Unreasonable Data Science Certifications

Certifications are an excellent way to showcase your talent.

Certifications works as a motivator to stretch yourselves a little bit into unchartered territory and expand your knowledge base. On the flip side, few certifications and courses, especially in the field of Data Science are unreasonably expensive and unbound or shallow in scope.

Certification Industry

Certification is a business. It is a good one (especially the pay-to-renew or else it will expire part of it). The ecosystem of the training and platforms supporting the certification industry is also huge.

Personally, I have benefitted from getting certified and have multiple certifications in Project Management and various cloud platforms. I seriously believe that getting certified forces you to get outside your comfort zone, learn something new and add value to yourself, so that you can become a problem-solver.

For the purpose of this article, we will look at certifications that stand out for various reasons like cost, scope, or claims and seem unreasonable:

1. The Association of Data Scientists (ADaSci) — Chartered Data Scientist
2. Data Science Council of America (DASCA) — Principal Data Scientist
3. MOOC — Professional Data Science Certificates

I will also provide some thoughts on what better options we all have.

The Association of Data Scientists (ADaSci) — Chartered Data Scientist

Claim to fame: ADaSci claims that their “Chartered Data Scientist” certification is the highest distinction in the data science profession.

“By achieving your CDS certification, you indicate to potential employers that you have the required knowledge of the field, providing you with an edge in your career and professional development.” How to Earn the CDS Charter

Scope: A quick review of the learning objectives ( How to Earn the CDS Charter) shows that the ask is to have all the theoretical knowledge.

Requirements: You have to pass a 3 hour, 150 multiple question choice online test, in addition to having at least two years of full-time experience.

Audience: The target market for this certification ranges from students to established practitioners.

Analysis:

1. The cost of the certification is comparable to others in the industry ($250.00)
2. The name of the certification though impressive, signifies deep specialization in one area, therefore “Chartered”. In my view, Data Science is an area where problem-solving skills that demand the application of knowledge is primary, as compared to deep knowledge about any one particular area.
3. The massive breadth of theoretical bookish knowledge needed for this certification makes it undesirable and dents its value proposition. It can take up to 60 days for your certification results to come, I wonder why?

Data Science Council of America (DASCA) — Principal Data Scientist

Claim to fame: DASCA is the World’s Foremost Standards & Credentialing Body for the Data Science Profession.

The Data Scientist credentialing track of the Data Science Council of America addresses credentialing requirements of senior, accomplished professionals who specialize in managing and leading Big Data strategies and programs for organizations and have proven competence in leveraging Big Data technologies for generating mission-critical information for organizations and businesses.

Scope: A quick review of the learning objectives ( How to Earn the CDS Charter) shows that the ask is to have all the theoretical knowledge.

Requirements: You could take any one of the four tracks to get certified. For example, if you apply via the open route (Track 4), your application first runs past an acceptance-check, and if you are finally selected, you study up and qualify the PDS™ Level I online exam to eventually reach the final PDS™ Level II stage.

Audience: From the description on their website, it looks like this is meant for extremely seasoned professionals.

Principal Data Scientist

PDS™ is one big snob of a qualification to hanker for if you’re a gray head with 10+ years or more of accomplished experience in leading Big Data revolutions in large, complex environments, and a Graduate/ Master’s degree in Business/ Technology/ Mathematics or any of the allied disciplines to boot. You’ll be scanned for your contributions to pushing frontiers of Data Science led information management in the organizations you may have worked for, and the leaps of faith, profitability, and market share you’ve left behind as a legacy.

Analysis:

1. This is unreasonably expensive for a certification. It will cost you around $950.00, based on the track you choose.
2. The Senior and Principal prefix to the certification makes no sense. It mimics the hierarchical thought process. Associate and then a main certification seems more appropriate.
3. The pre-requisites for this certification is a huge deterrent. If you have already pushed frontiers and have 10+ years of experience in Big Data, I don’t see a reason to get this certification.

MOOC — Professional Data Science Certificates

Claim to fame: Most MOOC courses are designed and delivered by reputed institutions via platforms like Coursera, Udacity, Edx, and others.

Scope: These courses are very focused and streamlined. Multiple courses can be aligned and sequenced to make broader complete sense.

Requirements: Anyone can access these courses at their own convenience and get a certificate at the completion of the course requirements.

Audience: MOOC courses are designed for mass consumption by a varied audience. The decision of whether a course is appropriate and meaningful is up to the consumer to determine.

Analysis:

1. MOOC courses are affordable and can range from free to $200 dollars a month and eventually becoming expensive.
2. The course material is definitely of high quality. However, most of them are designed to get your feet wet and not to build expertise.
3. The challenge with these courses, in general, is the motivation to engage and keep it long enough to complete the course.

Better options

Data Science Bootcamps, self-study courses, and certifications from cloud providers who are leading in your industry makes more sense.

The skills you will gain in the process can be immediately applied and are more practical in nature. These can be used to solve real-world problems, NOW.

The intent of these boot camps, self-study courses, and certifications is not to make your resume look good. The idea behind spending time and money on these activities is to get skilled and add value to yourself. This will allow you to solve problems at work, in your personal business, hobby, or passion. It will not equip you to eradicate world hunger, but it will enable you to keep your boat afloat for long.

References:

1. The Association of Data Scientists
2. Data Science Council of America

Originally published at https://www.emerging.careers on December 31, 2020.