Wes: “Dataquest teaches me everything I need to know without the $50,000 degree.”

Wes Brooks had always understood that data was key to success in business. “Early in my career, I built other businesses and my own with a data-driven mindset.”

This led Wes to a role at Cornett, an advertising agency where he worked on marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies.

“They hired me to apply that same data-driven business building approach to their clients’ businesses.”

While there, Wes encountered the challenges of dealing with data from disparate sources.

“We built a data lake for one of our clients that unified many different sources. It allowed us to summarize their data in a single dashboard for their marketing team.”

Dataquest game me a curriculum that covered everthing I

needed to learn, and a well crafted route to get me there.

“It took a team of engineers using expensive software to make it happen. Once it was built, I still had to rely on our developer team as I didn’t have experience analyzing raw data.”

“This quickly became both time consuming and expensive. I decided that I needed to start learning data science for myself.”

“At first, I relied on individual books and courses and had to craft my own curriculum. I felt paralysis from all the options out there.”

“I had tried some MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). They were just videos of lectures which take too long to watch. Videos will get you excited, but they’re not good for learning the detail.”

“Dataquest teaches me everything I need to know without the $50,000 degree. It’s self-paced, and I love learning by doing.”

Wes explained how Dataquest took away the guesswork of trying to learn by himself. “It gave me a curriculum that covered everything I needed to learn, and a well-crafted route to get there.”

“Dataquest’s project-based learning is so important. They give me an opportunity to apply exactly what I’m learning as I’m learning it.”

Wes’s hard work has paid off. He is about to join Cru, an international faith-based non-profit. “With about 25,000 employees, I’ll be joining their Data Sciences & Analytics Team.

“I’ll be working with all kinds of data. Web analytics, donations and more. I’m excited to jump full-time into a data science role and apply my skills for a cause I believe in.”

When asked whether he would recommend Dataquest, Wes does not hesitate. “Absolutely. It’s affordable and has everything you need to know, combined with guided real-time help.”