Happy to share a recent professional achievement – I have completed the Coursera Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate!

David Gadarian Google Data Analytics Coursera Certificate

I’d like to share a bit about why I took on this endeavor… Essentially to grow my own professional ‘Data Vocabulary’ – so here goes

Data is the new oil – Circa 2006Clive Humby


And perhaps further augmented with visual via the Economist

As a professional marketer, a professional digital marketer, I see data everywhere.  In fact I produce tons of data!  But as I’m observing trends, some from as far back as 2006, and others a bit more modernized and recent (AI, ML, IoT for example) I observed that perhaps my data skills might be good enough for today (and perhaps not), but I’d need to do some upskilling if intend to remain at the forefront of the data-driven world of tomorrow.

So, while I don’t have an intention to career shift fulltime into a data role, analyst or otherwise, I have begun to make some critical investments in my own data vocabulary, with this course being a concrete move in that direction.

About the course… it was a beast.  The initial estimate was six months to complete – it took me closer to nine.  In particular I appreciated the exposure to a number of tools including MySQL, Google Big Query, Tableau and R.  I really enjoyed the visualization components throughout the course, and perhaps most of all the forced push into the world of data in ways that really encouraged me to expand my own world of data possibilities.

And so here goes! Let’s all celebrate the pursuit of new data driven adventures…