Last week I had the pleasure of joining the How to Get an Analytics Job Podcast with John David Ariansen.

If you haven't checked them out, you really should. They put out some really great content that anyone trying to learn analytics and break into a data career will benefit from.

It was a really fun discussion. The topic was How I would learn Analytics, if I had to start over.

Sound interesting?

If you're trying to learn analytics, or are just curious about our conversation, you can find a quick summary here. You can also see the full video at the bottom of this blog post.

We started our conversation talking about aspiring analysts building project portfolios... why they are so valuable, what goes into them, and what the most common platforms are for putting them together to show off your work.

Then John David asked me what I would change about my Analytics career. I told him I would have been more deliberate about planning out my career. I would have written a formal career growth plan and a formal learning plan. Plus, I would have looked for experts to learn from earlier on. And probably no surprise, I would have started learning SQL earlier :)

We talked about some of the places aspiring Analysts can start learning analytics today, and here were the things that came up...

• The LinkedIn data community (it's huge now. Get on there!)

• YouTube videos from experts (like the How to Get an Analytics Job Podcast)

• Books (I read Avinash back when I was getting started and he is fantastic)

• I didn't say online courses. Can you believe that?! (I should have. Online courses are great and I wish I had access to them when I was starting out)

The short of it is, look for mentors. Find the people who are where you want to be, and learn how they got there. Today, there are so many people giving away great information for free, that it's never been easier to start learning.

Next, we talked about Maven's monthly challenges, how folks are using them to practice, to learn from the community, to build their personal brands, and even to land jobs with the projects they have worked on. John David also has an the upcoming challenge for anyone who participates in his Marketing Analytics course, and he's offering to personally give detailed feedback to all participants. That's a really cool offer!

Then Hunter, one of John David's students who helps him with the podcast, presented a marketing dashboard which I ripped to pieces. Just kidding, he was pretty solid already, but I did offer some pointers. He is definitely much better than I was as a junior in college. Keep an eye on this guy.

Finally we talked about Maven's data analyst bootcamp (now evolved into our Cohort Learning program).

You can check out the full show below.

This really was a lot of fun. Maybe we should start our own Podcast at Maven?

September 2024 Update:

If you enjoyed this conversation, then you definitely don't want to miss our Mavens of Data event on October 17th:

In this live show, John David Ariansen will talk about the state of hiring, his recent experience in the job market, what employers are looking for, and how you can stand out and set yourself up for success.

You’ll leave the show with a good understanding of the current market, and some practical and actionable tips you can use to land your next data role.

Hope to see you there!