People of Bakken & Bæck: Hanne-Torill
In our digital world, it’s still about the people. In these blog posts, we’ve gone behind the scenes and invited the people of B&B to share their personal stories.
Hanne-Torill is a 32 year old Norwegian from a small place called Husnes in Hardangerfjorden. She started working at Bakken & Bæck as a Data Scientist in February, and right now she’s working with machine learning on a project funded by Google Digital News Initiative. Hanne-Torill is a sporty woman who enjoys the zero-sum game of working out and drinking craft beer with friends.
Why did you decide to become a data scientist and how did you go about it?
I have a master’s degree in theoretical physics from the University of Oslo. In my previous job as a research scientist, I initially worked on physics-related topics. At one point I had a choice of what kind of research I wanted to continue doing. I decided to start working with image processing. It was a good match for me to combine my interest in the physics of imaging sensors and computer science. I soon realised that the cutting edge methodology in that field comes from machine learning, and that was when my whole sense of professional identity took a turn. So I decided to switch fields permanently into machine learning and this is how I ended up as a data scientist today.
Back in college, what did you expect your professional work day to be like?
I expected it to be exactly what I do today. I mostly write code and implement and test new algorithms and methods I read up on in scientific papers.
How did you you get your job at B&B?
I met Tobias (Bæck) by chance very late one Thursday night in Oslo, through a common friend. I had recently told my friend that I was interested in switching jobs, and he promptly followed up by introducing me to Tobias as “this is Hanne-Torill, she knows machine learning and she will start working for you within the next six months.” We did have some more formal interviews later on, but that is how the process started.
“This is Hanne-Torill, she knows machine learning and she will start working for you within the next six months.”
What skills are required in your job on a day-to-day basis?
First of all you have to be inquisitive and curious to learn more. Of course you also need the technical skills to be able to figure out all the different tools and algorithms that fit the problem. Programming is an essential tool for data science and I prefer to use Python.
What’s your favourite part of the job?
Getting my code up and running is intensely satisfying. It is also pretty fun to share knowledge with my colleagues and talk to potential clients — especially when they are dazzled by my well of wisdom.
What part of your job do you find most challenging?
Literally coming to a decision of which approach to take and the first line of code. It is very easy to be indecisive when there are so many different ways and methods to solve a machine learning problem. While the code itself is just a vehicle to achieve the goal, a lot of time is going to be spent on testing and fine tuning the algorithms, so I feel compelled to pick the right one from the start, which isn’t really possible to know beforehand. Definitely a conundrum!
Who’s a role model you’ve looked up to?
That is actually a very difficult question. In my studies and also in my professional life I haven’t had many female colleagues and certainly not in a leading positions, so I struggle to come up with anyone in particular that I have identified with and considered a role model.
What’s a challenge you’ve faced in your career journey?
The challenge I have faced is being young and female, and being authoritative enough for the older male generation to trust in my abilities and my knowledge.
That is not a problem at all at within B&B, probably because our generation all grew up in a much more equal society. I also appreciate that the female to male ratio is quite good at B&B, even though there aren’t that many female developers yet.
The challenge I have faced is being young and female, and being authoritative enough for the older male generation to trust in my abilities and my knowledge.
What’s something you want to get better at?
Prioritizing and saying no when I realize that I don’t have sufficient time for all the tasks that I really want to do. I know it’s cheesy, but it’s true.
This industry has changed dramatically in the past years. What have you seen from inside B&B? Where do you think the changes will happen in the coming years?
I haven’t actually been in this particular industry for more than a month. But my field of machine learning has now just exploded, in that it went from an academic field to becoming a major economic drive. Everyone wants to get on the Artificial Intelligence train, and I expect that some of them will eventually realize that their problems are not best solved with machine learning. But up until then more and more companies will look to hire data scientists. And it will be interpreted as sort of a quality badge, if you can claim that you have a whole team of data scientists working for you.
If you could start all over again, would you change your career path in any way? Why?
I would say both yes and no. Even though I’m not working with what I have a degree in, I’m very happy that I have such a solid background in physics. It’s really fun to look at stuff in the world and be able to either understand what’s powering a phenomenon, or actually knowing how to put up the equations to describe it. At the time when I took my degree, which was between 2004 and 2009, machine learning wasn’t really a field taught at the universities in Norway. In that sense I couldn’t have made any other choice. If anything, I think one change would have been to switch jobs a bit sooner after I acquired enough skills in machine learning. However, since all choices and events turned out to line up neatly in the end so that I am now currently with B&B, I’m super happy about it all and wouldn’t change anything!
It’s really fun to look at stuff in the world and be able to either understand what’s powering a phenomenon, or actually knowing how to put up the equations to describe it.
Comfort food of choice?
My favorite is an Icelandic licorice candy.
Favourite book?
Wool by Hugh Howey.
If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?
I would like to be an astronaut on board the international space station.
If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?
Take a chill pill, everything is going to turn out just fine.
