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Clip Replay: Are Tableau Certifications a Vendor side hustle ? - 2023 in Review

Are analytics vendors quietly turning certifications into a side hustle off the back of their own customers?

Tim Ngwena •3 January 2024 •1 min read •4 min watch •357

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Tableau certifications carry steep exam costs, usually borne by your employer or consultancy, and the revenue flows back to the vendor.
Alteryx offers its first two exams free, lowering the barrier so anyone can prove foundational competence and have something to show for it.
Annual recertification becomes tedious, and impending platform changes like Tableau Pulse and new AI features make it worth waiting for things to settle before certifying.
Tableau offers a Business Intelligence Analyst Professional Certificate on Coursera, an eight-course series running roughly eight months at ten hours a week, with the first three courses being fairly generic BI content.

0:00[static]

0:02Let's talk about Tableau certifications

0:04very, very quickly.

0:05Tableau certifications.

0:08Basically, my thing with this is that I

0:13think there's something going on

0:16with analytics companies having cert

0:19ifications, creating requirements,

0:22and essentially creating what I would call

0:24a side hustle out of its customers,

0:28because those customers want to see people

0:30that are accredited and validated.

0:33Some of the charges and costs to do some of

0:36these exams are quite steep.

0:38Now, thankfully, normally it's your

0:41organization

0:41that's sometimes paying for this.

0:43Sometimes it's, if you work for a

0:45consultancy,

0:45it's your consultancy paying for it.

0:47But this all goes back to the analytics

0:50vendor, Tableau,

0:52to make these now. A comparator is Alteryx.

0:55Alteryx, I think the first two exams are

0:57free.

0:57So the equivalent of the specialist exam is

1:00free.

1:00That means everyone can get certified and

1:02prove

1:02that they know what they're doing very

1:04easily

1:05and just get the certification done.

1:07And that's actually quite an important

1:08thing

1:08because it allows people to dip their toes

1:11in know enough,

1:12but also have something to show for that

1:14energy and effort.

1:15Now, with the certifications,

1:18I haven't renewed any of my certifications

1:20recently at all.

1:21I once had every certification under the

1:23sun.

1:24They've changed them as well.

1:25I've even helped work behind the scenes

1:28to improve some of these certifications as

1:30well.

1:30So I'm not saying that they're a bad thing.

1:32I've just gotten bored of recertifying

1:35every single year.

1:36And it's just, unless I actually have to,

1:40I'll just sort of try not to, if I'm honest

1:44.

1:44This is getting a little bit boring.

1:46And the platform is about to change a whole

1:48ton.

1:49So the other thing I'm worried about is

1:50doing the certification

1:51and then having things like Tableau Pulse

1:53and all this AI features come in.

1:56And then next year, there's two more cert

1:57ifications.

1:58I just want this all to settle so then I

2:00can go and do it properly.

2:01So it's kind of interesting.

2:03There is one that's not on here on Coursera

2:06.

2:06So there is a Tableau certification on Cour

2:08sera, the platform itself.

2:09That's a super interesting thing.

2:12Let's just, everything's super interesting,

2:14according to my phraseology.

2:16So Tableau Business Intelligence Analyst

2:18Professional Certificate.

2:20Here we go. I've searched it before.

2:21So this is it. This is the Coursera course.

2:248,000 have already enrolled. It starts in

2:27December the 20th.

2:28It starts today. Oh, my word. Enroll for

2:32free.

2:32Included with Coursera Plus.

2:36How many eight months at 10 hours a week?

2:38Oh, that's a hefty toll, isn't it?

2:40That feels like it compared to my YouTube

2:42channel.

2:42I better check it out.

2:44But no, stuff like this is super

2:47interesting.

2:48I would be intrigued to see what the body

2:50of content in here is like.

2:52Oh, actually, you do get it. So eight

2:54course series,

2:55Introduction to Business Intelligence,

2:56Business Analysis, Data Ecosystem,

2:59Introduction to Tableau, Data Visualization

3:02,

3:02Advanced Data Visualization, Data Analysis.

3:04So, yeah, the first three courses are kind

3:07of generic.

3:08I think they might already include content

3:11made elsewhere.

3:12I'm not sure if this has all been made by

3:14Tableau.

3:15Instructor is Tableau. Yeah, Tableau

3:18Learning Partner Instructor.

3:20Tableau Learning Partner. What does that

3:22mean?

3:22That's a really interesting phraseology,

3:25isn't it?

3:25So these are all the courses.

3:28Do we get… If you've done this, let me

3:32know.

3:33I'd love to know someone who started this.

3:35I'd love to know what the content is. Maybe

3:37I should do it.

3:38I've had some dealings with Coursera

3:40which relates to their Google Analytics

3:41course.

3:43I'll come to that later. But, yeah, we'll

3:46move on from certifications.

3:47I'm just finding certifications a little

3:49bit tricky at the moment.

3:50So maybe I'll just sort of buckle up and do

3:52them properly.

3:53Okay. Thank you.

3:55[ Silence ]

4:03[ Silence ]

Rollup

Tim gives his honest take on Tableau certifications, questioning whether analytics vendors have turned accreditation into a revenue stream off their own customers, and contrasts this with how Alteryx handles its entry-level exams.

The Breakdown

Certifications as a vendor side hustle 0:02

Tim argues that analytics vendors create certification requirements that customers then demand, effectively turning accreditation into a business built on top of their own user base. The costs of these exams can be steep, even though it's often your employer or consultancy footing the bill rather than you personally.
Alteryx's free entry-level exams as a contrast 0:41

Alteryx offers its first two exams free, meaning anyone can get certified at the entry level without a financial barrier. Tim sees this as valuable because it lets people dip their toes in, prove basic competence, and have something to show for their effort without needing organisational backing.
Why he's stopped renewing his own certifications 1:20

Tim once held every Tableau certification going and has even helped shape some of them behind the scenes, but he's stopped recertifying annually simply because he's grown bored of the cycle. He now only recertifies when he actually has to.
Waiting for the platform to settle first 1:41

With major changes like Tableau Pulse and new AI features on the way, Tim is wary of certifying now only to find new certifications appear next year to cover the new features. His approach is to wait until things settle before committing the time to do it properly.
Tableau's Business Intelligence Analyst Professional Certificate on Coursera 2:00

Tim highlights a Tableau-branded course on Coursera: an eight-course series covering BI fundamentals through to advanced data visualisation and data analysis, running roughly eight months at ten hours a week, free with Coursera Plus enrolment. He notes the first three courses look fairly generic and may not be original Tableau content.
Open questions about the course's substance 3:02

Tim is curious what's actually inside the course and who wrote it — the instructor is listed as a 'Tableau Learning Partner,' a phrase he finds oddly vague. He invites anyone who's taken it to share what the content is actually like.

Worth Knowing

Exam costs are usually paid by your employer or consultancy, but the revenue ultimately flows back to the vendor.
The Coursera BI Analyst certificate's first three courses appear generic and may reuse content not originally made by Tableau.
Impending platform changes (Pulse, AI features) risk making a freshly-earned certification feel outdated quickly.

Use It When

Worth bearing in mind if you're deciding whether to invest time and money in certifying right now, versus waiting for a platform's roadmap to settle, or looking at lower-cost ways (like free entry-level exams) to demonstrate competence.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

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Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

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