Rosablanche

From zero to hero in less than a month, my journey to the Tableau Desktop Specialist certification.

Tableau is a very popular visualisation tool and high in demand on the job market so I figured it would be a good skill to learn. Here’s how I did it.

1. Get set up with Tableau Public

I signed up to Tableau Public, 99% of the features of Tableau Desktop for free. Sign up here and download the app.

2. Take two structured courses on Udemy

I followed 2 courses on Udemy:

Tableau Desktop for Data Analysis & Data Visualization | Udemy

Advanced Tableau for Business Intelligence & Data Analysis | Udemy

There are a lot of Tableau tutorials available on the internet for free (including on the Tableau website) but I wanted some structured learning so I went down that route.

Note: wait for a coupon to buy the courses. There are coupons very frequently on Udemy and then you can get the course for ~$15.

The first course is the most relevant to the certification. From the 2nd, you only need the sections below:

• Relationships
• Parameter & Set Actions
• Geospatial Mapping (standard maps)
• Advanced Calculations

Here are my course notes down below — they were enough to answer the theory questions

3. Check your skills against the exam guide

check out the certification page and make sure you don’t have any knowledge gaps compared to the measured skills listed in the exam prep guide. Do the mock exam.

Additional mock questions and exercises here.

Download the free trial version of Tableau Desktop here and get familiar with the interface as you will be tested with it.

4. Register for the certification

back to the certification page, check your system for minimal requirement following the Exam setup guide link and register for the certification. It costs $100.

Notes on the exam:

• Webcam and microphone mandatory, but no headset allowed. I had to purchase a separate microphone for that exam as I couldn’t use my headset.
• You don’t have to be in a special room but make sure there’s no one around and no books, papers or phone visible. The proctor will ask you to do a 360° with your webcam to check this. You will also have to show your desk. I emptied all my bookshelves prior to the exam, removed all the papers from the desk. I only kept the keyboard and a jug of water.
• The pre-exam checks will take a good 15 minutes.
• Then, you will be connected to a virtual environment which has Tableau Desktop available and a browser. A 3rd of the questions are practical questions where you need to find the answer through a viz. Therefore, you do need to know your way around Tableau. With the browser, you can google the theory questions if you’re stuck, but then you’ll waste time, so google wisely.
• Beware if you have an exotic keyboard. The main languages are available in the virtual environment: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese. However, I have a Swiss keyboard and couldn’t find all the symbols I needed.