 Well folks, it's time to talk about the elephant in the room. College degrees and specifically how Google professional certificates are making most of them irrelevant. That's right, the diploma that you work tirelessly for, that symbol of education that you wear proudly on your wall, it's great, it's fantastic. Unless of course you end up drowning in student loan debt and you can't find a job in your field. But don't worry because I have a solution for you. Enter Google certificates. This is one of my favorite cheaper, more accessible alternatives to a traditional college degree. So sit back, grab a snack, gently tap that like button, prepared to be underwhelmed by the state of traditional college education, but prepared to be impressed by Google certificates. And let's get into it right now. Number seven is going to be the Google digital marketing and e-commerce professional certificate. Now by the way, there aren't that many Google certificates, so this is one of my least favorite ones, but it's still better than a lot of the alternatives like going to college to learn about modern marketing. And going to college to learn about modern marketing strategies is kind of like learning how to drive a Tesla by studying poor strong carriages. The marketing landscape is constantly changing and colleges are notorious for not being able to keep up with the times. And by the time you graduate, you will probably have learned information that worked 10 or 15 years ago, but doesn't work now. Back in the day, marketing was kind of like a game of telephone where you'd start off with a good marketing message. And by the time it got to the consumer, it would end up extremely distorted. But now you have modern marketing techniques where data and technology are the stars of the show. You don't have to guess anymore. It's kind of like upgrading from a flip phone to a smartphone. You have access to so much more information, you can reach your audience with laser precision, and you can track your results in real time. So it's very clear that modern marketing is where it's at. The unfortunate part of modern marketing is it is constantly changing. The way you run ads on Facebook five years ago is completely different than the way you run ads now. And colleges being the traditional institutions that they are move about as fast as a glacier. So this is a beginner level course. It has a 4.8 out of five star rating. They say that you can get done with it in around six months or so with about 10 hours of studying per week. But self reporting shows you can get done with it much faster than that. Now, keep in mind, the word digital marketing actually comprises a bunch of different sub fields such as SEO, which is search engine optimization, pay per click or PPC, search engine marketing, email marketing, etc. And if you type in digital marketing on LinkedIn at the entry level, you are going to see 68,000 results. And on Glassdoor, they make about $68,000 a year. Now, keep in mind, this is the Google professional certificate that's hosted on Coursera. Google also has many other digital marketing certificates, which I think are great. And that's actually why I put this one at the bottom of the list because I think a lot of their other certificates are great and they're also free. Next is going to be the Google IT automation certificate. Now in this one, it says you're going to learn in-demand skills like Python, Git and IT automation in order to advance your career. So you are going to learn a little bit of coding here, right? It's not too advanced on the coding because I know that scares a lot of people, but it's specifically going to be applied to IT or information technology. Now here are some of the skills that you're going to learn. You can pause the video if you want to see that. And it has a score of 4.8 out of 5 with over 30,000 ratings. And again, it says it can be completed in about six months, but all the self-reporting shows that it can be done much quicker than that, usually somewhere between two to three months on average. Now, according to Google, there's over 530,000 U.S. job postings that have something to do with Python proficiency. And over 75,000 of those are entry-level jobs. Now, there's a ton of different jobs you can go into with this skillset. One of them would be a junior system administrator. There's about 12,000 results at the entry level, but like I said, there's a ton of other jobs out there. And you'd make about $63,000 a year. Quick pause to give you a special deal from our sponsor. Coursera is offering $200 off their Coursera Plus annual subscription. This is a global offer so anyone in the world that wants to subscribe to Coursera Plus can have it. Now, this is an incredible offer that gives you access to thousands of different courses and certificates, including the Google certificates. So make sure to click the link down in the description as well as the pinned comment below. Now, back to the video. Next is going to be the Google Associate Android Developer Certificate. Now, this one isn't technically a Google Professional Certificate. They basically did this in association with Android. But I decided to include this on the list because I do think there's a ton of demand for people who have this skillset. So for instance, 95% of the top 1000 Android apps contain Kotlin code and Kotlin is exactly what you're going to be learning. Now, there's a bunch of different career paths you could go into. I'll just show one of them. Mobile Application Development shows 3,800 results on LinkedIn at the entry level. And if you type that into Glassdoor, you're going to see $80,000 a year. Next is going to be the Google UX Design Professional Certificate. Now, UX stands for User Experience. And they claim that in less than six months, you can get job ready for an entry level job in UX Design. And this one scores 4.8 out of five stars with over 56,000 ratings. And again, this is one of those where it says six months, but realistically speaking, you can do it faster than that. I would say however, this is one of the more intense Google Professional Certificates. And by the way, I'll have all of these listed down in the description as well as the pinned comment below if you want to check them out. Keep in mind, I am an affiliate of Coursera, so if you use my link to check this out and you end up purchasing one of their products, I will get a small commission. Now, this one does say that it is beginner level and UX Design is not the easiest one to get into. I'd say this is a little harder than a lot of the other ones on the list, but it is going to help you to get your portfolio together. And I did make an entire video on this one. So this may not be the only thing you need to get into UX Design. You're probably going to have to build a portfolio outside of this and you're probably going to have to build your skills outside of this certificate alone. But with that being said, I also did an entire video on this one, which I will very likely link. But according to them, there are 99,000 in-demand job openings in UX Design. And this is one thing I forgot to mention, but with all of these certificates, when you complete them, you get access to a private job board that over 150 large and well-respected companies agreed to hire people from. And another thing that's really great about these certificates, this is actually probably the best perk and almost nobody talks about it, is that you actually get to list these on your LinkedIn. And a secret that a lot of people don't know is you don't actually have to finish them, right? You don't actually have to be done with them in order to list them on LinkedIn and recruiters and hiring managers can find you through these certificates. So you can just say that you're in the process of taking it. And when they search the certificate, they may find you. So this is one way that people have been commenting on my channel over and over again, that they are getting discovered by hiring managers and recruiters, aka the people who make the decisions on whether you get interviewed and inevitably get a good chance of landing the job. So with many of the other certificates, there's a ton of different jobs out there that you could potentially go into. One of them is Interaction Designer on LinkedIn. At the entry level, there's about 2,900 results. And if you type that in on Glassdoor, you're going to see $110,000 a year. So if you're somebody who is really interested in art and you don't want to keep it as a hobby, you want to do it as a profession. You actually want to get a job doing artistic related things. This can be a really good choice for you. So here are a bunch of testimonials from people who have taken the certificate. You can pause the video if you'd like to see them. Now we're going to talk about the Google Project Management Professional Certificate. So this is a really good one as well. It's another super valuable skill set. It is beginner level. It says that it takes about six months, but again, you can do it much quicker than that. And it has a score of 4.8 out of five with over 71,000 ratings. Now I really do like this one. There's another certificate where it's kind of standard that all project managers get that certificate as well. So I don't think this is the only one that you'll get. You will very likely want to get that other certificate as well, but it just gives you access to so many opportunities. And they say there's 479,000 in-demand job openings in project management. And this is a super valuable skill set that is never going to go away. In fact, I would say project management is just going to keep growing as the years go on. So if you type in project manager on LinkedIn at the entry level, you are going to see over 70,000 results. And on Glassdoor, they say project managers make about $84,000 a year. Now, of course, there's a bunch of other career paths you could go into with a certificate like Scrum Master, but just for the purposes of keeping this video short, I'm not going to talk about those. And again, I made a video specifically on this one, so you can go check that out. I highly recommend it. And here is a bunch of testimonials. You can pause the video and check these out if you'd like. Number two on the list. And I would say this one is actually tied for number one is going to be the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate. And yes, I say data, not data. I'm sorry. I just can't say data. It just sounds weird to me. I know it's technically data analytics, but I say data. All right, get over it, please. So again, they claim you're going to be job ready for a data analytics role in about six months. And it has a score of 4.8 out of five with over 98,000 ratings. This one has been battle tested over time. Also, I reached out to basically all of the data analytics related YouTubers and I asked them what they thought of this certificate and pretty much all of them said it was great. Now, many of them did say you can get a job with just the certificate, but chances are you want to do some other things like make a really nice portfolio, maybe take some other certificates, etc. But one of the great things about these Google Professional Certificates is you can do it all on your own time. You don't have to quit your job, move across the country to go to college. Now you guys know me, I am constantly searching for the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to get into these high demand careers. And unfortunately, I was not able to find like an online course or a bootcamp that met my standards. So my current number one recommendation for getting into data analytics is actually taking this certificate. Now again, you might take other certificates and you really do want to work on your portfolio, of course. And you also have to make sure that you just have the skills needed. But with that being said, this is actually my number one recommendation for getting into data analytics at this current time. So according to them, there's over 380,000 in demand job openings for data analytics. And by the way, this is another one that I didn't mention, but over 75% of Google career certificate graduates in the United States report an improvement in their career trajectory. And this is all within six months of certificate completion. So that is phenomenal considering these certificates last time I checked only cost around $39 per month. So you compare that to basically any other way of getting educated or you know, trying to get into a job like for instance, colleges, which cost about $100,000 for a college degree or going to a bootcamp, which is probably going to cost you at least $10,000. This is a ridiculous value. This is basically a cheat code at this point. I don't know how long this is going to last, maybe after a good saturator or whatever, it's not going to be as valuable. But right now, people have been reporting to me left and right that this is getting phenomenal results. If that changes in the future, make sure you stay up to date on this channel because I will be talking about that. Now, according to LinkedIn, there are 150,000 results at the entry level for data analyst position, which is great. And according to Glassdoor, data analysts make about $71,000 a year. Now, of course, there are other positions you can move into where you'd make a lot more than that. That's basically just the entry level position. Now here are a bunch of testimonials if you'd like to pause the video and check them out. And the other one, one B that is tied for number one on this list is going to be the Google IT support professional certificate. This is probably the most well known Google certificate out there. So why does this one come in at number one tied for number one with the Google data analytics certificate? Well, it has the most ratings out of all of them. So it has a score of 4.8 out of five stars with 151,000 ratings. That is a ton of people who have taken the certificate and rated it extremely well. It also says it takes around six months to take it. But again, realistically speaking, it's much quicker than that. In fact, for this particular one, a lot of people have told me they've been able to knock it out sometimes in a few weeks, a month, a month and a half, two months. Now on the listing, it says there's about 400,000 in demand job openings in IT. Now, I do somewhat agree with that. But realistically speaking, you should probably just aim for going for one of those jobs. So for instance, help desk is a great job to aim for because you can kind of confuse people if you list a bunch of different common job titles like they do here. And then they go for one of the ones that's a little more difficult to get into. But help desk is probably the easiest one to land. But you can literally just select one of those jobs on there, type it into LinkedIn and see how much demand there is. So for instance, database administrator 128,000 results at the entry level, and you make about $84,000 a year system analyst, there's 146,000 results at the entry level, and you make $87,000 a year. And out of all the ones on the list, this one probably partially at least because it's been around for so long has the most positive testimonials. I mean, you can look all across the internet, whether it's YouTube, Reddit, Google, any number of different places, you're going to see a ton of testimonials from people that have taken this certificate. Now, is it still a good idea for you to have a really nice portfolio where you can actually showcase your skills, not just the certificate that says you have the skills? Yes, absolutely. Make sure you have a good portfolio. It's so important in this modern world that you not only just say, Hey, I have XYZ skills, but you actually demonstrate that you have those skills by using an easily accessible portfolio. But yeah, especially the top two on the list, the data analytics as well as the IT support certificate, phenomenal. Now, is this a replacement for a college degree? No, that's like saying a screwdriver is a replacement for a hammer. They are used for completely different things. There are some careers where you do need to get a college degree to get into them. And so in that case, you would use a screwdriver, right? Screwdrivers, the college degree. There are many careers where you don't need to get a college degree to get into them. And so in that case, you'd use a different tool, you'd use a hammer. So comparing these to college degrees is really just an apples to oranges comparison. The first thing you need to do is identify what career you're trying to get into. And then the second thing you need to do is figure out what skills or tools you need to get there. And in many of these cases, you absolutely do not need a college degree in order to land a job. And that's kind of why Google created these certificates in the first place. And in many cases, college degrees will actually set you back. So yeah, I'm a huge fan of these certificates, not only because they can help people get jobs, but I think another benefit of these that a lot of people don't talk about is the fact that these will help you to figure out what career path you want to go down, right? So instead of investing tens of thousands of dollars to go to college to figure out what your, you know, passion is or your life purpose is, you can just take these certificates. And if you don't like it after a few weeks or a month, you can just switch to a different one. And then eventually you're probably going to find something that you like. And you didn't have to waste a bunch of time, effort and money to do that. So I did a detailed breakdown of the data analytics certificate. And I highly recommend that you check that out. I'll put it right here.