Entering into the exciting world of DataScience!!

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“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”

                                                                                    - Benjamin Franklin

 

Hey There,

First of all A Very Happy and Prosperous New Year!! 🎉

We all want multi-fold returns on our investment! Don't we??! So, here I've tried to uncover a strategy which can help us to do so! :)


Last weekend, I got a chance to sit down on a call with, Himanshu, a good friend from TCS ILP days, hereafter referred to as HSP, who recently switched into a Product based firm as a Data Scientist, to get some information around how was he able to do this and what all things helped him along the way! 

Here are the excerpts of our conversation:



Me: How has the experience been of switching companies?

HSP: The experience has been exhilarating in terms of learning throughout the process and the interviews!

     It requires a good amount of patience and persistence! Got to learn a lot and still learning every day.


Me: How did your project work help you in the process?

HSP: Well, as we started from BI tools like Tableau, IBM Cognos etc., I could use those tools' knowledge to back trace the journey of data 

     especially how the data arrived till this stage? i.e., the data pipelines! I started with Cognos and later got into a project where we used 

PowerBI to model the data and had the chance to be with senior Architects in the decision process. Also, worked on QlikView and OBIEE.

After that got to work on Tableau along with BigData, which again added something to my portfolio!

 

Me: So along with almost all BI tools, you are also well versed in Data Engineering then and going to eat jobs of people like me!? :P

HSP: Hahahah! Not at all, a Data Scientist needs to be well versed as to how the data arrived in the reports/dashboards so as to make sense out of it!


Me: (Sighs!!) phew.. job bach gayi!! 😅 Okay, tell us more about something else which is important for this field.

HSP: I feel Maths and Stats are really very important, if one has to get into core data science as the models we use are based on the Maths equations from 12th! One has to get some sort of idea while looking at the data, if it makes sense or not mathematically, and this comes with good Maths and experience. 

Since I come from electrical background, I had that interest towards Maths from B.Tech days which definitely helped me! 

Me: One thing that you'd suggest not to do to budding Data Scientists?

HSP: I definitely would suggest them to utilize free resources as much as possible, and not to opt of costly coaching if they can't afford to do so!

     There is ample amount of knowledge available for free around AI, ML or BigData and one can make good use of it!

 

Me: What all tech stack have you used or see that it is good to have knowledge of?

HSP: Since, I did coaching in AI/ML, I got to work with Spark, Kafka and now they are using NiFi for batch (and streaming, too!) along with Python.

     This list is not exhaustive! There are plenty of tools out there to put into use for BigData and AI/ML.

     Also, to become full stack data scientists, having knowledge of any Front-end technology (React JS or something) is necessary.




Me: What has helped you the most till this time that you'd like to share with us?

HSP: One that Networking is very crucial these days and second is that, Learning continuously is what will help you to stay relevant in this ever-changing world!


Me: Any suggestions to data science aspirants?

HSP: One you have to have good Maths/Stats as that is the core job of a Data Scientist, using predictive modelling or any technique for that matter.

     Two, keep on learning about the space and tech... I personally learnt from my project work, my colleagues, and did some other in my spare time, which has helped me a lot!

"One has to not only learn precisely, but also learn Fast!"


Me: 🙌🙌🙌🙌 

       So, what would be your next area of technology while working in this?

HSP: I want to go into Deep learning but am not able to manage much time. But will definitely want to explore this space!


So..yeah! That was it...we tried to cover main aspects of getting into this exciting field called Data Science!!

You can check out Himanshu's profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsp121/


If you want to read any book on AI/ML, check out:
 
  • Artificial Intelligence | Third Edition | By Pearson: A Modern Approach  (https://amzn.to/32BLXLz )
  • Deep Learning with Python (https://amzn.to/3ETWAWR)
  • Machine Learning For Absolute Beginners: A Plain English Introduction: 1 (Machine Learning from Scratch)  (https://amzn.to/3ziC5lM)

Or, check out from range of books here: https://amzn.to/3qHIUcG 


Thanks for the read!!

Have a great year ahead!! 😁

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