Become a DATA ANALYST with NO degree?!? The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

Key Takeaways

the ceo of google recently quoted a shocking statistic that stated 50 of all employees will need reskilling by 2025. to combat this google in partnership with carcera has created certification programs for different types of jobs so the one being data analyst also things like it and project management and it allows somebody to get the certification and training they need for a job without requiring any type of degree or relevant experience what up dad nerds i'm luke a data analyst and my channel is all about tech and skills for data science and in this today we're going to be going over the google data analytics certificate i really find this interesting because i feel it relates a lot to how i've progressed through my career as a data analyst in that a lot of the skills that i've developed for using the different tools for data science i've obtained through certification programs and not really through any of the schooling that i went through so i wanted to explore if hey is this actually a worthwhile opportunity to pursue for this video today we're going to be going over a brief introduction into an overview of the course itself what tools are included that you'll be learning about what are some things that you'll be doing a deeper dive on in the course material from there we'll look at things that i like about the course offerings and things that don't like so much about the course offerings finally we'll wrap it up all at the end with my recommendation on whether you should be considering to take this course or not so with that let's jump right in taking a general look at the course itself so it's a certificate type program where at the end of their completion you'll have some sort of certificate that you can post to your linkedin or print out and put on the wall it is 100 online so because of that they allow you to have a flexible schedule with it and you can complete it at your own pace and they're recommending that you should take about six months to complete it with 10 hours per day but if you're trying to be a hard charger and want to power through it you could get done with this in as fast as one to two months when you complete this course and obtain your certificate you're now going to be entered into basically a pool of employers including google so about 130 different employees that are going to be actually looking for people of your skill level with this new certificate for potential job opportunities and one of the things that i'm finding really interested in this is that some of these employers actually have certain amount of quota that they've agreed to hire from this certification program already so what is this going to cost you coursera does a subscription based model so they charge you per the month and right now it's at 39 us dollars and they also have over a hundred thousand different scholarships available so you maybe qualify for that so take a look into that if you're going to do it but as far as the real cost i really think you need to think about your time and effort that you're going to be putting into this because a couple hundred bucks for a certification is not that bad but as far as the six-month commitment that is actually a significant time investment and that is that where i feel the actual cost is so who is this course geared towards google is pretty clear in this in that they're looking to place off people into entry-level data and analyst positions so i feel this is why google has sort of advertised this hey you don't need any relevant experience because the jobs that you're trying to be placed off into are entry level positions where they don't expect you to have much experience next let's take a look at the course outline itself and the overall structure i feel is really well done on this course it starts with the very basics and very beginning of data analysis and from there it moves into the entire process of getting your data to visualizing your data so for the course itself it's broken up into eight different modules uh the first one being that foundations understanding the basics of data analysis from there moving into what questions you should be asking of your data and then next actually getting into the tools and the use of the tools so specifically sql and spreadsheets such as excel so you'll go into data preparation data cleansing and analyzing the data using these tools from there you'll move into visualizing your data using popular software tableau and then finally it looks like they wrap it up with further data analysis using the r programming language there is an eighth course module as well on case studies and it looks like this one's optional but i definitely would strongly consider if you're going to do this course and paid for it might as well knock out this as well so looking at the four main tools used for this you're going to be using that sql and also those spreadsheets those are just two instrumental skills at a as a data analyst that you really need to have an in-depth knowledge on and that really seems like they're spending a lot of time actually explaining those tools to you from there it looks like it gives you a brief introduction into programming languages such as r and then also data visualization softwares such as tableau so as an introductory to these tools i don't really consider that a bad thing that they're not maybe teaching you something like python instead of r or power bi versus tableau because really based on the time and the structure of the course it doesn't seem like they're going really in depth i think it's going to be more focused on actually showing those tools to you so you have a general idea of what they can be used for and maybe get a basic understanding of even how to use them so wrapping it up on the course itself it looks like it's over 180 hours of course material itself from there they have a lot of hands-on activities and then also some quizzes and regular assessments to make sure that you're staying up to speed and testing your knowledge along the way moving into things that i like about this course itself overall the structure of the course has built it in a way that it's very project based so instead of just sitting in a classroom and trying to absorb material they're actually going to be providing you an opportunity to use those skills in different projects additionally it doesn't just seem like they're going to at the end dump you with job resources it looks like during the course itself they're actually going to give you knowledge on how to build up your resume and what type of resources you need to be doing in order to search for the job after you have a certificate and then the last thing i'll just call out real quick is it does have a seven day free trial so if you have some free time to even just jump in check it out if you don't like it you just cancel your subscription and there's no money lost moving into issues of finding with the certificate so one being that it says it's only offered be to the us and europe but looking around on the internet it looks like people outside of those regions also have access to it so you should be good if you're in other regions of the world one thing to note though is that in certain regions the release dates of some of the materials may be different so right now the module 8 and 7 are not going to be available in the u.s until april and that may be even different in other countries of the world for the tool selection itself i really agree with teaching the sql and the spreadsheets i don't necessarily agree with the use of r and tableau i'd much prefer python and maybe power bi but uh with that they are like i stated previously these are more introductory classes for the r and tableau so i don't think it's a big deal i started with r myself and learned r and then actually transitioned over to python looking at the video content that's included in this certificate course i went through one of their preview lectures and i personally felt it was slightly dry and they went through it at a very very slow pace i actually had to increase the playback speed to two times just get through it and power through it so that is my one concern is that the material itself or the video content material itself isn't as engaging as it could be and then my last issue is they're selling this course as though you don't need any experience and i don't know i mean nobody's really placed off with a certificate just yet so i don't know if that's necessarily true my concern is is employers always no matter what are stressing or looking for some sort of relevant experience so i'm really cautious about that in that i think you really need to still have some sort of experience that you can show maybe that's building your own portfolio or doing some pro bono work but overall i wouldn't just rely solely on this certificate you really need to stand out so you really need to think about doing something extracurricular to make yourself stand out in that interview process moving into my recommendation on whether i think you should take this course or not like i said before this is a very entry-level course this is for somebody with no previous experience so i really feel this is geared towards maybe somebody that's in a role that's looking to get promoted to that next job opportunity so maybe you're working as a business business analyst and you don't really work with any of these tools but you'd like to learn more about it this would be a great opportunity for you to up level the skills that you have and then transition over to a new job as a data analyst or maybe you're even in a completely different industry and you have some relevant experience that will relate to another industry but you want to be a data analyst in that industry i think this is also a great opportunity for those individuals as well overall take a look at those 130 different employers that are part of this different consortium that's agreeing to accept this certificate and are those employers that you want to work for and if an employer is not included in there maybe reach out to the employer you want to work for and see if they are going to accept that certificate it's much better to ask before than to find out after you complete this six month certificate that the employer is not even going to accept it and then for an example of who may not want to consider this say you're working in some sort of data analyst capacity and you have some of those skills already or maybe even have all of those skills of working with tableau are sql and spreadsheets i think this course may be a waste your time and it may be better effort spent specializing in other areas or specializing using the tools that are needed for your job and building up your portfolio then going through and taking this certificate course overall i wanted to end on a positive note that this is a pretty huge deal that google and these other companies are going to be accepting the certificate over degrees i think that we're moving in such a better direction because degrees themselves sometimes cannot be as useful for actually getting our jobs done and really these certificates even in my own personal experience i found are so much more helpful in learning and utilizing the tools i need to get my job done so as always if you got value out of this video smash that like button and if you want to get more resources or understand this material further on what's included on this google data analytics certificate i'll include a link right here or a little video thing right here of alex the analyst and he goes into further detail on the course itself and he even said he's going to be going through and doing the course and providing his insights on the course itself so make sure you check out his channel with that see you in the next one