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What is a data lake in basic terms?
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"I’m not being trained much on my new entry level business/data analyst position"
Sounds about right. Let's start with the why...
Your job is to produce a report that someone needs.
Real problem: to produce this(these) report(s) requires a finite set of skills and no deviation to what that is. If there was a simple way to automate or simplify the same output you are producing today - you would not have been hired.
Real solution: Understand who uses this report. Understand what decision they are making based on this report. Understand how frequently they need to make that decision. Understand what information they are still blind to in the decisions they are making.
Understand who else uses the report and all the subsequent questions. Identify if there are other people who should use the report, or if this report could be used by other groups. Identify other reports that have the same purpose and whether or not they produce different numbers and why. Reconcile multiple reports, standardize definitions and own the data that the reports are based on.
"so I’d like to do an online course - maybe sql, python, powerbi, etc. There’s so many courses online though I don’t know which to pick. Any recommendations?"
Oh boy... let's discuss learning. Evidence says fear you don't have skills to move your career forward.
Real problem: your company isn't concerned with moving your skills forward because you are already using all the skills necessary to deliver the work that they want.
Real solution: Taking a course will give you more tools in the chest, but only if you use them. I know so many people that learn python only to only work on a SQL database that it is silly. If you intend to learn python - have a system you expect to use and a specific reason why learning python will deliver the same expected BI output with overall less work. Otherwise, you've got a new skill with no utility. If your reports are all SQL, find the smartest SQL people in the company you work with and schedule 1:1s with them to review your code and see theirs. Skill up your SQL with practical SQL in your company first. THEN take a course in it. WRT to python - same thing. Find your same base data in the cloud and migrate it to Notebooks and Python... or Snowflake or Scala - or whatever they tell you the cloud environment is. Scala and Python are going to be used as automation wrappers though for the same SQL queries you are running today. Once again, your goal here is to move your skillset forward and relate it to the task. Don't try to learn a skill if you aren't going to be able to apply it within your company - unless you are looking to leave and you've got a company in mind that already uses that new skillset.
"Which certifications look the best on cv? Preferably for free/cheap pls"
I want to make my resume look good and I need to invest as little money into it as possible
1. As a hiring manager, I don't care about your certifications, but...
a. SQL certification: I expect you to know SQL in BI - I don't care if you are certified. Every SQL flavor is a bit different and that means being certified in Teradata means nothing in a Postgres or T-SQL environment and vise-versa. With it on your name I know that when you've got a SQL problem that it had better be a hard problem... also that you probably know a bunch of DBA-type stuff that is usually locked down for analysts anyway.
b. Python certification: I hope we're doing python stuff or this is just flat out fluff that expects to be paid more...
c. BI certification: ok you had better know the tool. You'd better have a good understanding of what visualizations do and why some people hate pie charts.
d. Analytics certification: I'm not even sure what these mean because every industry / vertical is different... but you'd better know what a KPI tree is, what the KPIs are for your domain, and how to tell the difference between a KPI and a report.
e. Salesforce, Adobe, Google Analytics, etc: Industry and domain specific - excellent choices for that type of work. Now come and see the horror of a specific client's use of said tool.
f. Agile, SAFe, PMO, etc. - you will need some certification in this realm at some point in your life.
2. FREE
Find out what your company offers first. Ask your company to certify you in X, Y, Z as it relates to the specifics of your job. LinkedIn learning courses in Excel do not impress.
My local library with a library card through the website offers free LinkedIn courses & other “training” resources. you could potentially see if yours does too & see about passing/completing a LinkedIn course & passing the assessment to display on your profile + add to your resume! Just a thought 😊
I love Coursera, they have some great stuff - free with no certificate and certificate is like $40. Udemy also good, used to be hundreds, now costs much less, like $20. Also, it’s a job seekers market out there - switch to a firm that will invest in you!
Mentor
There are free courses online for whatever topic you want to learn ; I recommend SQL as a start, Python (for data analysis) if you have some more time, and after that maybe Tableau (free training videos on their official site; same w/ PowerBI but again I recommend Tableau over it)
Get your employer to pay for any learning development - DataCamp is a great subscription (~200-400/year depending on if you get it on sale) and covers mainly Python and R well (as well as SQL and data viz and others thrown in; it has a great intro SQL course I highly highly recommend)
D1’s answer above was very intense, but very true from my 1 YOE. I’m entry level BI/Process Analyst too and doing certifications through Udemy since I get them for free. Power Platform (e.g., Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate) seems to be most usable in my current role (producing reports basically) in helping to automate things. It is definitely a no-code/low code friendly start!