Data analyst CV examples: what UK hiring managers want to see

A good data analyst CV in the UK is short, specific and full of evidence. It names the tools you use, shows what you did with them, and gives numbers wherever it can. Below you'll find example sections, sample bullet points you can adapt, and a layout that works whether you've got five years' experience or none.

The examples are illustrative. Swap in your own details and never claim work you haven't done.

What layout works best for a data analyst CV?

Keep it simple. Hiring managers and applicant tracking systems both prefer a clean, single-column layout with standard headings. Fancy graphics and skill bars ("SQL: 4 out of 5 stars") add nothing.

A layout that works:

1. Name, location (town is enough), email, phone, LinkedIn and portfolio link
2. Profile: two or three lines
3. Skills: one or two lines of tools
4. Projects (put this above experience if you're new to data)
5. Experience
6. Education and certifications

Two pages is the maximum. One is fine if you're early in your career.

Use the same words as the job ad where they're true for you. If the ad says "Power BI" and your CV says "Microsoft BI tools", a keyword filter may miss you. If it asks for "stakeholder reporting", use that phrase in a bullet that describes real reporting you've done. It's a small change that gets more CVs in front of a human.

What should the profile say?

Your profile answers one question: what are you and what do you want? Skip "hard-working team player with a passion for data". Everyone writes that.

For example, an experienced analyst might write:

Data analyst with three years' experience building SQL reports and Power BI dashboards for an operations team. Cut weekly reporting time by automating manual Excel work. Looking for a role focused on customer and sales analytics.

And someone changing career might write:

Former retail manager moving into data analysis. Built Power BI and SQL projects using public UK datasets, and used Excel daily to track store sales and staffing. Looking for a junior or reporting analyst role.

Both are specific. Both tell the reader what to expect.

Which skills should you list?

List the tools employers actually search for. On IT Jobs Watch, for UK permanent data analyst ads in the six months to November 2026, SQL appeared in 32% of ads, Power BI in 27%, Python in 18.6%, Microsoft Excel in 14.5% and Tableau in 8%.

So a skills line might read: SQL (joins, CTEs, window functions), Power BI (DAX, data modelling), Excel (Power Query, pivot tables, XLOOKUP), Python (pandas, basic).

Be honest about levels. If you write "Python" and the interviewer asks you to explain a pandas merge, you need to be able to do it. Listing fewer tools you know well beats listing every tool you've heard of.

What do strong data analyst CV examples look like in the experience section?

This is where most CVs fall flat. They list duties ("responsible for reporting") instead of results. Each bullet should show an action, a tool and an outcome.

Weak: - Responsible for producing weekly reports.

Stronger (for example): - Rebuilt the weekly sales report in Power BI using a SQL data source, cutting preparation time from a day to under an hour. - Wrote SQL queries to identify customers who hadn't ordered in 90 days, giving the marketing team a target list for a win-back campaign. - Cleaned and merged three years of spreadsheet data into one table, finding and fixing duplicate records that had inflated monthly totals.

Only use real numbers from your own work. If you don't know the exact figure, describe the outcome without inventing one.

Our junior data analyst jobs guide has more on what employers expect at this level.

How do you write a data analyst CV with no experience?

Lead with projects. If you haven't had a data job, your projects section is your experience section. Put it near the top.

For each project, give a title, a one-line summary, the tools used and the finding. For example:

NHS waiting times analysis (SQL, Power BI) - Combined monthly published data for several trusts and built a dashboard comparing waiting times over two years. - Identified the trusts with the largest improvement and summarised possible reasons in a short written report. - Link: your GitHub or portfolio page

Then look at your previous jobs with fresh eyes. Did you use spreadsheets? Track stock, sales, attendance or complaints? Produce any kind of report? That's data work. Write it up that way.

• Tracked weekly stock levels for a store in Excel and flagged lines running low, reducing out-of-stock complaints.

That reads very differently to "Retail assistant: served customers".

What should a graduate data analyst CV include?

Graduates have an advantage: modules and a dissertation. Use them.

List relevant modules (statistics, econometrics, research methods, programming). Describe your dissertation in terms of data: how much data, which methods, which software, what you found. If you used R, SPSS, Stata or Python, name it.

The National Careers Service notes that degrees in maths, statistics, economics, psychology and similar subjects are common routes into the role, so make the link explicit. Then add at least one project that uses business-style data, so employers can picture you doing their work.

Do certifications belong on your CV, and what should you cut?

Certifications do belong, usually near the bottom, unless they're a big part of your case. Recognised ones help with keyword filters. CompTIA Data+ is one example: the current version (DA0-002) launched in October 2025 and covers data concepts, acquisition and preparation, analysis, visualisation and governance.

But certificates don't replace evidence. A CV with one certificate and two strong projects beats a CV with six certificates and no projects every time. See our data analyst qualifications page for the main options.

Now the cuts. Typos in a CV for a detail-heavy job are a bad look. Read it out loud. Remove photos, date of birth and full address. Don't paste the same CV into every application: match the first skills line and the top project to the tools in each ad. And check every link works.

Finally, send it as a PDF unless the employer asks otherwise, and name the file sensibly (Firstname-Lastname-Data-Analyst-CV.pdf).

How Experiencely can help

A CV is only as strong as the work it describes. Our data analysis programme gives you training, the CompTIA Data+ certification and a live data project to put at the top of your CV. You're placed within 48 hours and work about an hour a day for three months, fully remote, so it fits around a current job. The programme costs £2,495. If you're not hired within 60 days of finishing, you get your money back, with conditions. That means real bullet points, written from real work.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Figures are taken from the sources below. Salary ranges are indicative and individual offers vary. Last checked 9 November 2026.

1. IT Jobs Watch: Data Analyst jobs, UK
2. National Careers Service: Data analyst-statistician
3. CompTIA Data+ (V2) certification