Data School Cohort 34 (DS34) has had the pleasure of starting their Alteryx journey very recently and we set them a surprise challenge at 4 pm on a Wednesday after having worked with Alteryx for just 3.5 days without any particular Micro-Credentials exam prep. This is how it went:
Does this mean the micro-credentials is too easy? Definitely not, it is exactly at the right level for a beginner. Us coaches have taken the certification. Whilst we all passed, there were questions we had to lookup, double check and we even learned a few things whilst we're at it! And we have been using Alteryx for the past 4 to 5 years...
Was it mean of us to ask them to take this certification after 3.5 days of training without prior notice? Maybe...
Did it come to a surprise to us that they all passed? No but they outperformed our expectations when it came to scores, impressive indeed.
Why did we ask them to take this certification so early?
Well, we use the Alteryx Core Certification as a benchmark for themselves to see how much they've learned after just 2 weeks. When you join the Data School (as I did myself not that long ago), training days are intense and exciting. It is easy to start comparing yourself to other people around you and loose track of how much you've grown yourself.
We don't expect people to pass the Core Certification after 2 weeks, mainly because there are so many factors you encounter during the exam. One of which is being able to deal with questions you don't know the answer to.
We spend a lot of the early days getting everyone used to the Alteryx Designer interface, all the different features and how to find out what something does if you forgot (as I'm sure everyone does). The faster you are at knowing were to go, the more chance you have on passing the Alteryx Core Certification, as there is a time limit!
Thus, implementing the Alteryx Micro-Credentials exam without notice allows the Data Schoolers to practice what we've preached without preparation to face them with a lot of questions they don't know the answer to! But they are able to find out within a matter of seconds! Keeping it hidden from them allowed us to keep their focus during training and let them absorb as much as possible.
We've captured some of the emotion and feedback we've gotten from DS34, have a look and this might help you on your Alteryx journey as well:
- Nerves and excitement at the same time.
- Most of them didn't feel they were ready for it.
- The Certification interface was clean and easy to manoeuvre through.
- Having a second screen was almost a must given the need to use both Alteryx Designer and have the browser open.
We're very grateful to Alteryx for creating this Certification as I'm sure it will help DS34 who are going to take the Core Certification tomorrow!