My contract as a Data Steward for a telecommunications company will come to an end 1 month from now. I am not sure where to go from here.

My ultimate goal is to get into Data Analytics but I do not have any work experience in that field and based on what others has said, it is not an entry level position. I do not know how else I am going to get this experience.

I have a Masters degree in Data Science that I’m starting to regret. My original plan was that I was going to go to grad school and get a data analyst internship so I can get entry level positions after graduating. I did not realize just how fiercely competitive those internships are. I’ve applied to hundreds and only received one call back.

Now I’ve graduated with a Masters in Data Science with no experience to back up my degree. I was contacted by a staffing company for a Data Steward position and I took it because I did not want to have a job gap after graduation. The position was a glorified data entry position where I would review regulatory documents and perform data cleaning on the company’s proprietary system. I did not perform analysis or use any of the common tools of the Analytics trade like SQL, Tableau, or Python.

Now the contract is about the end and I’m not sure what to do. Employers simply don’t accept my personal projects as proof and want to see actual work experience in the relevant tools. I want to have actual work experience in the tools listed but where do I actually get that?

tldr I want to break into analytics but need experience and don’t know how to get it