Coursera

Intro

In case you haven’t heard of it, coursera is an online learning platform that host classes and certifications sposored by many large tech companies. Coursera offers many classes for a monthly subscription fee. The site is aimed at anyone that is trying to learn on their own time and pace.

For the record I am not sponored by Coursera, although it would be nice, but I have used them in order to learn about Data Analytics. Having worked towards the Google Data Analytics certificate, I feel that I have a nice grasp of the site and it’s potential.

What They Offer

The price of admission for coursera plus starts at around $60 a month or $400 per year, however you can find discounted rates throughout the year. For this price you get access to their course catalog and the ability to work towards certifications that can pad a resume.

Most of their coursework is designed for those in the middle of a career change or job hunt. They claim to be able to get you into a new career within 6 months. In reality a career change may take years or require more than just a certificate from an online institution. What you really get though is the knowledge and ability to talk to what you have learned. Being able to explain data analysis concepts to a potential employer will get you a lot further than a look of confusion. That being said, how in depth does their training go, and is it enough to land a job?

My Personal Experience

At the time of writing this I am currently on Course 3 of the Google Data Analytics certificate. The coursework so far has been quiet basic. This is a spreadsheet, this is SQL, this is root cause analysis, blah blah blah… This is useful information and I don’t want to knock it. The information is conveyed to the beginner as it should be. That being said, if you are at all knowledgable about data or tech then you will be a bit bored.

>Why am I doing this course work?

Believe it or not, I need money to survive. Between the car payments, food, power, internet, water, rent and other expenses, money is needed to sustain my current lifestyle. Having worked retail for many years, my college degrees are somewhat less relavant and without a ton of experience or advanced degrees it is hard to find tech work.

The simple answer is that I am hoping to grab a data analytics job either locally or remotely. Hopefully this will pay off. I would like to be financially stable again and we’ll see if this is at all helpful. After spending a couple of years learning and applying to jobs I need to commit to something other than GitHub. Working with data is fun and so is the analysis part of it. Only time will tell if this provides an opportunity for employment.

>What I would like to learn

I would like to eventually get a year subscription to get the Meta Front-End and Back-End Developer certs.