What if I told you there’s a field that the BLS says has a $100k+ median pay in 2021, and is expected to have 36% job growth from 2021-2031. Would that field interest you?
Google thought so.
Google has released a series of Professional Certification programs aimed at helping people enter emerging fields, and transition across fields. One of those programs is the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate and is specifically targeted at those getting started in the field of Data Analytics.
The program has more than 100,000 ratings and an average of 4.8/5 stars.
When you finish this article, you will understand what the best and worst parts of this certificate program are, and you will be equipped to decide for yourself if it’s a good fit for you.
I’ve personally taken and completed the certificate; and even though I have experience in this space – I still found it to be a useful set of courses for reinforcing foundations and best practices.
PRO – It is comprehensive & up-to-date.
The course sequence covers the full data-lifecycle, it’s a good high-level view of the entire process.
Here are the names of the courses [as of March 2023]:
- Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere
- Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions
- Prepare Data for Exploration
- Process Data from Dirty to Clean
- Analyze Data to Answer Questions
- Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
- Data Analysis with R Programming
- Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete a Case Study
I particularly appreciate that the sequence starts with talking about data itself, and how to ask good questions. This is ‘the philosophy’ behind it, and I think many overlook.
Additionally, they work to keep these courses up-to-date. They update the courses regularly. I took it a year ago (around 2022) and it has evolved since then. I can notice that there are changes to existing courses, and even one whole additional course was added into the program as well.
CON – It uses R, should’ve used Python.
Unfortunately, a lot of the programs in the Data analytics/science space were all done with a focus on the R programming language. This makes sense because the R language was kind of uniquely positioned to be most effective at scientific-level statistical work. Better than python.
The R language is extremely valuable, but I think with the rise of AI specifically – we are going to see R’s niche place as “the data science language” dissipate.
Python has long been making inroads and now all the renewed interested in AI/ML we are going to see more and more python users.
Dive into Python, it is the future.
PRO – There’s No 3rd Party Platform Hassles.
Several of the other top certificates & specializations in the space require you to use a 3rd party platform, such as IBM for example. When companies do this, it can be really clumsy and it can introduce a lot of ‘environment’ related issues for no reason.
I much prefer programs like this one where the lessons & work are isolated and independent from cloud platforms, rather than having to create accounts, start trials, etc.
You can work in Coursera, or on your desktop, and you aren’t going to waste time dealing with 3rd party platform frustrations.
CON – There’s Not Enough Portfolio Work.
This is probably the weakest area of the course in my opinion.
The issue is that you walk away from the course with not much to show for it in terms of portfolio work. Having portfolio items to show potential employers goes a long way, and it’s unfortunate this wasn’t a bigger part of the program.
You can take what you learn here and apply it to create some portfolio work, but it’s always nice when the course itself walks you through a complicated project.
PRO – It’s Created by Google.
There are 2 reasons why this matters:
1) Everyone knows Google. This brand makes the certificate more valuable since employers will recognize it; rather than for example some kind of no-name course on the same topic.
2) There are things you come to expect from a brand such as Google when it comes to the quality of their products. They put effort into things; they put polish on them. If they are going to put their name on it, it will live up to the Google standard.
You can expect the standard level of Google polish that you are used to, within these courses. On that note, they definitely use high quality teaching resources & the actual course presenters themselves as well do a great job.
PRO – It is Included in Coursera Plus
Another reason this program is a great fit for beginners and those looking to invest in their skill education, and that is — this certificate is INCLUDED in the Coursera Plus program.
Certain high-level certs & specializations are not included in this program… (looking at you DeepLearning.AI) but fortunately this one is.
What this means is you don’t need to buy access to this course individually. You can subscribe to the Plus membership (currently $59/month or $399/yr), and this opens a ton of courses to you on the platform — all at the same time. This program included. I think it is 7,000+ courses at the time of this writing, that are included in the Plus program.
This route is a great deal in my opinion, especially if you have a handful of Plus courses that you are looking to work through in a short amount of time. You can really get your money’s worth in that case if you line them up with downtime in your schedule.