Spring is in the Air

Hire Mark

Why Hire Mark ?

IBM Data Analyst

By

Mark Hart

in

I took the IBM Data Analyst course on a whim and with the very weak idea that it was a service I could offer H3 Web Elements clients or do some freelancing on the side. It was probably also influenced by my boss, who had on more than one occasion mentioned the bright future of data analytics and data science in corporate America. So, one cold January evening in Oklahoma, I stumbled across the Coursera course and thought – It can’t hurt too much. To tell you the truth I was not sure what it was, but I knew that it was a skillset that would help my career. 
 
Turns out that it is something that I really enjoyed. Who knew that data and graphs would be so enjoyable. Things I learned: 

  • Got a reason to play with some Python and learned some new packages –
    • NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, SciPy, Scikit-learn, Statsmodels, and Plotly.
  • Jupiter notebooks – I think if used with a pipenv shell, will reduce the number of pipenv environments on my machine.
  • Remembered things I had forgotten about Excel
    • Dont recall graphs being this easy in Excel 5.0 – was thankful 🙂
    • Using some of that knowledge from my time as a chemistry major and all the multiple semesters I spent in Dr. Don McGurk labs
  • Got a little experience with IBM’s Cognos and Google Looker Studio.
    • I actually chose to do my capstone in Google Looker Studio, because I felt that it better aligned with my idea to offer my skillset as a service. Cognos seemed a more aligned with enterprise level audiences.

The course was informative and there were some places where it was challenging. The capstone in particular was difficult not because of the task but because the data was inconsistent with the instructions. After I finally looked into the forums where students could ask questions, I discovered that I was not the only one having issues. Others were too and that made me feel good. The issue seemed to stem from a recent change in the dataset being used and coursework had not been updated as fast. Thinking back – it explains why some of the courses were locked for a bit.

I was once told by a wise woman that if you did not have pictures then it didn’t happen. Now she was referring to her son’s and mine fishing efforts, but I think it is pretty solid advice. Following that advice, I have included my capstone and a photo of my certificate below. You can also
View the certificate here.

I enjoyed the course enough that I am taking another course in the subject area, which should hopefully take a short time, then I will reassess if getting a Microsoft Power Bi certification (pl-300) is the next step or the Microsoft Cyber Security Associate (AZ-500).

Overall the course did not disappoint, I do not feel that I wasted any time or money obtaining the certification. I am geek enough that I will use the information I learned in my personal life for fun. I have already found a python package using the NBA’s API for stats 🤓😁. I actually found it and started playing with it while taking this course.

I give the IBM Data Analyst course 3.75 graphs out of 5.

Capstone Power Point Presentation

Dashboard

Certificate

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