HOW I EARNED (HACKED) A GOOGLE CAREER CERTIFICATE.

• Author: Kim, Anne

After writing for years about the benefits of certificates and short-term credential programs, especially for working learners, I had begun to feel inauthentic, like a self-help guru who doesn't take her own advice. So I finally enrolled in one this spring: Google's "career certificate" program in data analytics, available online through Coursera for $39 a month.

With more than 6.5 million learners enrolled worldwide, Google is one of Coursera's "top instructors," offering a multitude of certificates in a panoply of languages from Arabic to Spanish. I thought I was gunning for a certificate. What I actually got was a lesson in humility.

Google's data analytics program is its most popular offering. The program consists of eight separate courses with titles like "Prepare Data for Exploration" and "Process Data from Dirty to Clean." Course materials consist of short videos, quizzes, readings, and optional practice activities. Students can also post on message boards to engage with other enrollees.

Production values are slick, with soft lighting and catchy music, and the content is high quality--this is Google, after all. Modules are succinct and logical; the instructors, all of whom are Google employees, are lucid and charismatic. The course does an exceptionally strong job of explaining what data analysts do, with mini monologues by upbeat Google workers describing their backgrounds and jobs. Also laudable is the focus on soft skills, like collaboration and teamwork. One module, for example, talks about the importance of finding mentors and building networks, while another segment tackles how to handle conflicts with colleagues. Instructors are also refreshingly diverse. In an industry infamously dominated by white men, only one instructor appeared to meet that description.

But the program's central conceit--to "equip participants with the essential skills they need to get a job" with no degree or prior experience required--is also its central weakness. Google's aim to make the program accessible to all learners means the material is basic, and the pacing frustratingly slow. It's not until the final module of Course 4, more than 100 hours into the program, according to the syllabus, that students begin to work with formulas for data analysis, like calculating averages. It's not until the very end, Course 7, that students finally get to work with the programming language R, and even then, we were only introduced to a handful of commands.

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