Reviewing Google Data Analytics Certificate | Should You Take It?

hi everyone welcome to another youtube video in  today's video I'm going to talk about google's   data analytics certificate we're going to go  through the courses in the certificate one by   one and we're going to review it i'm going to  share my thoughts uh for those of you who don't   know my name is sundas i'm a self.data scientist  and on this channel i talk about data science   self-promotion salary negotiation and personal  and professional growth tips in today's video   we're going to talk about the google's data  analytics certificate program should you take it   is it worth your time who is the certificate right  for who shouldn't be taking the course um and then   we're going to go through the course to the entire  certificate one by one all the courses within it   and we're going to review it i'm also going to  be sharing some tips for taking the course what   to do after you have taken the course and  what are some other courses besides google   data analytics certificate course that you can  consider if you want to expand further or if you   are not able to take this certificate there are a  few other options that you can consider before we   do that make sure to give this video a thumbs up  if you like what you hear that's going to give it   a boost in the youtube's algorithm and subscribe  to my channel if you would like to hear more from   me on a similar content uh for those of you who  don't know i was actually part of the google's   data analytics certificate team that built the  certificate and in this video i actually shared   my experience being part of the team um how i got  recruited a lot of behind the scenes information   i share in this video so feel free to watch that  video uh pause it here watch this one or you can   watch it later save it and watch it later okay so  with that let's get started and let's jump right   into the google's data analytics certificate  um before i do that i do want to mention   that everything shared on this channel  is my personal opinion and not of the   of the any of the organizations i'm currently  part of or have been in the past so with that   let's get started um i'm going to share my screen  so google launched the certificate earlier in 2021   and there are over 200 000 people who have already  taken the certificate so it's been pretty popular   since the launch so in today's video we're going  to actually go through the courses one by one   and we're going to discuss the specific why there  is so much popularity around this course and why   there is a lot of buzz why are people wanting to  take the course let's go to the google certificate   data certificate page so you can go to the link  by following grow dot google slash data analytics   um and immediately my eyes go to there are two  data points that the certificate is sharing to   kind of highlight the value of the program  number one is that the average entry level   salary for in data analytics is around 68 000 uh  based on my experience this sounds pretty accurate   and then in terms of the number of job openings  it shows that there are about about 337 000   jobs uh in over the last year now one thing that  stands out is that they included the source um so   i definitely do want to see where this is coming  from uh because i always get curious every time i   see some data points i want to verify it being the  data person okay so they got this data source data   from burning glass which is labor insights for the  last 12 months from february 1st 2020 to january   31st 2021 so basically it's one year of data from  burning glass that shows that um these are the   number of jobs that were open uh one question i  still have that i will possibly go to the source   and try to verify is um if this is data analyst  jobs data scientist job machine learning jobs   what what does qualify as data analytics because  as we all know it's pretty vague in terms of like   how the rules are defined the titles don't mean  much okay in data science which is a topic for   another video um we'll definitely do that i have  a lot to talk about that okay so um in terms of uh   what google says who should take this course uh  the course is meant to be an introductory course   to data analytics basically anybody who does not  anyone who does not have um any background in   data analytics so basically it is supposed to be  introductory and supposed to introduce you to the   data world the concepts the fundamentals as well  as give you equip you with some tools that you can   use to evaluate uh to perform your analysis and uh  take it on your own to enter into the job market   um i love that they emphasize quite a bit on why  it's important to enter in the data field data   is one of the growing fields and all you need to  have is according to um faq section which is very   thorough you can read more that this program  is requires no prior experience or specific   tool is required all you need is high school  level math and curiosity about how things work   well i love that basically you don't need what  this is saying not directly is that you can just   have a high school degree and take this course and  be a data analyst enter the data analyst analytics   and then you can read further questions what  tools platforms are included and then they   also talk about will you be teaching r or python i  have a lot of thoughts on this because the course   does um does teach in r and i from my industry  experience i have seen that python has kind of   like taken off as like the primary data science  language but i'll share a little bit more   i don't have any introduction any insider  knowledge but i'll share a little bit more   in terms of my thoughts why r was selected uh  versus python if you don't already know that   you can actually apply for financial assistance  and one of the coolest things is that they provide   support after you complete the certificate which  i thought is pretty neat and you can read it here   that in addition to expert training and hands-on  project design to prepare you for the job in your   wheel you'll have access to a resume building tool  mock interviews career networking support design   to help you with the job search which i think is  super amazing because one of the biggest problems   is taking online courses is that you will take the  course but then you are basically on your own but   in this in this course in in this um you basically  have access to it gives you it prepares you more   for the real world after the course is done which  i think makes it more powerful than any of the   other courses that are out there whether it is for  data analytics or any of the other tech courses   um so just for that sake alone i would highly  highly i would score this pretty high okay   so with that let's go into the course and discuss  a little bit more um what the course entails what   are the different uh what are the different uh  courses in here um so as you can see here there   are over 200 200 000 people who have already  enrolled in the certificate there are quite   a few people who have taken this course uh which  is amazing and completed this course my linkedin   feed is filled with people completing this course  and uh putting it on their linkedin posting it on   their linkedin which i find it super amazing okay  so let's go a little bit there are eight courses   in this certificate and google estimates  that it will take you around ten thousand 10 hours that's what i think that's what i read  somewhere under 10 hours of study a week so   they they anticipate that it's going to be to be  10 hour study per week uh they approximate that   it could take up to six months to complete the  course and suggested pace is 10 hours per week   uh some of the before we go into the courses  i want to read a high level in terms of what   the course claims that you will learn you'll  gain an immersive understanding of practices   process used by a junior associate data analyst  in their day-to-day job sounds fair second point   is understand how to clean the data organize  organize data for analysis and complete analysis   when calculating using spreadsheet sql and r  programming learn key analytical skills such as   data cleaning visualization and analysis using  tools such as sql are programming and tableau   and the last one learn how to visualize and  present data findings in dashboards presentations   and commonly used visualization okay so far sounds  great one thing that um while going through the   skills that you learn one thing i immediately  noticed is that they don't claim to like r is not   listed here like skills you will learn and i think  one of the reasons is that that that the course   just dips your toe into our it doesn't spend  a lot of time in r that's probably one of the   reasons that it's not listed here and another call  out here is that the 82 percent of the people who   have taken the certificate uh report a positive  career outcome promotion raised within six months   which is amazing um although the course has not  been launched for six months so i would be curious   how they got this number so this this is something  that we saw earlier so the course learner outcome   service all-time google id support okay so they  have they have basically collected this uh data   from the previous certificates that google had  available uh so one of their previous certificate   was that and i think the only certificate  that was available before this was google's   id support certificate um so they basically have  used that a bit and combined with the survey   to uh to kind of like to make this claim which is  fair okay so let's jump right into the courses and   see what are the courses are taught here  so as i mentioned there are eight courses   in this certificate um and from how they are  organized they are organized in a way to kind of   um structured in a way that a typical data project  would be structured which is one of my which is my   second i think i already shared my first favorite  thing um this course is primarily um introduces   you to based on my understanding is like what  data is about what what is the importance of data   and it's everywhere around us which i like that  they are starting with the basics the second is   ask questions to make data-driven decisions  which i think is i'm glad that they dedicated   a course specific course to it because in the data  space i've been working in the industry for about   10 years now and i'll tell you that asking the  right question is one of the best things that   you'll do for your data project so i'm really glad  that they dedicated a full section to asking the   right data-driven questions um i love that the  third is prepare data for exploration um now the   only thing that i um don't i didn't under quite  understand is like what is the difference between   prepared data for exploitation and the process  data for dirty dirty clean i guess like the   it seems that the first the course three  just introduce you to the data exploration   and then course four deep dives into turning dirty  data into clean data and i i like that they have   a more deep dive focus on that because if you  haven't heard already a lot of the data jobs   more than 60 of the work that you'll do  is like data preparation and data cleaning   so i like that there are two dedicated courses to  data prep and data cleaning um the fifth question   is analyze data to answer questions um if you  have been like noticing that the project like   again like the courses are structured to kind of  follow the structure of a data analysis project   so you start with asking the right questions you  prepare the data then you click make the data from   dirty to clean then you start analyzing the data  which like yes this all makes sense uh the next   next course that they have shared is shared data  through the art of visualization and i believe   that they chose tableau um for uh visualizing  some of the data data aspects in this course   this course specifically focuses on the data  visualization and i did take this course   i love that they talked about um they go into  a lot of details about like data visualizations   okay the seventh course is data analysis with r  programming um so one clear standout is like fifth   the course five is analyzing data to answer  questions um this in this kind of sounds   pretty similar so this is data analysis with  r programming this one seems to be focused   more on sql yeah so this one seems to be focused  more on sql and then this one deep dives more in   r um and um okay here's my thought personally  i prefer python over r um and hear me out and   question is like why did they choose i r or python  from my personal experience working with python   was more efficient for me and for my team um  because a lot of the times when i would build   my models in data science using python i would  have to then go and work with the dev teams   the software development teams who would have to  take my code and put it into the productionized   environment um so and if i were to work with  r it's going to take them a lot longer to   translate that course into a into a language that  can live in a production model art cannot live in   a production in a scalable fashion so that's why  i personally prefer python if you're trying to   decide which language to take choose python now in  terms of like why they chose r specifically again   i don't have any insider information to share  here just my theory i think that the reason they   chose r is because r is pretty good with like  very the quick and dirty analysis since this   program is this certificate is focused more on  data analyst and not data scientists they chose   r because r does have like pretty cool statistics  and visualizations package um and i have noticed   that lately i've been using a lot more especially  if i'm doing like some quick and dirty analysis um   i'll use r over python because like the i that are  does have like a lot of like built-in statistics   uh libraries as well as models that i can use  quickly to do the analysis so for that reason i   believe they chose our um over python in terms of  like installing r versus python i i think that's   a topic for another video but i think like it's  it's somewhat easier especially if somebody's   just starting from scratch now that being said in  terms of the ramp up for r versus python i think   r has a greater ramp up than python python is  like a bit more the language itself is a bit more   intuitive versus r if you're coming from r has a  more steeper curve to learn but as soon as you'll   get there it's gets easier versus python it's like  it the the the learning curve is not as steep as r   uh it's more intuitive in terms of language okay  so the last course that they have is google's   data analytics capstone project um which  is a case study and i believe this course   combines everything that you've learned in in the  previous seven courses it combines all of them   and basically gives you a project that you have  to work on um i would if you if you have taken the   seventh course i would highly recommend you finish  the eighth one as well because this could be   very very useful in terms of like applying what  you have learned um and also like it can prepare   you for what you have to do after the course  which i'm gonna talk about next so okay so   that's before we go talk about that let's see so  you get a certificate by the end of finishing all   the courses okay i wanted to show you some of the  courses that i have played around with so there   are few courses that i actually played around  with because i wanted to see what's in there   i was not part of every course in the certificate  i was only part of the few of them um so i wanted   to like see for myself how it worked specifically  one of the one of the course that really intrigued   me was processing data from ready to clean  so i wanted to see how it looks from within   so um as you can see that it's uh structured  in like weekly formats so there's like week one   you have some focused videos you have some videos  some readings uh some discussion prompts with like   the people who other people who are taking  the course refresher which is interesting   oh this is also some reading so it basically  has like each each week has different models   and at the end of each week there is like a  test there is a quiz that you have to take   and there's a weekly challenge if you are taking  this course please please please do not skip any   of the quizzes as well as the weekly challenges  because if you really want to take advantage of   the course 100 you have to do this all these  steps to take advantage of it so one of the   other course that i wanted to show you all is the  the capstone so one thing i didn't show you but um   based on my research one of my favorite  things that i previously talked about is   that actually prepares you about what you need to  do after you have taken the certificate it it not   only teaches you the data core fundamental data  fundamentals but it also talks about interviewing   it also talks about like resume prep um it also  talks about like negotiation and i thought like   which which is super awesome that they're doing  that because no other course go into that level   of detail because that's like let's think about it  like it's actually not part of the data analytics   course curriculum but google really wants you to  be successful after you have taken this course   so they are basically giving you tools and tips  in terms of like how to take this certificate   go into the real world and actually interview for  the job and be successful and i think that what   makes it a super com comprehensive course that  it goes from teaching from core fundamentals   to actually talking about like leveraging what  you have learned and then taking it to the real   world and actually getting something out of the  course which is super amazing love that to the   core like i love it like i'm gonna take the course  just for the sake of watching the mock interviews   um because those are like pretty cool because um  one video i was watching where so there is a mock   interview that they have videotaped where they're  asking questions and then the person is answering   so there's like a whole kind of like a demo that  is done for you in terms of what to expect in a   data interview as well as in terms of um when you  get the job offer like how you should negotiate   um and in one of the in one of the negotiation  tips they shared that like you can use the salary   that we have mentioned which is the 68 thousand  dollars and you can like the person actually who   is negotiating she actually does it in the mock  and she's like but google said that a certificate   mentioned that this is the typical salary this  is the market value so i want this much money   and i thought like if you have been following  me on ig you know how passionate i am about   like salary negotiation especially for women  because a lot of women don't negotiate so   i love that they are giving everybody tools  and tips to go out in the real world and   not only apply their data skills but actually get  paid for it fairly so clap double clap for that   okay so some of my tips for taking this course  and pretty much any other course that you are   taking on corsair or any of the online tools avoid  number one is avoid the tutorial trap okay so this   term i heard it on twitter i was looking at on  google like there's no specific definition for it   so a tutorial trap is basically you keep watching  tutorials after tutorials and it seems like when   you watch it it seems like you actually got the  idea and you have you mastered it but when you   start doing it when you go back to when you go to  the real world and you start applying those skills   you are actually not able to apply it so that's  called tutorial trap because it your mind thinks   that you have you have learned it by just watching  that video but you have actually not so one way to   avoid the tutorial trap is to actually practice  what you learn and that's why i was talking   about like why it's so important to take all those  quizzes and do all those weekly challenges because   that's going to make the knowledge stick with you  for the long term definitely let me do all the   all the practical challenges that the course has  the second is in addition to the what the course   challenges are given in addition go after the  after finishing the course do additional projects   in the data analytics domain apply what you  learned do a couple of projects that will not   only give you the practical knowledge but it will  also give you a project that you can list on your   resume and build a portfolio around it it's  only going to help you so avoid the tutorial   trap by completing all the course quizzes course  challenges and then after finishing the course   apply what you have learned and build a project  portfolio i'm telling you that will just help   you and build your portfolio even more stronger so  it's a win-win situation and it's it's going it's   going to be time consuming but it's going to be  beneficial for you in the long term okay my second   tip for taking the course is that really take  advantage of the discussion forums meet the people   who are all also taking the course not a lot of  people do that but that's going to be a great way   for you to build your network because people who  are taking this course eventually they're going   to be in the industry and they're going to be  at different companies so if you are leveraging   the discussion forums here and building those  connections building that network it's going to   help you in the long term so make sure to do that  that's my second tip and my last tip is that don't   rush it and this is related to number one but  don't rush it take it slow if there's something   that you don't understand maybe like watch some  additional um read additional material uh watch   something watch another tutorial so i shared a  lot of good things about the course you can tell   from my from my thoughts that i actually love the  course if this was this course was offered when i   was starting in in the data world i would have 100  taken this course taken advantage of this course   the data science job family was pretty new at that  point so it was not as built out as it is today   so there's a lot of knowledge at your disposal  that you can take advantage of today than i was   able to do like 10 years back so so let's talk  about like what could be better with the course   um i think a few things number one is i think  i've talked about it before is python python is   very very important especially if your ultimate  goal is to be a data scientist and work in a in a   data science environment where you want to build  models and that sort of things python is very   important because r as i mentioned previously is  not as scalable compared to python and especially   when you're working with dev teams your job is  much easier and their job is much easier when you   are working on in a programming language that is  understood by everyone um the second is obviously   this course is by google so there is a um a lot  of tools um and so primarily the tools that are   mentioned and discussed are somewhat google-heavy  so this could be a concern for a few people   and number three is that it's it's not really  a negative but rather a request for google to   maybe to consider building a part two of the  course that is more advanced analytics so people   who have taken this course and if they want  to build their skill set further they can take   that course but i'm sure there's a lot of other  courses in the market that you can go and take   after this one to build your skill set  further and that brings me to my last point   let's say if google's data analytics certificate  is something that you don't want to pursue there   are a few other options that i think are pretty  good introductory data analytics certificates   so there are two options that i i would love  to share one is data analytics for basics for   everyone by ibm this is a very comprehensive  course i've recommended it to a lot of people   before google's data analytics certificate came  out if you want to check it out later go for it um   and so that's one course the second course is the  data analyst associates by microsoft this is also   a decent course the only thing i would say is that  for this one similar to the google data analytics   course is that it's very microsoft heavy and  i guess like that's that's one of the one of   the negatives for any courses that is built by a  company that has their own technologies and their   own cloud services that it's going to emphasize on  their technologies so that's something to keep in   mind um regardless of which course you will decide  to go with the last thing i want to mention is   if you cannot let's say if you cannot  afford the google data analytics record   um consider applying to corsair's financial aid i  have talked about it on instagram on my instagram   page quite a bit and a lot of people have applied  and have received their financial aid so if you   are not aware of it i'll do another video or  you can go to my instagram page and see how   you can apply for the crusader financial aid you  just have to fill out a couple of questionnaires   and coursera responds back to you in 14 days  and most of the people i don't want to claim   everybody but most of the people who have applied  for the financial aid have received it and um   one thing to note here the financial aid is per  course so let's say there are eight courses in the   certificate one financial aid application would  apply to only one of the eight courses so you will   have to apply again so that's something to keep in  mind if you're considering applying for financial   aid program awesome so that's all i had for today  thank you so much for watching today's video   i hope it was useful in terms of hating about the  certificate itself and hearing thoughts from my   industry leader so let me know if you have any  other questions any questions that i did not   answer in this video feel free to leave it in the  comments i'll try to do my best to answer as many   questions as possible and with that thank you  so much for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: Sundas Khalid

Views: 184,100

Keywords: data science, google data analytics certificate, coursera, dataanalyst, data scientist, self-taugh data scientist, tech jobs, amazon, women in tech, big tech, google, statistics, machine learning, sql, python, data courses, getting into data science, data analyst course

Id: yQNAooLLkzE

Length: 25min 38sec (1538 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021