Traditionally, college has been the main route to obtaining a good paying job, excluding blue collar jobs. However, this is no longer the case.

The eLearning market has been booming over the past decade making it possible to teach yourself skills like data analytics, graphic design, software development, etc. without a college degree. Using YouTube and the many available online learning platforms, a self-disciplined individual can teach herself valuable skills without the same time and monetary commitment.

Although just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Typically, college students spend 15 hours a week learning in the classroom and 10-30 hours a week working outside of the classroom. Over four years, this adds up to a lot of learning. This doesn’t even include valuable networking, presenting experience, and campus involvement also included in the college experience.

So, while you can learn the same skills taught in college, you need to work very hard and have incredible self-discipline to outwork college students.

But it can be done!

In order to break into data analytics, you need to learn the skills (SQL, Excel, and Tableau or Power BI). Then you need to create SQL and visualization portfolios and optimize your resume and Linked In. Last, you need to learn how to reach out to recruiters and apply for jobs effectively, interview well, and land jobs. To learn more about how to do these things, check out my previous blog post HERE.

“How long does this process take?” you ask. This question is impossible to answer as there are many variables including time available to work, education background, employment background, and other transferrable skills like writing and speaking. But I will do my best to answer.

To learn the skills, SQL will take the longest. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll learn in one night of working through a course like the free Khan Academy SQL course. To be comfortable enough with SQL to interview, I’d say 2-4 weeks of daily work depending on how much time you can dedicate to learning would be sufficient.

For Tableau, you can learn a lot of the basics in a night, but a good week of dedicated work watching videos, playing around in Tableau Public, and completing a project should get you confident enough to interview.

For Excel, any previous experience can help. Study up on some basic functions, but Excel is more user friendly and easy to pick up and troubleshoot issues.

Building portfolios may take a week or two depending on the approach you take but can be done within the process of learning SQL and Tableau. Optimizing your resume and optimizing your Linked In can both be completed within night.

The most indefinite part of breaking into data without a degree is the application process. This is where timelines can really vary. Many online job postings get hundreds or even thousands of applications, so many applications will automatically get filtered out by computers often using college degree as a criterion. My hope is that this won’t always be the case, but it is now.

You should still apply for jobs. Do long form applications instead of quick apply, include cover letters, and curate your resume for each individual job you apply for by including language in it that is included in the job posting. Another way to creatively land interviews is to learn how to politely reach out to job recruiters.

Again, this part of the process is hard to time because everyone will have different levels of resumes, portfolios, writing skills, talking skills, work ethics, time commitments, so I can’t give a good one-size-fits-all timeline.

Some might be able to land a data job in a few weeks or months. But, even if it took a whole year to land a data job, you still spent way less time and money to do so than someone who went to college.

Let me be clear: college is incredibly valuable. I loved college and got a lot out of it, and I think anyone who wants to go to college should go. However, not everyone has the ability to go to college.

This combined with the increasing access, quality, and affordability of online education is why I advocate for individuals teaching themselves these skills and employers to hire these individuals if they know the skills as well or better than college graduates. If you’re persistent and develop a love for learning, you will eventually break into data analytics.

Thanks for reading!

If you’re interested in teaching yourself to become a data analyst, check out my social media below for more info.

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