OK you already mentioned Google analytics I would recommend you get the beginner and the advanced certifications that could be done in a week or a day.

Then you need to make a list of all of the different data sources that the company has the type of server whether it’s post Gres or my SQL or SQL Server or flat files like CSV‘s and TSV‘s.

So Twitter and social media is a huge area.

Start writing down all of the different platforms that you’re part of social media and I’m actually doing this right now for a client and they’re drinking from the fire house because they thought this was going to be simple and there’s a lot to do.

Msg me and we can collaborate.

Basically realize that in general data comes in three types 1. Custom format from an app in whatever custom format, I just might take a lot of work to actually get it out of them if they don’t have an export 2. The second one is going to be in a flat file and that essentially looks like an excel file. This is going to be your TSV‘s and your CSP‘s and your.txt’s 3. This is kind of the easiest but also the hardest depending upon your skill is SQL.

You mentioned program in a big dog in that arena is where I am fluent in and that’s python. I would start learning daily practice with the sub module called pandas which can extract data out of CSV‘s and then SQL alchemy depending upon your front end for SQL.

Pm me for more details. I took a similar route as you but I went from mechanical engineering and then in my 30s I moved in to financial analysis and now I’m finishing up my undergrad and moving into grad school for computational linguistics. But like you I didn’t want to wait until grad school to start programming so I started learning programming six years ago and I’ve picked up a few consulting clients here and there so I have experience doing exactly what you’re talking about and I can help.