Data analyst roles are in the high demand and generally pay higher. A lot of people try to get into this area along with new grads just out from schools. In my opinion, most people can master the core skill sets and land in a job in data analytics area even from non-tech backgrounds. Below outlines steps to follow to find a data analyst job with non-tech background!
However, if you are from non-tech industry (e.g sales) and looking for your first data analyst job, you need to lower your expectation. Be aware that as the first job, it may not pay as well as your current one, but you will grow very fast within this industry and quickly change to a higher pay role soon. Know what skills you have acquired, what next you need to improve and learn, what kind of data analyst jobs you can fit in (with your past experience in sales) are the key to get success.
Start with learning the basic coding skills – SQL and Python are the most popular ones that most companies like. If you do not have time to learn both, just focus on SQL but make sure you become really good at it. Depending on your past experience, it may take 2 to 6 weeks to be familiar with the SQL syntax and you should be able to tackle basic or intermediate sql puzzles yourself.
Master one of the data visualization tools – Tableau is recommended with wide market coverage and powerful function. You can install the free version and get familiar with it fairly quickly (1-4 weeks).
Build your data analytics portfolio with projects – there are many free data and solved projects online, as a start, you can follow the same steps, even copy the codes (more importantly understand the codes and try to build your own). Here is one example of the project you can leverage. It is a completed project with detailed explanations. Highly recommend it! Put it on your resume and be ready to explain the project to anybody around you.
Search for job openings – Google Jobs is a very helpful tool. It consolidates most of the roles from internet with a user friendly interface (I like it more than Linkedin). Just by typing “data analyst” and choosing the location, there will be tons of results. Once again, since you are moving from a non-tech background, you may want to focus on junior roles or roles with relatively simple functions. Apply to those roles and even reach out the recruiters directly to introduce yourself. You will at least get one or two interview invites out of 10–30 attempts.