Udacity School of Business Review
These days, the ability to work with numbers and figures is powerful. You not only get a look at business overall but can make effective predictions about what will happen in the future. With the skills to predict areas where businesses could improve, you could land a job as a business analyst, working with corporations or startups as they take off into the business world.
While you can gather the skills in many ways, one effective way is through Udacity with their new School of Business. Whether it’s individual classes, free classes, or career paths, you can find them all within the School of Business, enjoying Udacity’s perks and renowned name while you’re at it. Before you sign up, take a look at this review for a detailed look at each career path and the topics you’ll learn within each.
About Udacity
Udacity is an online academy dedicated to teaching IT topics. A few professors from Stanford University teamed up in the pursuit, creating a few courses that they uploaded online. After breaking ground in 2011, the goal was to bring college-level online courses to students all over the world. With so much success after the first run, they started to develop more courses, eventually catching the attention of top names in the industry.
Now, they offer everything from free courses to certification programs, covering both foundational and complex topics. To date, they’ve collaborated with names like Google, Uber, and MailChimp, (just to name a few) and have won a ton of awards, gaining the reputation of one of the best online academies out there. So, in short, Udacity is a great online academy it’s accredited and partners with some of the top names in the business.
School of Business Perks
While there are a lot of things to boast about when it comes to the online academy, there’s one that takes the cake. We’re talking about the fact that each career path comes with extras that all students can enjoy, created to help make their lives easier. When signing up for any course or career path, students can enjoy:
Hands-On Projects
The best thing about courses is that they come packed with useful projects that help apply skills to real-world issues. Apply knowledge with section projects and put it all together with capstones that let you test your skills freely. In this way, you’ll leave having worked using the same tools and techniques as professionals in the business.
A Technical Mentor
Just in case anything goes wrong, you’ll have someone there that can help you get back learning 24/7. Even if you just have doubts, give them a shout.
Career Services
If you’ve got the pre-interview jitters, you can give career services a call and schedule a mock interview. They’ll prep you on the most frequently asked questions and give you feedback on your answers. They’ll also take a look at your portfolio, letting you know what stays and what goes. Plus, if your social media pages need a good cleaning up, they’ll help you organize them and get them ready to share with your future employers and colleagues.
Flexible Learning
Another cool perk that comes with all career paths is flexible learning. Log in and learn when you would like and take all the time you need to complete courses.
A-List Instructors
When it comes to choosing the teaching staff that leads these video lectures, Udacity searches far and wide for the perfect fit. You’ll learn from some of the best in the business, with impressive academic and professional backgrounds.
Career Paths
Digital Marketing Specialist
Digital marketing is an in-demand career that is full of opportunities. From large corporations to the smallest of startups, there are all types of businesses that need the help of a marketing team. In this career path, you’ll take a course that is filled with useful information, all of which is geared to helping you push toward success. There is only one course needed for this career path, the Digital Marketing Nanodegree.
Digital Marketing
This course was created in collaboration with huge industry names like Google, Hootsuite, and Mail Chimp; need we say more! Starting off with the fundamentals, you’ll not only learn the ropes but dive into all of the possibilities that come along with digital marketing. Along with video lectures, you’re introduced to a few companies during the course, able to use them as an example to gain some hands-on experience. Learn marketing strategies including:
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Display advertising
- Search engine marketing
You’ll finish off with a look at how to measure your marketing success with help from Google Analytics, learning how to optimize your strategy along the way.
How Long Does It Take?
Udacity estimates that, at 10 hours a week, this course will three months to complete. While you can take your time and learn at your own pace, you will have to keep up with deadlines for projects and make sure to turn them in on time. You could start the course and blaze through it or, take your time. The choice is yours thanks to flexible learning.
What’s the Cost?
Remember that thing we said about flexible learning? Well, you might want to re-think taking too much time, especially after you hear about the cost. The price of each course depends on the total time you take to complete it. Udacity’s monthly price offers total flexibility, coming with a price tag of $359 per month. If your go with their recommended time to complete the course, you score a 15% discount, bringing the total down to $309 per month. With this option, you’ll have to pay upfront, bringing the total to $927 when all is said and done.
Featured Review
“The DMND program is unmatched. The way the lesson is strategically placed has caused a great impact on my current career as a Digital Marketing Associate at a Digital Communications firm. Before Udacity I was not “trained” in how to set up and properly optimize campaigns. Since becoming a student, I use the lesson on Content Strategy across the board for FB, AdWords, SEO, EVERYTHING.” – Ashley B.
Business Analyst
The ability to analyze numbers and statistics is gold to companies, providing them with insight into their day-to-day dealings. As a business analyst, you could be the one to take a look at the numbers, crunching them into useful details that companies can use. This career path has two courses, which include:
Business Analytics
This course is all about the basics of business analytics, taking learners on a journey through all the foundations. By the end, you’ll see how the analysis of data pans out and get a first-hand look at data visualization.
How Long Does It Take?
This course comes with four sections, each one with a small project tacked on to apply your knowledge. Udacity estimates that this course will take three months to complete, dedicating only 10 hours each week. While you can take your time thanks to flexible learning, you should still try and complete it in due time.
What’s the Cost?
If paying monthly, the course is $359 per month. You can take as long as you want in this way, however, the total cost might add up. With Udacity’s deal, you’ll have three months to complete the course and, get a little discount too. Taking this deal, the total comes to $927.
Featured Review
“This program is a good foundational grounding in data analysis & visualization. I’m primarily using this nanodegree to upskill for my current role, and it’s definitely a well-structured, nicely instructed program compared to other online course providers I’ve experienced. Though I knew some concepts already like descriptive statistics and Excel manipulations, it was good that these were thoroughly reviewed beyond my knowledge for comprehensiveness, before I would learn SQL and Tableau.” – Keith S.
Predictive Analytics for Business
Moving your skills on and up, you get a chance to learn how to apply the analytical concepts you learned in the previous course. You’ll get a look at real-world problems and see how you can solve them with the help of analytics.
How Long Does It Take?
At 10 hours a week, Udacity estimates that you can complete this course in as little as three months. You do have the option to take your time, though you only have six sections to complete.
What’s the Cost?
If you go with Udacity’s recommended three months, you score access for a total of $927. This is a steal compared to their monthly fee, which comes in at $359 per month. While you can take the option to learn more flexibly, you may wind up paying a lot more if you don’t buckle down and get to learning quickly.
Featured Review
“This is an overall very solid program if you want to get knowledge about basic predictive analytics tools. When I started, I did not even know what data analysis or predictive analytics mean, really. Now I have a good sense of variety of regression models, classification models, time series etc. which should definitely be a major contributor in my current goal of becoming a business analyst.” – Emre H.
A Look at the Job Market
According to a recent analysis, the business analyst job market is expected to grow 14.3% between the years of 2016 to 2026. In other words, there will be desks to fill in the years to come, making it the perfect time to jump in and learn. Businesses are always looking for ways to improve and, as an analyst, you can afford them that opportunity. Plus, one perk is that you’ll come into the job already knowing the techniques that professionals use, making you a more prominent candidate. As far as the salary, the average as of April 1st of this year was $77,909.
Just like other jobs of this kind, there are tons of opportunities for promotions, moving up the ladder as you gain more knowledge and experience. Jumping in the market now, you could be on your way to landing a job with a large corporation, helping them tackle their most hankering issues. As an analyst, you are the one to keep them on track and advise them in their strategic planning to help them excel. From a growing salary to a higher-ranking position, you can land anything if you keep working hard and learning as you go.
Is It Worth It?
After looking at all the job market has to offer, you may be wondering, is this career path worth it? A career as a business analyst requires skills in analyzing and processing data into easy-to-view visuals. It also entails that you have experience using all of the latest tools and techniques deployed by professionals in the field today. Though you can learn on the job, employers prefer to have someone that knows a thing or two, saving time on training and jumping right in on the job. That’s why learning the skills needed to break into the field are necessary and something that you can get with help from Udacity.
Each career path geared toward business comes with a career path that is both short-term and effective. Not only do you get a well-rounded curriculum but, apply your newly learned skills with help from projects within sections of each course. Plus, each career path comes with Udacity’s extras, all of which put the cherry on top. If you choose to learn with Udacity, you’ll have all the skills you need to enter the field confidently and quickly.
Final Thoughts
A career as a business analyst requires that you have a certain set of skills and can apply them to help solve industry issues. It’s a promising path career with lots of room for advancement, making it the perfect time to jump in. Learn them from Udacity, getting everything from the basics to the complex stuff, supplemented by hands-projects created to mimic real industry issues.
