Is 30 Too Old to Learn Tableau?

It’s never too late to learn a new skill, including Tableau. No matter your age, you can pick up Tableau skills in no time. Students and working professionals at various stages of their careers use the program, demonstrating its ease of use and how easy it is to catch on to the interface and tools Tableau presents to users. 

Why Learn Tableau at 30?

You can learn Tableau at any stage in your life, without any prior skills or knowledge of data manipulation or visualization. Although it can help to understand similar programs, like Excel, or the basics of data management, it’s not a necessity to start learning Tableau. Most students looking to learn Tableau do so for one of two reasons: to start a new career or to advance within their current field. As such, many individuals looking to learn Tableau are 30 years of age or older. 

Learning Tableau at 30 or older can prove the best age to learn at depending on your learning goals. If you feel stuck in your current career path, learning Tableau and related skills can help you make the change you need. Professionals across fields use Tableau, including those in business, marketing, financial services, and government. Whether you’re looking to transition to a new field or want to advance within your own, knowing Tableau can help you stand out to potential employers. Marketing your knowledge of Tableau shows that you understand how to work with data, how to create data visualizations, and that you’re likely to have the communication skills necessary to explain data to others. 

By the time you turn 30, it’s also likely that you understand your learning needs. Knowing how you learn best can benefit you when learning Tableau. If you know that you need to learn in a traditional classroom setting, you can look for in-person Tableau classes to enroll in. Likewise, if you’d prefer to learn Tableau on your own, it’s likely that by now you know how to find the motivation you need to self-teach. 

How Long Will It Take to Learn Tableau?

Learning Tableau takes roughly two to six months to learn. On the lower end of that time frame, you can understand the basic functions of Tableau and become generally familiar with the platform and its interface. This includes gaining the ability to create dashboards, reports, and charts. If you’re looking to learn the basics of Tableau in a short period, you can enroll in a short-term Tableau bootcamp that will introduce you to Tableau and the basics of data visualization over the course of several days. 

It usually takes learners around six months to become experts in Tableau. After six months of training, most have managed to master the foundations of the platform and understand more advanced functions. If you’d like more than a foundational understanding of Tableau, it’s recommended that you enroll in an advanced bootcamp or certification course. Long-term bootcamps or bootcamps that cover data science more broadly will have you spending lots of time working in Tableau and learning about data science. Certification courses will prepare you for a career using Tableau, as you work toward the proficiency expected to pass the Tableau Specialist Certification Exam. 

How long it takes you to learn Tableau depends in part on your learning methods. The more time you spend learning Tableau and working on the platform, the faster you’ll master it. Taking a Tableau class, in addition to working on projects in Tableau outside of class, is the most efficient way to develop mastery. You may also opt to self-teach, but doing so comes with the drawback of not having an instructor to turn to to ask questions or receive feedback. Additionally, those with prior experience using Excel or R may find themselves more comfortable using Tableau at first than learners with no prior experience with or knowledge of data visualization. 

Ways to Make Learning Tableau Easier and Quicker

If you want to learn Tableau efficiently, sign up for live Tableau training. Live training comes in a range of modalities and schedules, from in-person to live online training, and part-time to full-time schedules on weekdays, evenings, or weekends. 

In-person Tableau classes take place in a physical classroom at a scheduled time. This option best suits students who like learning face-to-face in a traditional classroom or, in many cases, a computer lab. Live training in Tableau emphasizes developing communication skills, and in an in-person class, you’ll have the chance to work in a 1-on-1 or group setting. 

In-person training provides a sense of familiarity to learners returning to the classroom environment after some time. However, this option requires commuting to a class, which may not always work with your schedule. In this case, you can enroll in a live online class. 

Live online classes take place in a virtual classroom setting. Students log in to a video conferencing platform, like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, and learn remotely from a live instructor. Live online classes still emphasize the importance of developing soft skills, like communication, although students communicate with each other remotely. This learning option provides students the opportunity for flexible learning, as they can attend classes from the comfort of their home or office, taught by an instructor anywhere in the world. 

Many training centers offer Tableau classes and bootcamps in part-time or full-time schedules. Part-time courses allow students to work around their work or school schedules, often taking place in the evening or on weekends. This is the slower of the two learning options, but it allows students the time to space out lessons and ensure that they fully grasp course material before the class moves on to the next lesson or project. 

Full-time classes usually run all day long, during most days of the week. These intensive courses allow students to cover material faster than part-time classes, although full-time programs can still run for weeks or even months depending on the topic. There’s not usually a price difference between part-time and full-time programs, so students usually decide on which schedule to enroll in based on their availability and how quickly they need to learn Tableau.

Tableau Classes in Your Area

Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers a Tableau for Data Visualization Bootcamp at their NYC location and live online. The bootcamp covers the field of data visualization and the features and tools that Tableau provides to help you create maps, charts, graphs, and other visual representations of data. In the bootcamp, you will first learn how to identify data sets before moving on to working in Tableau. The course follows this introductory section up with lessons on calculating in Tableau, formatting your visualization, and distributing and publishing your visualization. 

The second module of the bootcamp moves students toward more advanced visualizations and mapping in Tableau. During this module, you’ll receive an introduction to mapping data before learning how to create visualization maps, dual-axis charts, dashboards, and stories. This is a hands-on bootcamp, so you can expect to work on projects throughout its duration. In the second module, you’ll spend supervised class time working with provided data or your own data to work on an individual project. Previous projects students have worked on included bar charts, heat maps, and geographical maps. 

No prior knowledge is required to enroll in Noble Desktop’s Tableau Bootcamp. Tuition is $499, which is due in full before the bootcamp begins. Included in the price of tuition are 12 hours of instruction, a proprietary workbook, a digital certificate of completion awarded after the bootcamp has ended, and a free retake within one year. 

NYIM Training

Enroll in NYIM Training’s Tableau Level I course to learn the basics of the data visualization platform. During the six-hour session, students learn about data visualization and the tools offered by Tableau Public, Tableau’s free online platform, under the guidance of an expert instructor. They’ll work toward developing practical skills as they work on exercises to identify datasets which they can then explore, analyze, filter, and structure for an aesthetically pleasing and descriptive visualization. Students will also learn about advanced Tableau tools, such as using filters, the detail panel, and the size panels. As the course wraps up, the instructor will cover how to distribute and publish visualizations in Tableau. 

NYIM offers this course in-person and live online. The class costs $299, which is due in full before your scheduled session. NYIM Training offers setup assistance to students enrolled in the live online version of the course.

Students looking for an advanced-level education in Tableau can enroll in Tableau Level II after completing Tableau Level I with NYIM Training. The advanced-level class introduces students to topics and tools not covered in Tableau Level I, including data mapping and custom charts. Like most of their classes, NYIM offers the course in-person and live online. During Tableau Level II, students will learn about the mapping features that Tableau offers before learning about and working on visualization maps like choropleth maps, spider maps, proportional symbol maps, and density maps. Tuition for Tableau Level II is the same as for Tableau Level I; however, if you enroll in NYIM Training’s Tableau Bootcamp, which combines lessons from Tableau Level I and Tableau Level II, you can save 15% on tuition.

Ledet Training

Ledet Training’s Tableau 101 provides students with lessons on foundational Tableau concepts and tools. During the two-day live online course, students will gain hands-on experience with Tableau as they work on real-world projects intended to equip them with the skills necessary to succeed in data analysis and visualization. Beginner and intermediate-level students who would like to improve their abilities to explore, understand, and gain insights from data sources can enroll in the course. No previous experience is required to enroll in Tableau 101, although the course commonly appeals to business executives, data science professionals, and data-driven marketers who may have some experience using Tableau or similar platforms. 

Of the several variants of Tableau offered, Tableau 101 teaches students how to connect their data in Tableau Desktop. Lessons, therefore, cover Tableau Desktop terminology, explore core Tableau Desktop concepts, and provide students with plenty of hands-on experience using Tableau Desktop. The curriculum centers on core Tableau features, such as filters, measures, and dimensions, to simplify and organize data, create basic calculations, and show breakdowns of data in various forms, like heat maps, geographical maps, and cross tabs. 

ONLC Training Centers

Students looking to take advantage of all the tools and features that Tableau has to offer can enroll in ONLC Training Centers’ Tableau Desktop Level 1 course. The class welcomes beginners unfamiliar with Tableau looking to expand their skill set and make their organization’s use of data more efficient and effective. ONLC also encourages professionals who have not used Tableau in a while to enroll as a means of refreshing concepts and tools, along with data professionals who use other data visualization tools interested in pivoting to Tableau for work. 

Tableau Desktop Level 1 starts students off learning the fundamentals of Tableau. Lessons begin with covering the cycle of analytics, how to connect to data, and visualize data. Once students have progressed past the introductory lesson, the class instructor will guide students through the process of working with data in Tableau. Over the three-day class, lessons will begin to steer toward how to create more advanced visualizations, including visualizations that require dates and times, and visualizations that compare different measures. 

This comprehensive course encourages students to dig deep into Tableau and its functions, as well as data visualizations. A section of the class covers techniques, tips, and tricks for creating advanced visualizations and several demo lessons to ensure that students have a thorough understanding of the platform and how to use it to create visualizations that tell stories and allow the creator to make data-driven decisions. Students looking for a more basic introduction to Tableau can enroll in ONLC Training Centers’ Tableau Desktop Level 1: Introduction for Novice Users. 

Tuition for Tableau Desktop Level 1 is $1,495. Students can take advantage of ONLC’s Learning Credits offer, which allows them to prepay for training and receive volume discounting. Groups interested in learning Tableau can also opt for group training. To enroll in ONLC’s Tableau Level 1 course, students must have experience using Microsoft Excel, including Pivot Tables and calculations in the software program. Students will walk away from the course with the foundation needed to enroll in the Tableau Desktop Specialist Exam.