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**6-month plan (≈8 hours/week evenings, total budget ≤ €500)**

Your bookkeeping background is a real advantage: you already understand business numbers, Excel, reconciliation, and reporting. You only need to add SQL depth, one visualisation tool (Power BI is the pragmatic choice for Portugal/finance-heavy market), basic Python/pandas, portfolio projects, and interview practice. No degree is required for many junior/entry roles, especially in smaller companies, startups, or finance/ops teams that value domain knowledge.

### Recommended path (prioritised for recognition + employability in Lisbon)

**Months 1–3: Core structured certificate + practice (Google Data Analytics)**  
- **Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate** on Coursera (8 courses, spreadsheets, SQL, Tableau, R basics, data cleaning, storytelling, portfolio case study).  
  Link: https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/google-data-analytics  
  Current pricing (2026): ~€42–€51/month subscription (or Coursera Plus ~€51/month / ~€346/year; occasional 40% promos drop the first months lower). Financial aid is available (apply on the course page — many get it approved). Target completion in 3–4 months at 8–10 hrs/week so total cost stays well under €200–250.  
  Why this one: Strongest brand recognition for beginners/career-changers, no degree needed, includes a shareable portfolio project, and Google has hiring partners. Audit free if you only want content; pay only for the certificate.  

Supplement free:  
- Mode SQL Tutorial (mode.com/sql-tutorial) or SQLBolt for extra practice.  
- Kaggle Learn micro-courses (Python, pandas, data visualisation) — free certificates.  

**Months 3–4: Power BI (Portugal market favourite) + deepen SQL**  
- Free Microsoft Learn paths for Power BI / data analysis (Get started with Power BI, Prepare data, Model data, Visualise data, etc.).  
  Link: https://learn.microsoft.com (search “Power BI” or “data analyst”). Free badges on completion.  
- Optional paid exam later if budget allows (PL-300), but free learning paths + portfolio are enough to start. Power BI Desktop is free.  
- Continue SQL practice on LeetCode SQL 50 / DataLemur / HackerRank (free tiers).  

**Months 4–5: Python for analysis + projects**  
- freeCodeCamp “Data Analysis with Python” (free certificate + projects) or Kaggle Learn Python/pandas.  
- Alex The Analyst free YouTube Data Analyst Bootcamp (SQL, Excel, Tableau, Power BI, Python/pandas, projects, resume, LinkedIn — 24+ hours, updated versions available). Search “Alex The Analyst Data Analyst Bootcamp” on YouTube (playlist or long-form videos). Completely free and very practical.  

**Month 6: Portfolio, applications, interview prep**  
- Build 3–4 portfolio pieces (publish on GitHub + Tableau Public or Power BI service free tier):  
  1. End-to-end analysis of a public dataset (e.g., sales, finance, or Portugal-relevant open data) with SQL + Excel/Power BI.  
  2. Dashboard answering a business question.  
  3. Cleaning + insights notebook (Python/pandas).  
  4. One bookkeeping-related project (e.g., expense analysis, cash-flow insights) to leverage your experience.  
- Resume + LinkedIn rewrite focused on transferable skills + new tools.  
- Practice case studies and SQL interview questions.  
- Apply to junior/entry data analyst, BI analyst, reporting analyst, or “data analyst – finance/ops” roles. Network via LinkedIn (Lisbon tech/finance groups), IEFP, and local meetups.  

**Budget allocation (easily under €500)**  
- Google certificate: €150–250 (or less with aid/promos).  
- Optional: 1–2 Udemy courses on sale (€10–20 each, e.g., SQL or Power BI) if you want extra structure.  
- Remaining: domain name for simple portfolio site, books, or exam voucher if a free Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenge appears.  
Everything else is free.

### What to skip
- Expensive bootcamps (€2k–€10k+).  
- Full data-science/ML tracks or advanced statistics/machine-learning certificates (overkill for junior analyst).  
- Multiple overlapping paid certificates (Google + IBM + Meta simultaneously). One strong recognised cert + free practice is better.  
- R if you already have Python basics (Google covers light R; market leans Python + Power BI/SQL).  
- Anything requiring full-time study or heavy math prerequisites.

### Realistic first salary in Lisbon
Entry-level / junior data analyst (0–2 years relevant experience, no degree) typically falls in the **€22,000–€30,000 gross per year** range, with medians around €23k–€27k depending on exact role, company size, and sector.  

- Glassdoor and similar aggregators show junior/entry packages often €1k–€2k/month total pay and overall data analyst medians in Lisbon around €32k (all levels).  
- Broader Portugal entry-level figures from Levels.fyi and local sources sit ~€18.7k–€27k.  
- Finance/ops/bookkeeping-adjacent roles or multinationals can push toward the higher end; pure tech startups vary. Net take-home after taxes/Social Security is roughly €1,400–€1,900/month for the lower-mid range. Sources: Glassdoor Lisbon junior/data analyst pages (2025–2026 data), Levels.fyi Portugal entry-level, NettoCalc/Portuguese salary guides, and local job-market summaries citing ~€23k junior averages.

Expect 3–9 months of applications after the 6-month plan (total ~1 year to first role is realistic). Many first roles are hybrid/reporting-focused rather than pure “data science.”

### Honest assessment of your odds
**Moderate to good (roughly 40–60% chance of landing a junior/adjacent role within 12 months if you execute consistently).**  

Strengths: 8 years bookkeeping = domain expertise that pure juniors lack; Excel fluency; some SQL; Portuguese market (Lisbon has growing demand in finance, retail, tech services, energy); age 34 is not a barrier for career-changers with proven work history. Certificates + portfolio + networking close many gaps.  

Challenges: No degree (some larger firms still prefer one, though many do not); limited free study time; competitive entry-level market; you will compete with recent grads and other switchers. Success depends heavily on portfolio quality, consistent applications (50–100+), and leveraging bookkeeping contacts for internal moves or referrals.  

People with similar non-STEM backgrounds succeed regularly via the Google certificate + projects route. Treat the 6 months as skill-building and the following 6 as job-search intensity. If progress stalls, pivot slightly toward “financial data analyst / reporting analyst” roles that value your existing experience more heavily. Start today with the free audit of the Google course and a simple SQL practice session — momentum matters more than perfection.