The Curious Case of Why.

Before doing something new, be it professional or personal, a question I ask myself is: “Why do it?”

As a computer science major pursuing a new career path, I’ve had my fair share of Why(s) and Why not(s). After doing a great deal of research and introspecting what I’m good at, I realized I was quite drawn to marketing and branding.

Once I knew what I wanted to do, I grabbed a pencil and started writing down all the skills, tools I’d need to learn, searched for books (my preferred method of learning) — I was essentially making a roadmap.

“Data-driven decision making” is one phrase I encountered repeatedly across blogs and LinkedIn posts. This indicated that the ability to analyze numbers is a critical skill for marketers. Understanding the reasoning and measurable objectives behind an action through careful analysis is crucial for guiding strategy and evaluating success.

Consequently, I started working on my analytics skills and made a list of topics I wanted to learn. Among the items on this list were market research market trends, customer insights, and consumer behavior. I’ll soon write about them too!

To gain familiarity with web analytics tools, I chose Google Analytics as my starting point. Google offers beginner courses that provide a strong foundation in analytics concepts and how to use their platform specifically. Many consider Google Analytics slightly easier to learn than Adobe Analytics. Additionally, Google Analytics does not require a paid subscription like Adobe’s tool does.

By first becoming familiar with the free Google Analytics courses, I aimed to establish baseline analytics knowledge. This would make picking up other tools like Adobe Analytics easier down the line. Starting with Google Analytics allowed hands-on experience without financial commitment, setting me up to expand my skills.

I am writing this post to document my progress and learnings in the hopes that it may prove useful for others in the future, which would make me quite happy.

A few key skills mentioned above can help land a job or freelance gig, especially in marketing, branding, and product sales roles. These include abilities that are quite common yet important among professionals in those fields. Will soon write an in-depth article about Google analytics and its new upgrade that’s been quite a talk of the town!

Ciao for now!!!