How a Mechanical Engineer, who had an aversion towards writing a very simple code, steps into the Data Science journey
A small story about how I stepped into this Data Science journey and ended up in a Master’s program at the United States
I have never been/ wanted to be a programmer in my life and until there was an undeniable obligation. Coding was never my cup of tea be it a simple factorial program or a very complex task. I have avoided coding however possible ever since my schooling. The very thought of the black/blue screen was a nightmare for me till 2014. But it was during my stint with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), I realized the importance and the power programming languages such as R and Python could do. I was fortunate enough to be introduced and practice these aforementioned languages which were very simple with lenient syntactical rules. I was in an Energy analytics project which involved optimizing the energy consumption of TCS buildings. The management did not restrict or necessitate use of any specific math/ algorithm/language. With the expertise we had in simple math and Excel functions, we were able to deliver results which we ourselves initially felt to be impressive, only later to realize that those were not even mediocre. To milk more out of the humongous invaluable data we had, the Senior management wanted to use advanced analysis in Python and R. The task of taming the raw data and making it a useful information was informally outsourced to a small python expert team, who were friends of my delivery manager. The analysis and the results they could come up with after few weeks from that data was simply extraordinary
That was the first moment where I saw a glimpse of the potential, languages like R and Python could bring to the table. I knew I had to step out of my comfort zone to be more valuable to the project, to do some justice to the data that was available untapped and indeed, with a personal interest of making myself equipped with one of the latest technological needs of the time which were Python and R. That was when I first understood. with whole heartedness, a simple python program. I practiced, practiced, failed, learnt and this cycle continued. I started showing results of varied complexity from simple calculations to time series analysis in a span of a year in R.
Whatever was done, at some point in future had to be shown to Top management since this project was under the direct vision of CFO owing to its financial prospects and mainly due to its Environment friendly value. That was the moment when few of my team members decided to learn and showcase analysis and patterns in Tableau, which was very user friendly and easy to learn with few hands-on exercises. Tableau is one of the few tools that I have come across, which one can learn better only by getting their hands dirty
This did not suffice. Education is a mighty ocean and one can never learn enough. I decided it was time to shift my career to a full-time role where I could learn and apply every day, this newfound love of mine. Discussion with friends, passion for travelling to different places, exposure and needless to say, the financial prospects that come bundled with a Master’s degree propelled me in applying for MS in Data Science and Business Analytics programs. I applied to very few colleges in the US and few in Canada, since I was skeptical about applying in 2017 or to give GMAT again to reach a higher score and land at a better college. I decided to go about the saying “ Now is the best time”. This love towards programming was fresh and obviously during the initial period, the excitement is going to be at its peak and I did not want to waste that. I decided to join USF, Tampa. A year has passed since I came here. Lots of learnings, priceless memories both good and bad, plenty of moments to cherish, few moments to forget.
On the academic front, I took up the core coding courses relating to Data Science such as Statistical Analysis using SAS, Statistical Data Mining, Data Mining, Data Science Programming, and Big Data. By the end of the first semester I had already aspired to become a data scientist. I have made small steps in the journey such as landing an internship, working on a research project, and added few certifications to my profile.
The destination is clear and decided now. The path lies in front of me now. It’s time to make the best use of the available resources in any form and of course, time.