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Independent Learners Discussions

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WillM
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

Welcome Career Changers participants!  We're excited for you to start your journey with Alteryx, and would love to ask you one question before you get started.

 

What are you hoping to ultimately attain by participating in the ADAPT program? Is it to add a new skill to your professional toolkit, to jump start a new career path, or something else entirely?

 

Thinking about this before you start is a great way to keep your focus as you work through the tasks contained in the program. Each of you will have a different goal, but everyone will be working through this together; so share your thoughts in the thread below!

 

**Just a note! You’ll see reference to our “ADAPT” program in thread. The ADAPT program was an initial COVID-response to help upskill those who had recently lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Because of the success of that program, it has evolved into our new Career Changer program – open to anyone looking to upskill themselves with data analytics through Alteryx.

 

 

 

Will Machin
Community Management Team Lead
Alteryx
156 REPLIES 156
leslienana
6 - Meteoroid

I am interested in working with any kind of data to practice what I have learnt so far in the program. I am navigating the community resources to see how best I can use it. It is a little overwhelming but I’m determined to get all the help I need. 

fanpro
7 - Meteor
I really want to get started but I have not been able to get the software license to work.

How do I get the 90 says license for the adapt program activated so I can start building data sets and doing the tutorials? -Chris
htrivedi123
8 - Asteroid

Hi There,

 

Once you sign up to ADAPT program you will receive the license key in 2-3 business days. If you are excited to get started before that (and rightfully so), you can still download the full version with 14 days trial and activate it later on,

 

Hope this is helpful and good luck,

Hardik

izamryan
8 - Asteroid

@Paul123 thank you for directing your great questions to me:

"1. What would you suggest to someone new? 2. Should one learn programming languages for it first? 3. Should one just start with this course without acquiring programming language skill?"

 

I'm going to define some terms and then I'm going to answer these in reverse order:

 

Definitions

 

"Computer Programming": the skill of writing general statements in a language to automate the performance of tasks.

these statements are interpreted by a machine to change a set of inputs to a set of outputs.

That's what we call technologies like R and Python.

 

versus

 

"Visual workflows": the art of dragging & dropping components from a library of re-usable components and configuring them to automate the performance of tasks.

these workflows are interpreted by a machine to alter a set of inputs (call them X) with a workflow (call it Y) in order to produce a set of outputs.

That's what we call technologies like Alteryx.

 

 

3. Should one start the course WITHOUT acquiring programming language skill?

 

YES! You don't need to learn to code in order to get started with Alteryx.

Sure, you will eventually learn some "code-ish" skills especially when you use the Formula tool.

But you won't explicitly need to know the syntax or semantics of the R in order to make the most of Alteryx. It is, after all, a tool for creating visual workflows. Yes, you can, if you wanted to, leverage scripts written in R and Python in Alteryx. But for the most part of the Alteryx Core, you don't "need" R and Python: they aren't necessary in order to complete the Alteryx Core certification.

 

2. Should one learn programming languages for it first?

 

THAT DEPENDS ON YOUR OBJECTIVE, BUT TYPICALLY I WILL SAY: NO! Because learning a programming language is not a pre-requisite, see above on general-purpose programming languages vs. visual workflows.

 

Do you want to "Get a valuable certification within 2 weeks and then see where you can go?" Then NO don't learn to program first, just dive into the Alteryx Core straight away.

 

Do you want to "Break into an industry that has a lot of academic practitioners and a lot of PhD's who are doing interesting statistical learning?" Then you might want to understand R and statistical learning after you've completed Core and the Nanodegree, but to be honest the Nanodegree will keep you plenty busy!

 

Do you want to "Learn new skills in machine learning and learn how to operationalise machine learning algorithms in production?" Then you might want to understand Python after you've completed Core and the Nanodegree. 

 

Do you want to "Help organisations leverage the concept of citizen data scientists?" Then go on to do the Advanced certification once you've completed Core and the Nanodegree.

 

 

1. What would you suggest to someone new?

 

I have three general principles that I can suggest to someone new:

 

Think big, start small, scale fast.

Yes, it's good that you're thinking now "what's next". And this is one of the 7 habits of successful people: begin with the end in mind. 

But in order to scale the mountain, you also need to take the first step. So go out there and nail the Core certification! Statistical, mathematical, and programming knowledge aren't pre-requisites!

You've already done the important thing which is signing up for ADAPT, which will give you a roadmap so that you can scale fast. Make the most of the roadmap, do every weekly challenge that's listed in the ADAPT: Fundamentals course and you'll set yourself up to scale fast!

 

Experiment early and often.

Doing this ADAPT program is a good way to experiment with analytics. You can also think: how do I use this in my everyday job?

The best data scientists among us have this other superpower, and we call it: domain knowledge. Just having statistics knowledge isn't enough. Just knowing how to industrialise a machine learning algorithm at scale isn't enough. You also have to know the inner workings of the industry / business / situation that you're dealing with. As you're doing the coursework, have in mind "how can I monetise this skill?". You're currently an undergrad student, right? Think about how you can experiment with Alteryx to solve some of your Uni coursework.

 

Fail fast and learn faster.

Don't be disheartened by progress (or lack of it!). Take each situation as a learning opportunity. I passed Core in my first attempt, but that's only because I nailed all the weekly challenges and went through every line of the Core curriculum. Seriously, print this out and tick everything off once you've mastered it. That'll put you in good stead to check your knowledge at Core level. Even if you don't get it the first time around, learn what you need to improve and go nail it after a week's time.

 

 

@Paul123 I hope that's helpful for you! Feel free to direct message me here or tweet me (@izamryan).

@AFG_Team  /@HeatherMHarris am I doing this right? 🙂

AFG_Team
Alteryx
Alteryx

@izamryan You are doing this exactly right!!! We can't wait to share this with all of our ADAPT participants - and we hope everyone feels encouraged and supported to share what they know to help others who are also just starting their analytics journeys.

 

We want to welcome a few more to the program as well: @DCHOLMAN08@htrivedi123 @DaniMacena @Spunky3300 @cpc 

 

Welcome aboard, we are so happy you're here! We're also excited to hear from you, so please feel free to share projects you are working on or problems you'd like to solve.

 

Happy ADAPTing!

izamryan
8 - Asteroid

@AFG_Team  thank you for your kind feedback 🙂 

 

on the topic of what further help I might need: I was already Core certified when I entered the ADAPT program (working my way through the Advanced curriculum now). But I haven't received the invitation to participate in the Nanodegree yet? I wrote an email last Friday but haven't heard back on this yet.

AFG_Team
Alteryx
Alteryx

Hi @izamryan , 

 

On our ADAPT Program FAQ you will find more information about the next steps once getting core certified! See below for quick access. 

 

Q: I joined ADAPT already Core Certified or I just got Core Certified. How do I get started in the Udacity Course?

A: At the end of every week, we will do a scan for all program members who got certified withing the week and grant them an allowance to enroll in the Udacity Predictive Analytics for Business Nanodegree. 

 

Note: Ensure your Community account uses the same email as you used to enroll in ADAPT or we might miss you!

 

In that email we distribute we will send you to a specific page on Udacity's site to acknowledge you are a member of the ADAPT program who has passed Core Certification and ask that you create a Udacity account using your program email. Udacity will process your account and grant 30 days of access to the nanodegree in 1-2 business days following account creation!

 

I hope this helps! If you used the same e-mail and do not get an e-mail with access the week after you signed up for the program (since you came in core certified) please let us know! 

 

izamryan
8 - Asteroid

Hi @AFG_Team thanks for sharing the extract from the FAQ, that was the first document that I looked up as well.

 

I joined the ADAPT program 7 days ago, my email from fulfilment with my license key was sent 7 days ago on 21 May 2020 at 16:31 (GMT+1).

 

The email address that I used to sign up for ADAPT is the same email address that I used to sign up for this community account.

izamryan_0-1590655033431.png

 

AFG_Team
Alteryx
Alteryx

Hi @izamryan,


Thanks for clarifying! We sent over our list of core certified participants early last week due to holiday here in the states. We will make sure you are on the next batch, and you should receive access to Udacity on Monday!


Cheers!

StellaBon
11 - Bolide

Hi, have you tried to contact Alteryx Fulfillment yet? They would have been the ones to send you your license key and they can help you troubleshoot your software download. Let me know how it goes.