 All right, so the Microsoft cybersecurity analyst professional certificate just came out and a bunch of people as usual wanted me to review it. So that's what I'm doing today. And if you appreciate that, go ahead, gently tap the like button and let's jump into it right now. Because in this video, I'm gonna be going over all the most important factors that you're probably thinking about if you're considering this certificate. Things like time to completion, cost, demand, salary, the production value of the course, the chances of lending you a job and what overall value does it offer. So if you're not familiar with the Google professional certificate program, basically what happened is there were a bunch of positions that had a ton of demand. Google and a bunch of other tech companies needed people who had these skills and there was basically no one to fill them. College was not doing a good job of educating people with the proper skills for the workforce. And so Google, Microsoft, Meta, IBM and a bunch of the other biggest companies in the world all teamed up with Coursera and they started making these certificates to train people in these valuable skills. And the latest one that just came out is the Microsoft Cybersecurity Analyst Certificate. And I know because I've helped a ton of people choose the right career and even get into the career that this is one of those careers that has a ton of demand. There are hundreds of thousands of cybersecurity positions that companies are hiring for. Now, by the way, if you wanna check it out, I will be putting a link down in the pinned comment and the description below. And I believe there is a 14 day free trial. So you can literally just try it out for free. So first, let's go ahead and talk about the time to completion. Now, on the website, it says that this course is gonna take about six months and that's if you study 10 hours per week. Almost all of the other Coursera courses that I have covered take much less time than this. They say that it takes six months because let's be honest, it kinda sounds better. But in reality, if you study a little harder, you can finish this in something like a month. So a lot of the time for the Google IT certificate, for instance, a lot of people were reporting that they were able to finish it in a month. Some of the other certificates, it might be like a month or two. So it does kinda depend on how hard the certificates are. But with that being said, chances are you can finish it much faster than six months, right? So that's pretty good. It's a lot faster than college. It's even faster than a bootcamp. Bootcamps typically take somewhere around six to 12 months. Now, at this time, it's free for the first 14 days. I don't know if that's gonna be true if you're watching this like three months from now because I don't have a crystal ball. So you just have to check the link to see if it's still true. But after that period, it's going to be $49 per month. So if you were to take six months to finish it, that would be $294. And if you take two months to finish it, that would be $98. So that's a pretty good price compared to a bootcamp that probably costs $10 to $30,000 or a college degree that costs over $100,000. Not to say that the certificate is the same as a college degree or a bootcamp. I've said this many times before on the channel, but you really can't compare these different things. It's kind of like comparing a hammer to a screwdriver or comparing a screwdriver to a wrench. They're completely different tools. And the tool that you should use depends on the job you're trying to get done. Now, next, let's talk about the demand. There is a massive amount of demand for cybersecurity related positions. So on BLS, they kind of group a bunch of positions together, but for information security analysts, you see they're growing 35% over the next 10 years. And that is much, much faster than average. And just generally speaking, there's a ton of demand for cybersecurity related positions, whether you're looking at the entry level, mid level or even high level jobs. I'm sure everybody's heard of all the different data hacks for instance, and these companies having to pay massive fines because of the fact that a bunch of their customers data got leaked. So that's a message damage to their reputation. They also lost a bunch of money. And on top of that, they had to pay huge fines. And companies do not want to have to do that. So what do they do? They hire a bunch of people with cybersecurity related skills. Now, with that being said, cybersecurity is one of those careers, and I know this from experience because I've helped a bunch of people get into this type of thing that does have a little bit of a bias when it comes to entry level jobs. And the reason for that is basically one word, liability. There's a lot of kind of elitism when it comes to hiring for cybersecurity jobs, especially at the entry level, because of the fact that if you mess up and a bunch of data gets leaked, that's gonna make the company and your hiring manager look really bad. So they are extremely risk averse when it comes to hiring people for those entry level positions. So it can be hard to get that first job. But once you get that first job, you are pretty much set. You have made it. So when it comes to the demand, this is really good. There's a ton of demand with that caveat. But if you think about it, once you've made it, there is a pretty big gap when it comes to the barrier to entry for other people getting in, which means your job is going to be safer. And it also is possible to get into these entry level cybersecurity positions without having a college degree or previous experience, but it definitely does help to have one or both of those things. And a lot of the time, people who go into cybersecurity actually come from the IT field, for instance. So that's a natural career progression that you see a lot of people make. They start off in IT, maybe IT help desk, for instance, and then they go into cybersecurity. So all things being equal, the demand is really good here. And once you get that job, you're probably gonna be set. Now, the next thing we're gonna talk about is salary. Cybersecurity analysts make about $96,000 a year. That's really, really good money, especially for a job that is technically entry level. And let's say you become a chief information security officer. Well, you're probably gonna make $271,000 a year. That's doctor money. But let's say you don't wanna rise that high. You just wanna become a manager. Well, information security managers make $171,000. So yeah, really, really good money here. When it comes to the salary, cybersecurity is just about as good as it gets. Now, next, let's talk about the production value and the engagement. And to be honest here, the course just came out, so there's not much to say. But with that being said, Coursera is known to have really good production value and engagement. I hear pretty much nothing but positive comments about them. Like just about every other Coursera certificate I've reviewed has positive comment after positive comment after positive comment. And typically these companies will actually have their own employees teaching a lot of the classes. So these are people who are in the trenches learning the newest and best stuff. And those are the people that are teaching you what you need to know. Not a professor who learned something like five or 10 years back and they're teaching you what was relevant at that time but is no longer relevant. So overall, I expect this to be pretty good when it comes to the production value and engagement. Now let's talk about its chances of landing you a job. So this is what Coursera says about it. Build job-ready skills for an in-demand career in the field of cybersecurity. The cybersecurity skills you learn in this program prepare you for an entry-level role as a cybersecurity analyst. This program also prepares you for entry-level roles in information security, security compliance and identity and access management sectors. So they straight up say that you can land a job with just the cybersecurity certificate. Now I do believe that's true. I do believe that some people out there will land a job with just a certificate and of course a lot of self-study. But with that being said, the average person is probably going to have to take further certificates and certifications and they're going to have to put a significant amount of work into their portfolio. So the big value proposition I see from these Coursera certs is yes, sometimes they can actually land you a job but usually they're just going to be there to help you land a job. Most of the time you're going to have to do some more studying on the side. You're going to have to build a portfolio which they do help you build a portfolio but you're going to have to add to it. And that's completely fine. I mean, how can you expect a $49 a month certificate program to land you a job? You're paying $49 a month. You're expecting it to land you like a $97,000 a year job. Most of the time that's probably not going to work out. But let's talk about what this cert is going to do for you. First of all, it is going to train you on the foundations of what you need to know to become a cybersecurity analyst. It's also going to help you to build out a portfolio. You're also going to get access to a job board that only people who complete these certificates have access to that a bunch of companies, usually these are like big time tech companies, the kind of companies you want to work for because they pay you really well, they give you good benefits, et cetera. Mostly those types of companies are hiring on these job boards. On top of that, I've gotten comment after comment on my channel of people who have actually been discovered by putting these certificates on their LinkedIn. So you can originally put it on your LinkedIn just by posting about it, and people might find you that way. Then when you complete it, you can also put the certificate on your LinkedIn as well. And there are actually ways of finding people via the certificate. So overall, when it comes to its chances of landing you a job, it's probably going to help you quite a bit. With that being said, I think it's going to get you 100% of the way there, probably not. It might get you like 70% of the way there though. Now, let's talk about the overall value of what it offers. And we're also going to kind of like go over the module. So first of all, they offer a resume review. So they're going to improve your resume in LinkedIn with personalized feedback. They also offer you interview prep. So you get to practice your skills with interactive tools and mock interviews. And they also offer you career support. You get to plan your career move with Coursera's job search guide. Then they talk about what you're going to learn from the certificate, which is basically the foundations and fundamentals of cybersecurity. This exam can be very valuable to you because it measures your knowledge about concepts of security, compliance and identity, capabilities of Microsoft Azure Active Directory, part of Microsoft Intra, capabilities of Microsoft Security Solutions, and capabilities of Microsoft Compliance Solutions. You can take it on multiple languages like English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Indonesian, German, traditional Chinese and Italian. There's also a study guide. And you can take a practice exam and assessment. And on top of that, you can schedule an exam with Pearson View or SertaPort. The passing score is 700. And you may be eligible for ASE college credit if you pass this certification exam. Again, taking this exam allows you to have an advantage in the field of cybersecurity since you will have a better understanding of how Microsoft SCI Solutions can span across various solution areas and can provide a holistic and end-to-end solution. And let's go over all the different courses within the module. So course one is introduction to computers and operating systems and security. Course two is introduction to networking and cloud computing. Course three is cybersecurity threat vectors and mitigation. Course four is cybersecurity identity and access solutions using Azure AD. And Azure is basically a cloud computing service. Course five is cybersecurity solutions and Microsoft Defender. Course six is cybersecurity tools and technologies. Course seven is cybersecurity management and compliance. Course eight is advanced cybersecurity concepts and capstone project. And course nine is Microsoft SC900 exam preparation and practice. So they're gonna help you to build out your portfolio so you have something to show to prove that you have cybersecurity related skills and you're gonna learn some really important skills. Plus you get to put these certificates on your LinkedIn as well as your resume. And these certificates are actually relatively respected. I know there's a lot of certificates out there that are kind of like a certificate from Clown College. Nobody really cares about them. But these Coursera certificates are relatively respected by hiring managers and decision makers. It's also a completely 100% online course and it's flexible for your schedule. I believe the first 2,500 people who sign up get a 14 day free trial. And then after that, I believe they give a seven day free trial but make sure you check again, down in the description as well as the pin comment below. I don't own the company. So they might change these things if you're watching this in the future. And if you're watching this from another country the pricing may actually be different. And on top of that, if you can't afford it, you can apply for scholarships. So yeah, when it comes to the value that these certificates offer at $49 per month, you're probably not gonna find anything else out there that has the same amount of value for the price. So overall initial impressions on this Microsoft cybersecurity analyst professional certificate are two big thumbs up. I'm really enjoying it. I think this is gonna be yet another great addition to alternative education, online education that doesn't have anything to do with boot camps or a college degree. Now again, is it a replacement for boot camps or a college degree? I don't think so. I think that all of these have their place just like a hammer doesn't replace a wrench or a screwdriver. Which one you should pick depends on your particular circumstances, your goals, your plans, et cetera. But I think another big value proposition of this that almost nobody talks about is the fact that if you subscribe to Coursera like if you do Coursera Plus for instance, you could access to 7,000 different courses and you can kind of dip your toe in a bunch of different careers. And again, a lot of these careers are taught by people who are currently working at these companies. So this isn't some theoretical knowledge that a professor is teaching you that was true like five or 10 years ago. This is what's actually being taught and being used in the workplace right now. And you get to dip your toe in a bunch of different careers. So if you check out the cybersecurity certificate, you don't like it. Maybe you're halfway through module one. Well, that's great. You can move on to the IT certificate or you can move on to the data analytics certificate. And if you don't like that, you can check out the project management certificate, right? I think you get my point. So this is really a low risk, potentially high reward move and the value is definitely there. So overall, I really like the certificate. Definitely give it a look. Like I said, there's a free trial so you can just check it out. Also, I wanna make this completely clear. I am an affiliate of Coursera. So if you click the link down below, I will get a small commission from that. But I was actually recommending these Coursera certs before they even reached out to me to set up a partnership. In fact, I think that's probably the reason why they did reach out to me. So back then I had no incentive to say that these were good and I actually said they were really good. And you can check out the first video I ever did on the Google certificates on the channel if you'd like. And since doing that video, I've gotten tons of positive comments and feedback from my students about these Coursera certs. And if you enjoyed this video, you can check out my top five online certificates that are actually worth it video by clicking right here.