Data Analyst Jobs for Freshers: What Postings Ask For and How to Get Shortlisted
Data analyst postings are the second-largest family in PrepNPlaced's India Tech Hiring Report. This page covers how a fresher gets shortlisted for them: the skills the postings name, where they are by city and company, the resume and projects that pass the screen, and how to apply.
By Durgesh Yadav — Senior Data Engineer @ 7-Eleven · Updated 15 Oct 2026. Preparation guidance, not a hiring guarantee.
Can I get a data analyst job as a fresher?
Yes. Data analyst is the second-largest family in PrepNPlaced's India Tech Hiring Report, with 2,467 of 17,748 postings, though entry-level openings are a small share of all postings. Get shortlisted with SQL, Excel and one BI tool you can be tested on, two projects that answer a business question, and a resume written in each posting's own words.
Yes, because the core skills can be learned and tested without work experience: SQL, Excel and a BI tool. Analyst postings are also plentiful. In the India Tech Hiring Report, data-analyst postings numbered 2,467 (13.9% of 17,748), second only to software engineering's 3,643.
The catch is level. Across all 17,748 postings, only 792 (4.5%) were entry or junior level, so a fresher competes for a small share of openings and has to be ready at the first screen.
Titles to search: data analyst, junior data analyst, data analyst trainee, MIS executive, reporting analyst
Read the experience line first, and prioritise postings that say freshers can apply
Domain helps: a B.Com graduate reads finance data faster, and a pharmacy graduate reads healthcare data faster
Expect a timed SQL or Excel test, sometimes before the first interview
What do data analyst postings ask a fresher to know?
Data analyst postings name SQL first, then Excel and Python, then a BI tool. In PrepNPlaced's India Tech Hiring Report, the 2,467 data-analyst postings collected 23 August to 27 September 2026 named SQL in 34.6%, Excel in 23.6%, Python in 23.2%, Power BI in 20.1% and Tableau in 12.7%. These shares cover all analyst postings, not only fresher ones, but the first screen tests the same skills.
Skills named in 2,467 data-analyst postings, India Tech Hiring Report, 23 Aug to 27 Sep 2026
Skill
Named in data-analyst postings
What a fresher should be able to do
SQL
34.6% of 2,467
Joins, GROUP BY, CASE WHEN and window functions such as ROW_NUMBER, on a timed test
Excel
23.6% of 2,467
Pivot tables, XLOOKUP or VLOOKUP, IF and SUMIFS, and cleaning a messy sheet
Python
23.2% of 2,467
pandas to load, clean, group and merge data in a notebook
Power BI
20.1% of 2,467
A data model with relationships, a few DAX measures and a one-page report
Tableau
12.7% of 2,467
Calculated fields, filters and a dashboard that answers one question
Azure
10.3% of 2,467
Basics only: where the data lives and how a report connects to it
Where are data analyst postings, and who posts the most?
Bengaluru has by far the most Indian tech postings in the report, followed by Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. Bengaluru had 6,590 of 17,748 postings, Hyderabad 2,624, Pune 2,212, Chennai 1,585, Mumbai 1,232, Gurugram 1,189 and Noida 644. The top posters were Wipro (1,131), EXL (632), Birlasoft (501), NTT DATA North America (466) and UPS (420), by the company name shown on the posting.
These counts cover all roles and levels, not only analyst or fresher openings, so use them to choose where to look and whose careers pages to watch. PrepNPlaced's Find Jobs searches live job sources and ranks each opening against your resume.
Set alerts on LinkedIn and Naukri, the two sources behind the report's postings
Check the careers pages of the large posters directly, not only job boards
Plan for office work: only 129 of 17,748 postings (0.7%) were flagged remote
What should a fresher's analyst resume and projects show?
An analyst resume gets shortlisted when it shows the posting's tools and two projects that each answer a business question. Put SQL, Excel and your BI tool in the headline and skills, and write each project as question, method and finding. Projects built on data from a field you know, such as a family business, a college fest or a public dataset you cleaned yourself, read as real work; a copied tutorial dataset reads as a copy.
Headline: 'Data Analyst (Fresher) | SQL, Excel, Power BI, Python'
Project bullet: 'Analysed a family shop's sales records in SQL and Power BI and found which product lines lose money after discounts'
One page, one column, PDF, with a GitHub or portfolio link that holds the SQL and the report file
A typical SQL screen question
From an orders table, find each customer's first order date and the number of orders they placed within 30 days of it. Strong answers find the first date with MIN in a CTE or a window, join back, filter on the date difference, and say what happens to customers with only one order.
A typical Excel task
You get a sales sheet with mixed date formats, duplicate rows and blank regions. Clean it, then build a pivot of monthly sales by region. Strong answers fix the dates first, remove duplicates on a clear key, and explain each step aloud.
How do you apply as a fresher data analyst?
Apply to new postings every day, in each posting's own words, and practise the tests while you apply.
1Set alerts for data analyst, junior data analyst, MIS executive and reporting analyst in your target cities on LinkedIn and Naukri.
2Apply to new postings first, and skip postings that ask for experience you do not have.
3Edit your headline and skills line to match each posting's words before you submit.
4Send a short referral request to an alumnus at the company, with the job link and your project link.
5Practise one SQL question a day and one Excel task a week, because those are the first tests.
6Prepare a two-minute walk-through of each project: the question, the data, the method and the finding.
7Track each application with its date and status in one place, and follow up once after a week.
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Are there data analyst jobs for freshers in Bangalore?
Yes. Bengaluru had 6,590 of the 17,748 postings in PrepNPlaced's India Tech Hiring Report, the most of any city, though the count covers all roles and levels. Search the analyst titles in Bengaluru, read the experience line first, and apply to postings that say freshers can apply.
Do I need Python for a fresher data analyst job?
It helps, but it comes after SQL and Excel. In the India Tech Hiring Report, Python was named in 23.2% of 2,467 data-analyst postings, against SQL in 34.6% and Excel in 23.6%. Learn SQL and Excel well, add one BI tool, then pandas for cleaning and merging data.
Power BI or Tableau: which should a fresher learn?
Power BI, unless your target employers name Tableau. Power BI was named in 20.1% of 2,467 data-analyst postings and Tableau in 12.7%. The ideas carry across, so a second tool takes far less time once you know one well.
What is the salary of a fresher data analyst?
This page quotes no pay figures. PrepNPlaced's India Tech Hiring Report found that fewer than 300 of its postings disclosed an INR salary, too few to publish honestly. Offers depend on the company, the city and how you do in the tests, so compare the offers you actually receive.
Can a non-IT graduate get a data analyst job?
Yes. The screening tests are SQL, Excel and a BI tool, and none of them needs a computer science degree. Commerce, economics, statistics and science graduates bring domain knowledge that helps with business questions. Read each posting's eligibility line, then lead your resume with projects built on data from a field you know.
Does the PL-300 certification help a fresher?
It can, once you have a project to back it. Microsoft's PL-300 exam leads to the Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification and covers preparing, modelling, visualising and analysing data, and managing and securing Power BI. An interviewer will still ask you to explain a report you built, so build the project first.
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