Career Growth in Adobe Analytics

There is some truth to what your friend said, but also some misconception. One of the key selling points of Adobe Analytics is that it is a self-serve data platform that anyone (who has access to the data) can use to build tables and visualizations. It's very easy to start using it. So yes, technically anyone with a high school degree can figure out how to use it. But there's a major caveat. Just because you can navigate the interface, it doesn't mean that you're going to be doing it correctly. There are a lot of nuances to how to build segments at the right level (hit/visit/visitor), making sequential segments, using advanced functions in metrics, doing visualizations, and so on. Not to mention actually being able to understand the data and know if the numbers you are seeing make sense. Then you also have the option of getting involved in implementation, using Adobe Launch, learning how to implement the tracking on a website. There's doing A/B tests with tools like Target, setting up the test and analyzing the results. There are a lot of areas to branch off and grow once you have the basics of the tool understood.

I've heard different types of career advice. Some say that it's best to develop analytical skills independent of a specific platform, because a tool doesn't make an analyst. I've also heard people say that leaning in fully to a single tool and becoming an expert at it is a good thing. So, it really comes down to what do you want to do? Me personally, when I first started learning Adobe Analytics, I picked it up very quickly, and for the past 5 years I've made my career using Adobe. Every job I've had has used Adobe. And despite using it for five years now, I'm still learning new things all the time. I've known a few people that started off as regular users, got involved with user groups or the champion program, and now they work for Adobe. There are definitely options if that is what you want to do. 

On top of what Mandy mentioned. There are a lot of things you need to consider when looking for career development. People around you can share whatever comments and hints, but it is ultimately your interests as a professional and what you want to do.

A few other comments on Adobe Analytics could be a bigger scope of digital marketing and MarTech.

Simply put software developers and Adobe Analytics together, are not on the same track. Adobe Analytics is indeed a tool supposed to be easy to use by marketers to create dashboards and performance analyses. However, it is a very deep tool that could require a lot more knowledge and way more than "high school" to master. Riding a bicycle is very different from driving a car or flying a plane, and even with a full knowledge of how things work as a whole.

Moreover, Adobe Analytics is just one of the solutions for the bigger Adobe Experience Cloud/Platform ecosystem, which can deliver comprehensive customer experiences. You will not call yourself a software engineer any more if going down this track of career into MarTech but the software engineer background could help a lot of MarTech as it is all about how to apply Technology in Marketing. The software engineer can give you ideas on how everything happening and stitching together.

I would recommend setting aside specific tools for a minute and asking yourself some fundamental questions about where you want your career path to go:

• Are you interested in switching over to analytics or staying in software engineering with some experience in analytics?
• What aspects of analytics are you interested in? Do you want to specialize in implementation, reporting, or both?
• Are you interested in specific areas for analytics? @leocwlau mentioned MarTech and digital marketing as great examples of areas. You also have research, content marketing, etc. 
• Are you interested in staying in the health industry, or have a specific industry in mind? Do you want to be a generalist when it comes to industry?

Once you've self-reflect and have some responses (it doesn't have to be comprehensive or perfect) to these questions, those answers can help you formulate a roadmap on what you would need to do to move forward in your career path:

• Understanding whether you want to specialize in implementation or reporting can help you identify whether you need to learn code and to what extent you would need to be familiar in working with tag management tools like Adobe Launch or Tealium. That said, however, even if you want to be on the implementation side, I would recommend a basic to intermediate understanding of the data.
• Knowing what areas of analytics you want to pursue can help narrow the scope of features you would need to understand first in analytics tools (you can always expand later for career development).
• Having a specific industry or range of industries in mind for your career can also help you because you can get information on what companies in those specific industries use for analytics tools. 

@mandygeorge's point about developing analytics skills agnostic of any tool is a great place to start. In my experience of working with and/or hiring great analysts, those who have a great understanding of how to work with the data so it can provide meaningful and actionable insights were able to quickly jump into operations, regardless of their experience with the tool. I do lean towards folks who have that ability AND specialize in the tools we use because not only are they able to hit the ground running BUT they can also provide recommendations on how we can improve how we do analytics from their experience.