u/CareersNinza

Been seeing a pattern in recruiter conversations: a lot of business students still treat data analytics as a "tech people" skill, not something core to marketing, finance, or ops roles. But recruiters seem to increasingly expect at least Excel + a BI tool + basic SQL regardless of specialization.

Curious what people here are actually seeing on the ground, is this genuinely showing up in interviews, or is it still mostly a "nice to have" outside of core analytics/consulting roles?

Been noticing a pattern in threads here and wanted to put it together in one place.

The candidates who seem to break through faster usually have one thing in common: a real, specific project they can point to, not just a degree or a list of skills on a resume. Doesn't have to be a job, can be self-built, but something a recruiter can actually look at.

Second thing: tailoring the first two lines of a resume to the actual job description matters more than people think, most resumes here read like they were written once and mass-sent.

What's actually worked for people who found something recently? Genuinely curious what's different in 2026 versus even a year ago.