BookmarkSubscribeRSS Feed
bhaskarda2k2
Calcite | Level 5

Dear Member,

 

I am a new entrant to this global community where I am seeking advises and guidance for getting into SAS and other related contents for Data Analytics.

I am seeking following advises

1- Being a NON IT professional and having 12+ yrs of Banking and Financial experience can I venture into this field?

2-What are the pre-requisite eligibility for SAS courses?

3-How can I path my career into Data Analytics and Big Data Analytics.?

I am MBA-(Finance)

 

Regards

Bhaskar Kar

India

1 REPLY 1
Cynthia_sas
SAS Super FREQ

Hi, Bhaskar:

  I can point in a direction for some, but not all of your questions.

 

  Question #1: You do not have to be an IT professional to learn how to use SAS. There is no prior programming knowledge required to take the beginning Programming 1 course. For the Statistics 1 course, we only recommend an undergraduate level knowledge of statistics, including p-values, analysis of variance, hypothesis testing and regression. You can review the full course outlines for these 2 courses by following these links to the web site for each course:

Programming 1: https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?ctry=us&crs=PROG1 

Statistics 1: https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?ctry=us&crs=STAT1 

 

Question #2: SAS is a software company. We do not operate like a college or university or vocational school where you apply for admission for an academic degree program. So, as I explained for #1, there are no fixed prerequisites to start taking course. Later on, as you move into other classes, you will find that some classes have other SAS classes recommended as a prerequisite. For example, the Multivariate Analysis class recommends Statistics 2 as a prerequisite. But you have to check each class for the recommended level of skills we expect for you to take that class.

 

Question #3: I'd recommend starting with "regular" Data Analytics and then worry about the "Big Data" Analytics later. We have some Hadoop and Big Data classes, for example, but if you don't know how to perform regressions with "regular" data working with Big Data isn't going to suddenly be easier. As an example, take a look at the prerequisites for the Introduction to SAS and Hadoop class: https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?ctry=us&crs=DIACCHAD#s1=2 where it recommends:

"Before attending this course, you should be comfortable programming in SAS and Structured Query Language (SQL). You can gain this experience from the SAS SQL 1: Essentials course. You can gain knowledge of SAS from the SAS Programming 1: Essentials course. A working knowledge of Hadoop is helpful. This course addresses SAS/ACCESS Interface to Hadoop."

 

  And this is even before you get into the world of analytics -- this class is all about getting your data into and out of Hadoop and building your subsets for analysis.

 

  And another challenge is that many of the advanced tools (such as Enterprise Miner and SAS Visual Analytics) that are used for Data Mining and predictive analytics with "big data" are not available for student practice. So if you don't have the advanced software at work or school for practicing, then it's probably better to focus on the more universal ways of performing analytics with SAS.

 

  We have 2 certifications that you can practice for using our free learning version software (SAS University Edition).  So, the best place to start, if you are completely new to SAS software, is with our Programming 1 class. After Programming 1, you could take Programming 2, or you could move into the Statistical area and take Statistics 1. If you are interested in SAS certification, we have several certification areas that might be of interest to you:
Base SAS Programmer certification: http://support.sas.com/certify/creds/bp.html  
Certified Statistical Business Analyst certification: http://support.sas.com/certify/creds/sba.html

 

  The Base SAS Programmer certification focuses on Programming 1 and Programming 2 topics, without regard to statistical analysis because you have to know how to access, subset and manipulate your data before you can more into analysis. Then, the Statistical Business Analyst certification focuses on topics from Statistics 1 and the Predictive Modeling using Logistic Regression classes.  

If you go to the "Exam Preparation" tab on each web site, you will see the classes that are the best preparation for each exam. So in terms of specific class recommendations, the Exam Preparation information on these sites is the best list of classes that I can refer you to. When you look on the Exam Preparation tab, every course title is a link that will take you to the web page for a course. The above are only 2 of the certifications that we offer. 

 

  Other Community Members may have other suggestions about certifications or comments on their experience with training and certifications or some insight about how to move your career path into Data Analytics. As an instructor, my approach is to recommend training and since I'm a SAS instructor, I recommend SAS training. But you could equally well study books or hire a tutor or take college classes.

 

  SAS India offers bootcamp training classes and you can see their locations on the web site here: http://www.sas.com/en_in/training/home.html#locations and here http://www.sas.com/en_in/training/home.html#find-a-course  are the "bootcamp" classes focused on data science and "big data". They organize their training slightly differently from how we organize it in the United States, so if you want to explore your training options in India, then you might want to contact the Education Department in SAS India. Their email is sasindiatraining@sas.com.

 

  I hope this answers some of your questions or gets you thinking about classes or skills that you might look at.

 

cynthia

sas-innovate-2024.png

Join us for SAS Innovate April 16-19 at the Aria in Las Vegas. Bring the team and save big with our group pricing for a limited time only.

Pre-conference courses and tutorials are filling up fast and are always a sellout. Register today to reserve your seat.

 

Register now!

Discussion stats
  • 1 reply
  • 769 views
  • 0 likes
  • 2 in conversation