What even is Tableau? And why should I look into it?

Posted on: March 24, 2021

Last Updated on: October 14th, 2023

Post Category: Data

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So… what is Tableau?

Tableau is a visual analytics platform, owned by Tableau Software (part of Salesforce), and it helps people see and understand their data.

As of 2023, Tableau is recognised as one of the leading analytics and business intelligence platforms, alongside Qlik and Microsoft’s Power BI.

Tableau is built on VizQL, which essentially translates SQL queries (that traditionally return numbers and tables) into data visualisations!

But why Tableau in particular?

What makes Tableau stand out? Tableau stands out because of its intuitive user experience, ability to perform sophisticated analytics, and its ease of use. This ultimately makes Tableau one of the most preferred platforms for visual data exploration and analysis. As of 2023…

• Tableau has been labelled a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms for the eleventh consecutive year. Learn more here.
• Tableau is leveraged by some of the world’s top organisations, including Verizon, Honeywell, JPMorgan Chase, Lenovo and Bentley. See more customers and their stories here.
• The Tableau Community has more than one million members, with more than five hundred user groups. Learn more here.

Tableau is also important skill to learn, for data analysts and beyond.

In the data analyst job market, Tableau is one of the top tools and the top BI tool mentioned in job postings – based on data from Google’s search results for Data Analyst positions in the United States.

Tableau is also important because there is a general high demand for skills in analytics. According to Linkedin Learning in 2020, Analytical Reasoning is ranked #3 on the Most In Demand Hard Skills list, while Business Analysis ranked #6 (after jumping up 10 spots)!

So what should I do? 

There’s no way I can say that knowing Tableau will land you a job, or that everyone should learn Tableau just because it’s a marketable skill.

But I CAN say that, if you’re interested in (building a career that involves) analysing data, making sense of data, and presenting insights to deliver business value, then Tableau is a good tool to start with.

To make things better, while you’re a University student, you can get a Tableau Desktop license and access to Tableau’s e-learning resources for FREE. What this means for students is that they can learn the software AND build up their data visualisation portfolio with one of the leading BI tools, without having to pay any money! To learn more about what Tableau offers to University students, take a look at this other blog post.

Now that you know a bit more about what Tableau is, and what all the hype is about, will you get involved?

For more information about Tableau: