Meet Zakaria, Junior Data Scientist
by Zakaria Ait Ibba
I am Zakaria Ait Ibba, a Junior Data Scientist at Haleon based in London, UK.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Before joining the working world, I completed my A-Levels in Mathematics, Chemistry, Italian and Biology. I considered going to university and even got accepted to study Medicine and become a surgeon, however, I decided to go with an apprenticeship instead. A degree apprenticeship allows me to:
- Gain a ton of experience.
- Get a degree fully expensed by the company, and so avoiding any university debt.
- Get paid a salary.
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I was accepted into GSK consumer healthcare to undertake a level 4 data analyst apprenticeship. I worked with the company for about 80% of my week and spent the remaining time studying with my training provider, in this case Cambridge Spark.
During my Level 4, I was introduced to many topics that would help me build a solid foundation in data science such as:
- Programming with Python
- SQL
- Machine Learning
- Power Bi
Being able to work on various projects and learning with Cambridge Spark has allowed me to learn and grow immensely, for instance becoming proficient in the Python programming language and the Power BI visualisation platform. From conducting time series analysis that was used by our principal data scientist at the Intelligent health AI conference he presented at, to launching a dashboard globally to users, I was able to deliver data science services.
I have now successfully completed this apprenticeship achieving a Merit. In the meantime, GSK has undergone a demerger, which is why I am now working for Haleon. Currently, I am undertaking a level 6 degree apprenticeship in Data Science with Anglia Ruskin. I believe that completing the Level 6 core modules, including topics in deep learning and computational concepts, will further advance my abilities and contributions to the team.
Why did you choose to get into this career path?
I believe data science is a fascinating field that allows me to assist the business to make data-driven decisions by working with data to provide meaningful insights. Throughout my time at GSK/Haleon I had the pleasure to work across many areas, whether that is dashboard development, building a classification model, forecasting I was able to get experience in a wide variety of areas.
Data science is also a field which involves lifelong learning due to the constant innovation that is taking place. For example, ChatGPT, a recent breakthrough that caught the globe by storm, demonstrated how powerful data can be.
Even though I didn't pursue a career in medicine and assist people through that route I am now passionate about the consumer healthcare industry and really enjoy working in a company dedicated to positively impacting people’s lives.
How do I keep up with the field?
Being able to pursue an apprenticeship with Haleon and ARU is a great way for me to advance my career in data science. It gives me the opportunity to gain experience in a day-to-day work environment, as well as benefit from working alongside experienced and qualified professionals. Studying with my learning provider allows me to learn in a variety of ways, such as online and in-person, as well as through taking part in a hackathon-style bootcamp simulating the work of a data scientist in a real environment.
At Haleon, I am fortunate to have access to a variety of learning resources and trainings, and even more so to be able to collaborate with senior staff and knowledgeable team members. Having worked across multiple squads, following agile methodologies has given me the chance to hone my interpersonal and teamwork skills, as well as establish solid data science practices and foundations.
What’s your top tip for anyone who wants to enter the field?
A top tip for joining data science is to try and get involved in some small data science projects. This can be done using available datasets such as Kaggle datasets. I really recommend taking one of these to do some processing and try to build a model with it. This will let you experience what data scientists do and it is something really good to bring up in interviews.
Additionally, I believe it is also really important to look into the different specialties within data science, for example time series forecasting, computer vision, NLP etc. and try to build a basic understanding in each, this will help you gravitate to one particular area and perhaps speacialise in it.
What do I do day to day?
A typical day for me would start with checking my emails and Teams to see if there any messages I need to reply to or urgent actions that need to be done. I then work on any tasks I may have, whether that is coding, building a dashboard or documentation. I also have a stand up with the team at midday to discuss what we will be working on and raise any blockers we might have.
For the past year, my team and I have been adopting an Agile way of working. This means that throughout a sprint I have multiple meetings around this such as sprint planning, sprint review, retrospective planning and backlog refinement. Throughout the day I may have various other meetings such as a catch up with my manager, learning session or other organisational/team meetings. To close the day, I usually double check my emails and plan what I have to do for the next day.
We occasionally also have coding dojos within the team. These are great opportunities for a nice challenge. We are split in groups and work together to tackle a problem or build an application. Each team then presents their work/approach to the other groups.
What do you like most about working for Haleon?
I really enjoy being able to work with a global team on a day-to-day basis, each with different tasks to achieve a common goal in a project. One thing I love about working at Haleon is the fact that I am able to rotate across different teams dealing with different projects. This means that I am able work in different areas of data science and always learn something new. Another reason I feel very proud to be part of the data science team at Haleon is the opportunities that I get, the company really invests in its early talent. For instance, I was able to receive trainings on topics such as Azure machine learning, LLM and prompt engineering, which has allowed to get great knowledge on the topics.
