 Is the deep learning specialization actually worth it? That's what we're going to be talking about in this video. So this is a course that is hosted on Coursera and it's by Andrew Ng. And yes, I know I may be getting his name wrong. I'm sure there's people probably furiously typing in the comments section right now. You didn't pronounce his name right. I'm sorry, but this guy basically is an absolute gigachat of a human being. He's extremely well known in the artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning community. He's been a top level employee at several companies. He started several companies of his own. He's an adjunct professor at Stanford University. He's also been involved with some really impressive projects. The dude is just freaking awesome. And he really knows his stuff when it comes to deep learning. Now you've probably watched videos on Coursera specializations on YouTube. Of course, I have as well. And in this video, I'm going to reveal some things that I haven't seen anybody else talk about when it comes to these specializations. And one of them is basically a cheat code. It's a cheat code that my students have been using that I don't see pretty much anybody else talking about. And on top of that, we're going to be going over the really important elements of this certification, like the time to completion, the cost, the demand of the jobs that you might go into, the salary of the jobs you might go into, the production value and engagement of the course, the chances that the course is going to land you a job and the overall value that the course offers. And I'm going to rank all those categories from 1 to 10. And at the very end, I am going to give you a final score. So if you appreciate me doing videos like this, go ahead, let me know by gently tapping that like button. And let's get into it. All right, so a quick little overview of the course. It's called the deep learning specialization. Become a machine learning expert. Master the fundamentals of deep learning and break into AI. Recently updated with cutting edge techniques. Now keep in mind, this is an intermediate level course. And it takes approximately five months to complete. So a lot of the Coursera courses that I've talked about on this channel, because there's a lot of really good ones, typically are beginner level. This one is not beginner level. You do have to have a bit of a background in programming in order to take it. So for instance, they expect you to have intermediate Python experience. And they recommend that you have basic knowledge of linear algebra and an understanding of machine learning concepts. Now there is another Coursera course on machine learning that you can also take and that one is beginner level. So typically speaking, it would be recommended to take that course first. Now also keep in mind, this is hosted on Coursera and they do cost about $49 a month, although there is a seven day free trial. If you cannot afford the course, they typically do have some sort of financial aid options, which is awesome. And this course can be taken by anybody, anywhere in the world. And I will put a link down to the course, down in the description as well as the pinned comment below. And the price is $49 a month in the United States, but if you're from another country, it may actually be different. And the reason for that is because the price changes based on geolocation. So if you want to check how much it costs for you, where you are, go ahead, click the link. I'll put it down in the description as well as the pinned comment below. Now also keep in mind, this is a 100% online course and it has a flexible schedule. So there are certain deadlines in this course, but it is relatively flexible. Now I'm not going to lie, this is some extremely big brain stuff, right? This is not some kind of easy entry level IT sort of thing that you can get into. This stuff is extremely complicated. A lot of the time people who go into machine learning, deep learning, artificial intelligence, not only do they have bachelor's degrees in computer science or sometimes other degrees, but in many cases they'll have masters or even doctorates. Now there are five total courses in this specialization. So the first one is neural networks and deep learning. Second one is improving deep neural networks, hyper parameter tuning, regularization, and optimization. Three is structuring machine learning projects. Course four is convolutional neural networks. And course five is sequence models. So now let's go ahead and talk about the time to completion. So they say it takes approximately five months to complete, but most of the self reporting shows that it's actually quite a bit faster than that. So these people were talking about getting it done really quickly, but they also had machine learning and deep learning experience already. This person said that it would take about four to five weeks. And this person finished it in about two weeks. So if you compare this to something like a boot camp that takes typically three months to 12 months or a college degree that takes somewhere around five years, it is much, much faster. But that is an apples to oranges comparison because these things are not the same. But with that being said, this is a very quick way for you to learn quite a bit about deep learning and get a certificate that shows that you know yourself. And so this is a great way for you to, for instance, if you're already a software developer and you're thinking about going into machine learning, it's a great way for you to dip your toe in, right? You don't have to go to grad school or go to some super expensive boot camp. You can take this Coursera course, see if it's something you like and dip your toe in it. So when it comes to the time to completion, no brainer here, it is a 10 out of 10. Next, let's talk about the cost. Now Coursera is about $49 a month. Like I said, it's going to take you probably, let's go ahead and say like three months. And so it's probably going to cost you about $150. Now I looked up this machine learning boot camp right here and they charge about $8,000 for a seven month program. And a college degree, of course, is going to cost about $100,000 and take about 5.1 years. And in many cases, you'd probably go back and get your master's degree so that would be another two years. So like I said here, great way for you to cheaply and easily dip your toe into something, see if you like it and not have to risk much time, effort or money. Now they do have a seven day free trial so you can try it out completely free for seven days. And like I said before, financial aid is available if you cannot afford the course. So for instance, this person commented on Reddit, I'm one of those guys who have benefited from the financial aid option of Coursera and deep learning specialization. And I'm very indebted to Andrew Ng for that. Hope I'll teach unknown people about it and give back as much as I can. So the only appropriate ranking here for something that is so incredibly affordable compared to anything else that is even remotely close to it is going to be a 10 out of 10 ranking. I submitted something fishy. Now don't worry, I'm not going to give everything 10 out of 10. In fact, the next one does take quite a bit of a hit and that is demand. So the demand specifically for the types of careers that this would lead to you going into. Now, first of all, the learner career outcomes, it says 30% of people started a new career after completing this specialization and 11% got a pay increase or promotion. Now, according to simplylearn.com, deep learning related careers are actually growing 50% faster than other IT related careers. Now, when you type in deep learning on LinkedIn at the entry level, you're only going to see about 261 results. But when you type in something like natural language processing engineer, you're going to see 3,800 results. If you type in data engineer, which is another career you might go into, you're going to see around 56,000 results. So you do have some mixed results there. On BLS, there's computer and information research scientists. There's 33,000 jobs and it's growing at 21%, which is much faster than average. But they do lump in a bunch of different careers that don't necessarily have anything to do with deep learning. So overall, I do see trends of deep learning becoming more and more popular and there being more and more demand for it. But right now it's one of those things that isn't absolutely popping off like some of the other careers that I mentioned on this channel. But with that being said, if you are a deep learning expert, I don't think you're going to have to worry too much about being unemployed. But you might be doing something else other than deep learning specifically. But I am going to give this one an 8.5 out of 10 overall when it comes to the demand. Next, let's go ahead and talk about the money. We're going to talk about the salary you might make in some of these positions. So again, computer and information research engineer. On BLS, they make about $131,000 a year. You type in deep learning engineer on Glassdoor. You're going to see $138,000 a year for the results. If you type in natural language processing engineer, you're going to see $101,000 a year on Glassdoor. And if you type in deep learning scientist, you're going to see $140,000 a year. So looking at these salaries presented, this one is a no brainer. If you are able to land a job in this industry, it is definitely a 10 out of 10. Next, let's go ahead and talk about the production value of the course and the engagement. So here are the instructors, of course, Andrew Ng. Then you've got these other two people who are also experts. Now overall, the feedback on this is quite good. I'll pop up some feedback. You can pause the video if you'd like. Some people said that it wasn't deep enough. For those people, I mean, I don't know. Maybe they're already deep learning experts, but this is going to be pretty deep for the average person. Like keep in mind, this is an intermediate level course. You know, some people said he didn't go deep enough on the mathematics is a little too surface level. But overall, really good feedback on this one. Across the internet, I'm going to give it a 9 out of 10. Next, let's talk about the chances of landing you a job. And this is where it's going to take a pretty big hit. Now it says the career outcomes are, you know, 30% of people who took this started a new career after completing this specialization. And then 11% got a pay increase or promotion. Now there is no information on there about whether that was directly attributed to the certificate or certification. You know, people change jobs all the time. So they could have just happened to be changing their job after they took the cert. Now that being said, here is one that I found where it says, how did your job prospects change after taking Andrew Ng's deep learning course? Short answer, massively long answer. I had been learning machine learning for a while, but I was nowhere near good enough for a job. Then I took Andrew Ng's course on both machine learning and deep learning. That's when everything changed. My understanding of the topics grew to a different level. I now understand when to use what and why I was using it. After a few weeks of constant practice, I felt ready to apply to interviews and some went really well and others didn't. But the way I answered technical questions throughout the interviews were on point. Long story short, I got an offer and now I work as a machine learning engineer. So this kind of shows that this person already had quite a bit of experience in machine learning. So they probably were studying it on the side. They probably took a bunch of classes, maybe on Udemy or free classes on YouTube, for instance. But they didn't feel like they were quite ready to become a pro. And so what did they do? They went to Coursera. They took the machine learning course by Andrew Ng and then the deep learning course. Now the machine learning course is an entry level course. The deep learning course, like I mentioned before, is intermediate. And then after that, they felt like they were actually ready to start applying to jobs and become a pro. So this shows you this is definitely not one of those courses that is going to land the average person a job because the average person does not know much about machine learning and deep learning. Now this course did get a 4.8 out of 5 star rating with hundreds of thousands of people that have taken it. But with that being said, there are some comments on the internet that say that it's not as good as some people make it out to be. So for instance, this person says, no, getting a job besides your own, hopefully fully loaded, learning track and plan has also got to do with things like who you know, where you're living, and then learning more skills than just data science. And they do say at the end, and still I think Andrew's course is important to follow because it gives you the opportunity to learn from a very passionate person. This next person says, no, you can't. The answer is that simple. You can't. Let me explain. You completed a specialization, which means that you completed one course at a graduate level, one single course. That is how much a Coursera specialization aggregates too. This person gives me massive boomer vibes. I'm just going to say that, not trying to be mean, but they give me massive boomer vibes when they say, no, you can't do that. You can't do that. Like I cannot tell you how many times I've heard people say, you know, you can't do something. And then five minutes later, like I see people actually doing it or I do it myself. You know, people say, oh, you have to go to college to get a good job. And then I get people jobs in 10 days, right? And it's like these jobs pay as much as a job you would have gotten graduating from college. But with that being said, he probably does have a bit of a point here. Chances are if you're a normal person, even if you're like a software developer and you take the machine learning and the deep learning specialization, it's still not going to be enough to land you a job. You're still going to have to do more after that. You're going to have to build a great portfolio, make a bunch of projects, practice quite a bit. And then that along with these specializations will likely get you a job. So overall, I'm going to give the chances of landing you a job a 6.5 out of 10. And then finally, let's talk about what the overall value the certificate offers is. So first of all, I'll talk about a ranking that I saw on the internet for the best Coursera certifications and specifically the best certifications for machine learning and deep learning. And of course, Andrew Ng's courses came out on top. So machine learning was first and then deep learning was second. And like I said, the overall sentiment on the internet, whether you look at YouTube, YouTube comments, Reddit comments, Cora comments, random forums, et cetera, is very positive about the course. So like I said, I'll have some of those pop up on the screen. You can read them if you'd like. And I always like to mention here, keep in mind the risk and reward perspective. So you're really not risking much here, right? You're risking a tiny amount of money, like $150, not that much time and not all that much effort. And the potential reward here is very high. And then another thing that's great is a lot of people who take this specialization probably just want to try it out. They're thinking about going into machine learning or deep learning, but they want to dip their toe in and try it out to see if it's something that they really would enjoy doing. And this is probably one of the only ways you can do that that has that massive upside. Now, one other thing I'll mention here is after you finish these certifications, you can actually put them on your resume, of course, but also on your LinkedIn. And what I have found is having these certificates on your LinkedIn is like a cheat code, right? You have to do it right. You have to actually put it as a certificate and make sure you put it as a batch. And it's also a good idea to do an update about it. And you can even say that you're taking the course before you've even finished it. So make sure you look up how to do that properly if you do this. But in many cases, recruiters, hiring managers, et cetera, will actually reach out to you if you have this certificate on your LinkedIn profile. And this is the freaking cheat code of the century. I cannot tell you how much positive feedback I've gotten from this. So overall, the value here is undeniable, especially when you compare it to other educational options. This one gets a 10 out of 10. So the overall score when you add it all up and you divide is going to be 9.14 out of 10. That is an excellent score. So this gets two massive thumbs up from me. Is it for everybody? Of course not. But if you're somebody who's looking to get into machine learning, deep learning, et cetera, this can be phenomenal. Now make sure you check out this video right here where I talk about my favorite top five Google certs.