3 must dos if you are a Tableau user
By: Richa Maheshwari
Tags: Analyst, Data Visualization, Tableau, Dataviz, Udacity

Source: Google images

It’s been less than a year since I became a Business Intelligence analyst, a sharp transition from being a business journalist. The journey so far has been a hike up the steep learning curve. It is tedious but rewarding and satisfactory at the same time.

This journey started off with a Udacity nano-degree on Business Analytics focusing on Excel, SQL and Tableau. From there on, I nurtured my skills by watching tutorials on the Tableau site and joining advanced courses on Lynda.com. And just like that, in a matter of months, I became adept enough to earn the Tableau Desktop Specialist certification.

Tableau is a data visualization tool used for analytics.It uses a drag-and-drop interface and Excel-like calculations to create reports and visualizations without writing code. It helps analysts spend less time writing code and more time understanding and visualizing data.

Tableau is becoming the tool of choice for large, mid-sized and even small enterprises who are making data visualization a priority. Gartner has rated it a leader in Business Intelligence and Analytics and it is globally one of the most sought after skills.

As a newbie in the world of data and tech, three things helped me fit in and progress in Tableau:

Joining the Community

Tableau Community is an excellent place to start. Whether you are a beginner, a wizard or just curious about the tool, the tech community welcomes everyone. I use it to share samples of my work, ask questions whenever Googling is not helping, answer question of other users, share ideas and forge relationships in the data visualization community.

It provides a wealth of opportunities to discuss, learn and grow. An individual can choose to be an active participant or an active spectator — either way, it is a fruitful experience. Learning gets more fun here with 15 levels to cross to become a Data Monarch. Depending on the person’s activity, he or she earns points and badges to rise up the ladder and earn a community status.

You can then add it to your resume and LinkedIn profile and let your employer and connections know that you believe in going above and beyond your work limit. The tech world appreciates community work.

Certifications

Certifications are a great way to measure your capability, push your horizons and grow. Tableau offers certifications for both desktop and server. Unfortunately, for Prep there are no certifications yet since it a comparatively new product.

After using the tool for about 4 months, I took the Tableau Desktop Specialist exam. It not only adds value to my resume but also makes my profile stand out from the rest of the beginners.

I strongly urge you to consider taking up these certifications to have your knowledge of the tool verified and recognized.

Tableau User Group (TUG) meetups

TUGs are a great place to equip yourself with knowledge about the tool and data visualizations in general. Attending a Tableau User Group is a golden chance to meet like-minded people who have similar interests and passions and are presumably tackling similar problems/challenges.

I recently joined a user group as a leader and co-hosted the first event of 2019. It was a thrilling experience to meet and interact with scores of people and exchange ideas in just two hours. If you don’t have a TUG near your, I’d suggest you make one. If you have one, get engaged!

Let me know what you think are the must dos for a Tableau user. What is that extra zing you’ve added to your Tableau skill to kick up your profile by a notch?

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