How to Choose a Data Science Course Wisely- Stepwise Guide!

So, you are planning to enroll in Data Science Course?. Great Decision!. But wait…before buying a data science course, you need to remember some important points. That’s why, in this article, I am gonna tell you How to Choose a data science course that’s right for you. So follow these steps before enrolling in any data science course.

So, without further ado, let’s get started and learn How to Choose a data science course–

How to Choose a Data Science Course?

A good data Science course has Practical sessions, Highly Experienced Instructors, Industry-ready updated syllabus, Hands-On Projects, and flextime.

But more important is What you want to learn?. This means the Data Science field is very vast. And there are various roles available like Data Scientist, Data Analyst, Data Engineer, and so on.

So, the first step is-

Step 1. To Be Sure on Which Data Science Field, You want to Specialize

So first make sure, in which role you are interested and want to start your career. All roles have different responsibilities like a Data Engineer is a person who collects, move, store, and pre-process the data for Data Scientist and Data Analyst.

And Data Analyst is a person who analyzes the data and represents the valuable findings from that data in a visual form.

Whereas Data scientists are analytical experts who make use of their skills in both technology and social science to find trends and manage data.

So if you are not clear in which data science field you want to specialize in, the course will become disordered for you. And you don’t have an idea what you are learning and why you are learning.

That’s why draw a clear objective before enrolling in any data science course. Suppose you want to specialize in Data Analytics, then check out the roles and responsibilities of Data analyst, what skills are required for data analyst, and then find out the data analyst courses that will cover all essential topics.

In order to know the skills required for different data science roles, first check out this article- Skills & Salary of Data Scientist, Data Analyst, and Data Engineer.

Step 2. Be Honest with Your Current Skills

So now you identified the skills required for your desired role. It’s time to check what skills you don’t have. At this stage, don’t pretend, accept what you don’t know.

Suppose if you want to be a Data Scientist, and you know Math is required and you think I studied math in school and that’s enough for data science. Then Sorry! You are not honest with yourself. Having the acceptance and persistence to learn new skills no matter how daunting they may be is important.

Being self-aware of your skills will help you to focus on what you need to learn more than the rest. This will help you to become a skilled Data Scientist or Data Analyst compared to others in the market.

Another benefit of being aware of your skills is that you will prioritize the courses and decide which course you need to take first. If you complete courses based on your priority, then you will not feel disordered.

Step 3. Choose between Online Course and Offline Course

This totally depends upon you and your budget and availability. But at this point, I am a little biased with Online Courses. Why?

Because Online Courses provide lifetime access to the course materials. Suppose if you don’t understand any concept, then you can watch the video multiple times. This facility is not available in Offline Course. You can’t ask the instructor to teach multiple times the same concept.

Another benefit of online learning is you can learn at your own pace and time. You are not restricted to reach the classroom at a fixed time.

The next benefit of Online Courses is most of the platforms like Coursera and Udemy provides courses at affordable prices. Whereas Offline Courses are expensive and not everyone can afford these courses.

Like Coursera provides 7 Day Free Full Access Trial, so you can enroll in the free course and if you find the course useful then only you need to pay for the rest of the course.

The next benefit of Online Courses is you can learn from Highly Experienced Instructors from all around the World in your own house.

Step 4. Research…Research…Research

At this stage, you know the Data Science role in which you want to start your career, you are aware of your skills, and you are sure between Online Course and Offline Course.

Now, it’s time to start looking for the course that will fulfill your requirements and provide complete data science knowledge.

At this step, you need to check following points in the course-

1. Industry-Ready Updated Syllabus

This is very important to check the syllabus of the course. Make sure the syllabus topics are relevant to the industry demand. Like a Data Scientist should have strong knowledge of statistics, math, programming knowledge (R or Python), and machine learning.

So you need to check whether the course covers all essential topics or not. A good Data Science course covers all important topics from basic to advanced levels.

The best trick to check the relevancy of the syllabus is to search for Data Science Jobs and then go for the Skills Required section. Match the course syllabus with the skills listed in the Data Science Job description. If 80 to 90% of the syllabus is matched with skills, then you can go for the course.

Many courses mentioned the “Skills Gain” section separately. Like in IBM Data Science Professional Certificate, you can see they mentioned clearly what skills you will gain. So you can match those skills with industry skills. And then decide to enroll.

2. Practical Sessions

In order to become a Data Scientist, Data Analyst, or Data Engineer, theoretical knowledge is not enough. You should have a good practical understanding of the concepts.

A good data science course provides enough practical sessions so that you can solve real-world problems. That’s why before enrolling in a course, make sure that they will provide a good amount of Practical Session.

3. Experience of Instructor or Trainer

This is another very important point to check before enrolling in a course. An experienced instructor can provide you more value than the normal one.

But as the scope of data science is growing, the number of spam courses are also growing. So you need to be careful. That’s why I will recommend only popular platforms for Data Science Courses like Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, etc.

But if you are going for Offline Course, make sure the trainer should be experienced in data science.

Like in Coursera all courses are from Top Notch Universities and courses are taught by Experienced Instructors.

So in whatever course you are going to enroll make sure the instructors are experienced. Like in IBM Data Science Professional Certificate, all instructors are experienced Data Scientists.

4. Alumni Reviews

Before enrolling in any course, first, check out reviews. But here some platforms or institutions do spam. So don’t go for Google Reviews because most of the reviews are fake and paid. It’s my personal experience. One of the institutes, from where I did Hadoop Certification Training told me to give 5 stars before giving me a Certificate.

So don’t trust on Google Reviews. You can ask in your network about the course or institution. You can check the credibility of the Course by focusing on Reviews Trend.

This means if all reviews are 5 stars or the course is rated but you are not able to see the reviews, then the course is not credible.

The genuine courses shows all type of reviews no matter positive or negative. If not, then the course is not credible and doesn’t go for it.

5. Flextime

The course in which you are planning to enroll must be time flexible. That means you can learn according to your available time. You shouldn’t feel restricted. Why?. Because if you feel restricted you can’t grasp everything. You get bored easily.

That’s why a Flexible Schedule is also an important point to remember while enrolling in any course.

That’s all…

These are some important points you should consider before enrolling in any Data Science Course. Now it’s time to wrap up.

Conclusion

I hope now you have enough understanding of How to Choose a data science course. I tried to explain every important point that you should consider while enrolling in Data Science Course. For your convenience, I have filtered some Best courses for Data Science, Data Analyst, and Data Engineer.

These articles will save your time and help you to choose Best data science course for you.

1. Best Online Courses for Data Science to become A Skilled Data Scientist
2. Data Analyst Online Certification to Become a Successful Data Analyst
3. Best Data Engineering Online Courses
4. 8 Best Online Courses on Big Data Analytics You Need to Know

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comment section. I am here to help you.

All the Best for your Data Science Journey!

Happy Learning!

Thank YOU!

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Though of the Day…

‘ It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.’

– John Wooden