there.

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What's missing?

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How many keywords show up?

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What's in the job description

that's not in your resume?

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Because if there's a mismatch between

the two, you're not getting through

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the ATS, and it's as simple as that.

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Your resume is essentially

your dating app photos.

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If you have good photos, you're

gonna get a lot of swipe rights.

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If you have blurry, generic, ugly

photos or you're hiding the good

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stuff, you're gonna get swiped past

every time and not have a chance

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at actually going on any dates.

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It's true in the romance world, and

it's true in the corporate job world.

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You need to have good photos.

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You need to have a good resume.

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All right.

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The second mirror you need

to focus on is your LinkedIn,

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and this one is so easy to do.

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And for some reason, so many people

just don't think it's important.

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So go to your LinkedIn right now.

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So first off, do you have a LinkedIn?

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If so, good.

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If not, you need to make one today.

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Like, literally pause the

video and go make a LinkedIn.

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Seriously, go do it right now.

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Now look at your LinkedIn profile

and stare at it as a stranger would.

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What would you notice?

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Like, what would you actually think

about yourself if you were seeing

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this from a stranger's perspective?

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And here's a little bit of

a list about what to check.

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Number one is your headline.

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Does it say something like,

"Aspiring data analyst," or "Open

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to work/seeking opportunities"?

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Because honestly, one, those are super

generic, but two, it tells a recruiter

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that you don't have a job right now, which

means you might be higher risk because

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people who tend to be less risk tend to

hold onto their jobs a little bit longer.

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Whether that's true or not, I don't

know, but my point here is it's

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not what reality is, it's what is

being reflected in your profiles.

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It's what you are appearing to do.

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One of my favorite verses in the Bible

is 1 Thessalonians 5:22, which says,

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"Abstain from all appearance of evil."

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Now, notice it didn't say

abstain from all evil.

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It says abstain from all appearance

of evil, and that's my point with

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you guys here, is we wanna abstain

from anything, any red flags at all.

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Even if they're not red flags,

just the appearance of red flags,

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we gotta avoid those at all costs.

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So what should you put

in your headline instead?

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Well, you can say something like what you

actually do, which is you analyze data.

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So you are a data analyst today.

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Congratulations, you got the promotion.

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Data analyst, SQL, Py-

Python, Tableau, Excel.

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Put that on your headline even

if you're transitioning, 'cause

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you're gonna frame yourself for

the thing you want to be hired as.

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You make the recruiter and the hiring

manager decide how experienced you are.

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That is not your call.

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That is not your judgment.

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Number two, make sure

you have a good banner.

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Is it just the dumb gray

defaults, gray or blue banner?

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That is literally prime real

estate at the top of your profile.

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That's the first thing that people see.

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So put something interesting there.

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Project screenshot, your

tagline, anything that signals

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you're a serious data analyst.

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You can make these pretty easily in Canva,

and we have a whole set of templates

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inside of the accelerator program for

you literally to just copy when you join.

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Number three is your About section,

and the first three lines are the

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most important because that's all

that you see unless you click See

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More, and most people don't click.

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So, like, literally make those

three lines very interesting.

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Don't put some generic stuff.

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Don't put some just AI slop.

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Be interesting.

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Tell your story.

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This is your chance to actually

capture people's attention and get

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them to take a chance on you, take a

chance to look a little bit longer.

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Number four is your experience.

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Is your experience section up to date?

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Are there interesting bullet points

on each one of your different jobs?

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Is each job experience tied to

a company on LinkedIn and has

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the actual company logo there?

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It's these little things that add up

in your experience section to actually

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show that you've done really cool things

for really cool companies in the past.

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Number five is your featured section.

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This is so underutilized by

99% of LinkedIn profiles.

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If it's empty, it shouldn't be.

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You need to pin your best

projects, pin a post that went

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viral, pin a portfolio link.

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This section is really key for

recruiters to actually see how good

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you are, how many things you've done

in the past, and who you actually

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are Number seven is your activity.

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Are you posting?

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Are you commenting on other people's work?

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Or is it kind of just like a

ghost town with nothing from: 2017

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A live profile signals a live candidate.

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Your LinkedIn is basically

the full dating profile, the

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headline, the photos, the bio.

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And here's the thing, 99% of

recruiters use LinkedIn, and not

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only do recruiters just use LinkedIn,

they will DM interesting candidates.

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So be interesting, and then

watch your inbox explode.

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The third mirror you need to think

about is your portfolio, and the first

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question is, heck, do you even have one?

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And if the answer is no, it's not

the end of the world, but you're

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missing out on a huge opportunity.

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Remember what I said at the beginning,

the hiring managers are literally trying

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to de-risk their decision in any way they

possibly can, and a portfolio is basically

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a risk reduction tool from your end.

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It's the thing that takes you from,

"Hey, this person says that they

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can actually do SQL and Tableau and

Power BI," to, "Wow, this person has

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actually done the work previously, and

there's tangible proof right here."

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It's basically extra information

about yourself, and in a market

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that's so competitive today, extra

information is literally everything.

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You need to cling to it like

your life depends on it.

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So I think you should have a portfolio

if you don't have one already.

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And if you don't know how or

why or where to make one, you

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can check out mydatafolio.com,

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and it's my very own

portfolio hosting website.

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I designed it specifically for

people like you, for data analysts

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who want to land a data job.

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So link in the description down below.

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Now, for all my overachievers out there,

if you have a portfolio already, the

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question is, is it really, really, really

ridiculously easy to read and to scan?

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Do a ten-second test.

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Send your portfolio link to a

friend and watch them open it, like

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literally from behind their shoulders.

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Where do their eyes go?

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Where do they get confused?

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Where do they click?

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Where do they get bored?

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What do they actually do on their

portfolio, and is it really sending

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the right message that you want to

send to hiring managers and recruiters?

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For instance, you want to see, does

your homepage tell enough about

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you in those first five seconds?

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It's not your life story, but it's

also just not, like, your name.

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You need to explain who

you are and what you do.

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Data analysts in this

industry using these tools.

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That's pretty much it.

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That's all you need.

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Number two, can I scan one project

and understand it almost immediately?

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Like, what's the problem,

what's the approach, what's

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the insight, what's the impact?

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Those four things.

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If I have to scroll through like a

bajillion things to get all of those,

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: 00:13:47

then that's probably not good enough.

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: 00:13:49

But it also shouldn't

just be like three lines.

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: 00:13:50

It should be somewhere in between.

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: 00:13:52

And also, if I have to click through

like five different pages before I

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: 00:13:54

actually get to any sort of work or

visualization, you've completely lost me.

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: 00:13:58

And hint, that's one of the reasons

I hate GitHub as a portfolio,

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: 00:14:01

but that's for another episode.

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: 00:14:03

Number three, are your projects

business problems or are

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: 00:14:06

they more tutorial data sets?

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: 00:14:08

So if the only project that you've

really got on there is the city

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: 00:14:10

bike center and the Titanic data

set, that's not really good.

321

: 00:14:13

You want to do something

that's more interesting.

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: 00:14:15

Go find a real problem with real

data, a local business, a public

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: 00:14:19

data set no one's even looking at,

something with like more stakes, with

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: 00:14:21

more realistic, you know, entities.

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: 00:14:24

And lastly, number four, can

I contact you in one click?

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: 00:14:27

Don't make me hunt for your

email, hunt for your phone

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: 00:14:29

number, hunt for your LinkedIn.

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: 00:14:30

Those things should be so abundantly

clear that I can just click,

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: 00:14:33

boom, and then talk to you, and

then hopefully hire you, right?

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: 00:14:36

The rule is simplicity.

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: 00:14:38

A confused hiring manager is the

hiring manager that closes the tab

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: 00:14:41

and goes with another candidate.

333

: 00:14:42

And at this point, if they're looking

at your portfolio, you're already

334

: 00:14:44

so close to having that swipe right.

335

: 00:14:46

Their thumb's literally on the green

arrow and they're thinking about it.

336

: 00:14:49

This is just like the last thirst trap

picture you need to get that thumb to

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: 00:14:52

the right, and if you have it, you'll

get those swipes and you'll get those

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: 00:14:55

calls, and you'll get those offers.

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: 00:14:57

If you don't have it, who knows?

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: 00:14:58

You're leaving it up to chance.

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: 00:14:59

And really, this is the mindset shift I

want you to take away from this episode.

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: 00:15:03

You're not a bad data analyst.

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: 00:15:05

In fact, you're probably a great one.

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: 00:15:06

So we aren't changing who you are.

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: 00:15:08

We are changing what they see, because you

might be appearing as a bad data analyst

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: 00:15:13

based off your digital profiles, even

though you're a fantastic data analyst.

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: 00:15:17

But you can literally fix that

today with the mirror test.

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: 00:15:21

Look at your resume, your

LinkedIn, and your portfolio

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: 00:15:23

with clean eyes, six seconds.

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: 00:15:25

In a blink of an eye, would a stranger

take a chance on you, yes or no?

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: 00:15:29

If the answer is yes, great.

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: 00:15:30

Go back to applying.

353

: 00:15:31

You're doing great.

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: 00:15:32

If the answer is no, well, you need

to fix it, and if you want help fixing

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: 00:15:36

it, that's exactly what we do in my

bootcamp, Data Analytics Accelerator.

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: 00:15:39

You can learn more about it by clicking

the link in the description down below.

357

: 00:15:42

You guys got this, I promise.

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: 00:15:44

Mirror test, fix, apply, and

I'll see you in the next one.