Tableau is a data visualization software tool. Used commonly for data analysis and business intelligence (BI), Tableau helps companies make informed decisions by conveying market trends and customer behavior for more accurate business forecasting. With Tableau, you can transform raw data into charts, maps, dashboards, graphs, and stories.
As our world runs more and more online, our world runs more and more on data. According to Forbes, 90% of the world’s data has been created in the past two years, with more than 2.5 quintillion data being generated daily. Everything we do online leaves a data footprint: what we upload to our social media feeds, what we purchase online, which websites we visit, and what kinds of videos and music we enjoy. Everywhere you go on the internet leaves a trail of data behind you.
This data is invaluable for businesses that want to make informed decisions. Tableau helps over 50,000 companies follow these data footprints to make profitable, strategic business decisions, including companies like Walmart, Whole Foods, Adobe, Verizon, Linkedin, Amazon, Ferrari, Nike, and The New York Times.
Tableau was founded in 2003 in California but quickly relocated to Seattle, Washington. It was acquired by Salesforce in 2019 for nearly 16 billion dollars, the highest acquisition by Salesforce until they purchased Slack in 2020 for nearly $30 billion.
What Tableau Can Do
Tableau can be used to query relational databases and cloud databases, online analytical processing, and generate spreadsheets with graph-style data visualizations. It can also extract, store, and retrieve data from any source.
Some of the top features of Tableau include:
- Data discovery and exploration
- No prior programming knowledge required
- Connects to data sources not supported by other BI platforms
- Creates reports from blended datasets
- Supports a centralized location for published data management and sources within an organization
Tableau isn’t a single program: it’s a suite of eight programs with unique functions and features. The Tableau product suite includes Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online, Tableau Reader, and Tableau Mobile.
You can use Tableau Desktop to create dashboards, charts, and graphs. Tableau Online and Tableau Mobile offer fewer features than the Desktop version but make your dashboards visible from anywhere.
Despite all of this power, Tableau is easy to use and learn. Even those without any coding or technical experience can learn how to use Tableau to perform data analysis. However, Tableau is especially vital for professional Data Scientists, Data Analysts, Business Analysts, Business Intelligence Developers, and Tableau Developers. The average salary for a Tableau Developer in the U.S. is $115,000.
Tableau and Data Careers
Learning Tableau is an excellent way to begin training for a career in data science or data analysis. Data science is an interdisciplinary field that merges statistics and mathematics with computer science, including algorithms, data structures and management, and machine learning.
In 2012, the Harvard Business Review predicted that data science would be “the most promising career of the 21st century.” Data science is consistently ranked in the top 3 careers in the United States for the past 7 years.Fortune reports a growth surge of 480% in data science jobs since 2016: growing from 1,700 data science jobs to over 10,000.
Fortune also reports that data scientists have a high level of job satisfaction (4.1 out of 5) and a median base salary of $120,000: that’s more than double the national median base salary in the United States of $51,000. On CNBC’s list of top jobs that pay more than $100,000 a year, Data Scientist was ranked #1.
While more and more colleges are offering data science programs, you can get the training you need to learn Tableau and become a data professional without having to get a college degree in the topic.
Learn Tableau
NYIM has data analytics courses for people who want to learn Tableau or start a new career in data. NYIM offers all courses live online or on its state-of-the-art campus in Midtown Manhattan. All NYIM’s courses are taught by experts in their industry, which means you’ll also gain a mentor and a network in addition to career training. NYIM uses a unique approach to tech education: your instructor will teach a “micro-lecture” on a topic and immediately guide the class through a hands-on, real-world project to apply what they learn.
NYIM offers two levels of Tableau training and a Tableau Bootcamp, combining Level I and II for a discounted price. In Tableau Level I (Intro to Tableau), students are introduced to data visualization using Tableau. This course guides students through data identification, exploration and analysis, and creating unique data visualizations.
Graduates of Level I are eligible to enroll in NYIM’s Tableau Level II (Advanced Tableau) course to develop more advanced skills, including an introduction to data maps, creating visualization maps, designing custom charts, and advanced data manipulations.
Or you can save by taking both courses as a Tableau Bootcamp. This bootcamp has no prerequisites, so you can attend as a total beginner.
If you’re interested in Tableau because you want to start a new career in data, Tableau Bootcamp can be applied to NYIM’s Data Analytics Certificate. In addition to advanced training in Tableau, students learn advanced skills in Microsoft Excel, coding in Python (the most popular programming language in the world), using SQL for database querying, interpreting data results, and writing machine learning algorithms. Graduates earn a New York State Licensed Certificate in Data Analytics.
