It is very important to get yourself educated on the subject you are looking to built your career with, this is the most effective way of equipped yourself. In this topic, we will discuss on the different source of getting educated and equipped with the analytics field.
Certification Courses
There are many different certification programs available nowadays, however, there are leaders for sure. With the leader in the field of analytics there and their proven certification help you elevate yourself and allow you to stand distinct. I have listed some of the most common and most successful analytics certificates for you guys.
These all different analytical tools which are quite different but has the end motive alsmost same. Go through the links and take a call on what suit best to you.
Blogs
There is no doubt that the most current knowledge exists in blogs (However, the fad of the month is Twitter & Facebook, for someone starting to build a career the most current distractions exist there. Pick one practitioner blog, someone who can teach you about web analytics. Thinking, approaches, pure practitioner education, complete lack of generic stuff. There are many bloggers who would love to even help you in personal or direct, via email or over th phone, you may need to ask for the help, that's it. Pick the blog of the vendor you've chosen previously. Every decent vendor in the world has an active blog teaching their practitioners how to use their tool. You'll notice they are a mix of Marketing, Design, Analytics, Critical Thinking blogs. A clue as to what I personally think it takes to be successful. Pl choose the blog with a wise mind, two blogs are not overwhelming. Really read both that you pick. Stay hungry, stay foolish. So keep reading and keep posting your doubts on the comments to get more and more insides.
Books
It might be old fashioned but I always like starting with a book when I am starting any new learning. Get an overall web analytics strategy book, one that covers the ecosystem, the mental models to apply, key analytics techniques. essentially a "how to think" book. I would recommend Steve's Cult of Analytics or Gemma's and Tristan's El Arte de Medir or Juan's Meta Analytics. Get a really good tool book. For Yahoo! Analytics please get Dennis's book. For Google Analytics get Brian's book or Justin's book or Timo's book (in German). While some things (like UI) about tools change over time, these books are your best, structured bet at learning about the tool and the power at your disposal.
University or College Courses
For a career in Web Analytics you don't need a special degree. I've hired people with no college degrees, forest rangers, financial analysts, database programmers (as long as they have an analytical bent of mind). But if you don't have any exposure to Statistics then I strongly encourage taking an evening/part time course in Statistics 101. If an institution near you provides a course in quantitative or qualitative analytics (even traditional analytics such as direct marketing or market research) then that is also well worth the investment. It will absolutely jump start your career.
The trick will be how to make that massive investment as you'll have to read your two books (one time at least!) and two blogs (continuously) and take one course. So here's my recommendation: Read the web analytics strategic book while taking the three/six-month course. Start reading the tool book when you start using the tool. Start reading the blogs when you get to the below.
