April 2022, I got a scholarship from Ingressive For Good with a license to study any course I wanted on Datacamp — I got to work immediately and started learning.
At first, I was loving the flexibility of learning that Datacamp offers which was different from what I experienced when I was with ALX learning software engineering.
Truth is, I had no direction and I didn’t know how to navigate Datacamp to get the best out of it.
I later signed up for a career track months later — I signed up for “Data Scientist with Python” and hoped for the best.
My license from Ingressives was to last for six months and my license was soon to be expired and I was no where near getting certified for any career track. I started looking for smaller career tracks with lower hours to be dedicated for learning. At the end, I went for “Data Analyst with Python” and once again, hoped for the best.
Python was a hard nut to crack and at some point, I gave up. I was still learning bit by bit because my license was renewed but the enthusiasm was no longer there — I stayed a day away from learning and soon, the day turned to weeks and into months and that’s how I drifted away from the world of data.
2023, I was in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as a freshman and online learning became more out of reach for me.
I stayed a day away from learning and soon, the day turned to weeks and into months and that’s how I drifted away from the world of data.
Things were still bleak until July 8th. I was listening to Data Career Podcast by Avery Smith on Spotify and he mentioned in one of the episodes that Python is not a prerequisite for a career in Data Analytics and beginners should learn Data Analysis and Visualization tools first which would take at least three months before going onto Python that takes longer to learn.
That moment was the turning point — I was writing my final exams for the academic year when I came across that podcast and this time, I didn’t rush into it like I used to do.
Python is not a prerequisite for a career in Data Analytics and beginners should learn Data Analysis and Visualization tools first which would take at least three months before going onto Python that takes longer to learn.
I waited till I finished my Exams in August before signing up with Datacamp to learn “Data Analytics with Power BI” — before I signed up, I had made various inquiries, read articles and prepared myself mentally for it.
August 24th, I signed up to learn Power BI with Datacamp and made a post on my social media platforms announcing that I will be starting a new Career track in Business Intelligence — this to make them hold me accountable if I fall off the track. I promised to update regularly on the progress of my learning and I have done that for eight days now.
This morning, I completed my first Microsoft Power BI course — did it within 8 days of learning.
In this course;
- I loaded multiple datasets into Data view.
- I built a data model to make relationships between my tables in Model view.
- I created my first interactive report in Report view.
- I practiced how to use Power Query Editor to prepare and clean my data for analysis.
- I changed and formatted a wide range of visualizations.
- I created hierarchies and initiated drill down paths in my report.
Finally, I gained skills in sorting, filtering, and controlling interactivity.
August was nice. September will be nicer.
Well done Emmanuel.
You are doing great ❤️