 Is the Microsoft Power BI Data Analytics Professional Certificate actually worth it? That's what we're going to be talking about today, and we are going to be talking about some of the most important aspects of the certificate, like the general overview of it, the time to completion, the cost, the demand, the salary that you would expect to make, the production value of the educational component of the certificate, the chances of you landing a job, and the overall value that it offers. And we're going to be ranking all of these from one to ten and then giving you a final score. So if you appreciate me doing this type of content, let me know by gently tapping that like button and let's jump into it right now. Now, by the way, if you are interested in this certificate, I do have a link down in the description below, you can check it out. I am an affiliate of Coursera. If you decide to use that link, I will get a small amount from it, but I was recommending Coursera products before I was ever affiliated with them because I honestly think they're great. So first of all, let's just talk about the certificate itself and what it's all about. On the website, it says that you can launch your career as a Power BI analyst and you can learn in demand business intelligence skills that will have you job ready in less than five months. And most importantly, no previous experience is required to get started. Now, this is a certificate that's offered by Microsoft, one of the biggest and most well respected companies in the entire world. And you can get started with it and try it out with a seven day free trial. Now, this is a professional certificate program that is hosted on Coursera and it's an eight course series. So first, let's talk about the time to completion. Now, they say on the website, it would take about five months if you did about 10 hours per week. Now, in my experience with these certificates, you can usually finish them much, much faster than what they say on Coursera. So for instance, with the Google IT certificate, a lot of people have talked about how they finished it in well under a month, even though it technically says that it takes like six months. Okay, that sounds pretty good. So I wouldn't be surprised if most people can finish this certificate in under two months. And if you compare this to something like a bootcamp, which typically is going to take anywhere from three months to 12 months, or if you can compare it to a college degree, which takes 5.1 years on average, that's pretty good. So overall, when it comes to the time to completion, I'm going to give this one a nine out of 10. Next, let's talk about the cost. So you can try it out with a seven day free trial. So you can try it out completely free. And let's just say you're able to finish this in two months. Coursera costs about $49 per month. So that would cost you $98. And let's just say worst case scenario, it takes you five months to finish it. That would still be under $250. Now if you compare that to other certificates, for instance, like CompTIA, a lot of the time, those will cost like one to $2,000. If you can compare it to bootcamps, those typically cost between three and $30,000. And if you compare it to the average college degree, that costs over $100,000. And that's not counting opportunity cost as well as the interest that you accrue. If you put that in there, it costs over $500,000. So $98 or $250 worst case scenario is really, really good. And it's probably the most affordable way to learn a realistic skill like this that realistically has an opportunity of getting you a job. So I have to give this one a 10 out of 10. Next, let's talk about demand. So anything that's data related has a ridiculous amount of demand right now. So if you look at BLS, for instance, they group a bunch of different data related careers together, but data scientists, for instance, are growing at about 35% over the next 10 years, which is much, much faster than average. And there's lots of different data related careers on LinkedIn that always have lots of job openings. And this makes complete sense. If you look at all the articles and headlines, they're always saying that data is more valuable than oil or gold, which is completely true. You know, information is power and data is the purest form of information. The most obvious example I can think of is, let's just say you're a football fan and a company is advertising a 49ers jersey, right? 49ers are my favorite team. If they just send it out to a million random people, let's just say they make $100,000. But if you send it out to a million 49ers fans, you're probably going to make something more like $10 million, right? So you're going to make 100x more money if you have that data of knowing that someone is a 49ers fan. That's a very simple example, but I think you get the point. That is why data is so valuable. So when it comes to demand, data is one of the most valuable skills you can learn. I will give this one a nine out of 10 opportunity score. Next, let's talk about salary. So data analysts, according to Glassdoor, make about $77,000 a year. This is one of those entry level jobs that you could get. Data engineer is a higher level job. And in that one, they make about $117,000 a year. But with that being said, the barrier to entry is going to be a bit higher for this one. It is kind of difficult to get a data analyst job at the entry level. Like, you really do have to know your stuff. But if you know your stuff, the salary is very good. I'll give this one an eight out of 10 opportunity score. Now let's talk about the production value and engagement of the course. And since this one just came out, there's not a lot of information out there on it. And also this is extremely subjective in general. But with that being said, the way Coursera does these courses with their professional certificate program, almost all of them are really, really good. They get overwhelmingly positive reviews. Even the ones that are rated lower still get overwhelmingly positive reviews, especially when you consider how affordable it is. So I can't give this one a rating right now. I'll give it question mark out of 10. But with that being said, if you're watching this in the future, just go check it out. They have the reviews right there. You can also look up reviews on Reddit. And typically you're going to see really good things. Next, let's talk about the chances of landing you a job. Now, realistically speaking, when it comes to data related jobs, if you just have the certificate and it's the only thing you have, I'm just being honest, your chances of landing a job are going to be very low. I think it's going to be much smarter if you supplement this with some other skills. And also if you create a really good portfolio. Now the great thing about these professional certificates is they have you do projects. So that is going to be a great way for you to start your portfolio out. But you probably want to take it a little bit further and add to your portfolio on top of this. But some awesome stuff that they do is a resume review. So they review your resume to make sure it looks good. They also give you interview preps to make sure that you're ready for the interviews. And they give you career support. So that on top of expert training on skills that are in demand right now from a company that is one of the most well respected and biggest companies in the world. And from people working at that company that know what skills are really in demand right now, that is super, super valuable. Also a lot of people will be taking this certificate that are working in other careers and they're trying to enhance their skills. So for instance, you might be working in it and you want to add data analytics to your skill set. So in that case, your chances of landing a job would be much higher. But overall when it comes to the chances of landing you a job, I'm going to give this one eight out of 10. Next, let's talk about the overall value that it offers. So first of all, let's go through each course. The course number one is going to be preparing data for analysis with Microsoft Excel. Course number two is harnessing the power of data with Power BI. Course number three is extract, transform and load data in Power BI. Course number four is data modeling in Power BI. Course five is data analysis and visualization with Power BI. Course six is creative designing in Power BI. Course seven is deploy and maintain Power BI assets and capstone project. And course eight is Microsoft PL 300 exam preparation and practice. On top of that, like I mentioned before, they do a resume review interview prep and they do career support and they say what you'll learn is learn to use Power BI to connect data sources and transform them into meaningful insights. They also teach you to prepare Excel data for analysis. They also teach you to create compelling reports and dashboards using Power BI, and they have you demonstrate your new learned skills with a capstone project, along with preparing you for an industry recognized Microsoft PL 300 certification exam. And the overall skills you'll gain here are going to be Microsoft Excel, data analysis, Power BI, Power Query and SQL. And so the overall value that it offers is going to be a very solid eight out of 10. I think on its own, the value is incredible. I think it's going to be especially good if you're already working in the tech industry and you want to add this as a skill set. I do think it's going to be quite difficult for you to get an entry level job if this is the only thing that you do. You definitely want to supplement this with a really good portfolio, try to do some extra projects and also learn some complementary skill sets. But the overall score for this one is a very healthy 8.67 out of 10. And it gets a big thumbs up from me. And overall, I think if you understand the value that certificates and certificate programs provide, you're not going to be disappointed. If you think that this certificate program is a replacement for a college degree, that's just not true. That's like saying a hammer is a replacement for a drill. Hammers and drills are used for completely different things. And if the job requires you to nail something in, then a hammer is going to be great. But if it requires you to screw something in, then you're probably going to want a drill or a screwdriver, right? So as long as you understand what you're getting into and understand the value proposition that provides you, this is going to be a great value for you. And let's be honest, at $49 a month, you're really not risking much here, especially when you can start it off with a seven day free trial. So like I said before, you can check it out on your own by clicking the link down in the description as well as the pen comment below. And I also made a tier list where I went over a bunch of these different certificates that are offered on Coursera. And you can check that out by clicking right here.