Presenting to you the Accredian Spotlight Budding Data Science Leader interview series!
This is a series of interviews of budding Data Science leaders, enrolled with Accredian in different courses. These students coming from diverse backgrounds and even different fields have rich experience in their own domains.
They have interesting views to share with the world, their experience in the industry, which brought them to the field of data science and many other such interesting aspects. These interviews will enrich the readers about the insights, trends and many other related points.
In a recent conversation, we spoke to Balaji Madgulwar who is enrolled in the CDF program at Accredian
Name: Balaji Dilip Madgulwar
Current Organization: Deloitte Consulting, Hyderabad
Total Experience: 4.5 years
Batch: Certificate Course in Data Science Foundation (CDF) September 2018
Ankita: Balaji, tell me something about your profile; what has been your educational background and what all you have done till now?
Balaji: I am a B.Tech. in Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering and have 4.5 years of experience in business technical analysis. I was a Mainframe Developer in Syntel Pvt. Ltd for 2.5 years. In the current capacity, I am working as a Business Technology Analyst in Deloitte Consulting in the healthcare domain. So, my job is to do the impact analysis of the development models.
I analyze the impacted processes as a part of the business environment and prepare the technical design document and solution design document and after that, we start with the development and unit testing. To detail on it, I’m involved in the development of the healthcare model through COBOL and VB queries.
So, I maintain my clients on the development channel.
Ankita: You are working on quite an intricate part in the healthcare domain. Great! Balaji, what got you interested in Data Science and Machine Learning?
Balaji: Actually, my main focus is to make a career in the rewarding field of machine learning and Data Science because it has a lot of job opportunities. Coming from an engineering background and having studied technical things like networks etc., I always wanted to make a career in the field that completely justified my education and experience.
But I didn’t have any opportunity to start with. So when I came to know that there can be a career in Data Science and machine learning, I found it to be a great opportunity to realize my aim.
Ankita: Oh, great! Well, that means you have already studied neural networks and the core technical aspects of it.
Balaji: I have studied the same from my engineering days. I’m always excited and keen to learn new things; new languages like Python and new tools. So, I found it to be a good start to learn about machine learning and other new things.
Ankita: Great! So, could you help me understand your module at Accredian and the part you have completed in machine learning?
Balaji: I’m enrolled for the CDF program at Accredian. So as a part of that program, I completed all the three terms (Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3) and currently I’m about to start working on the Capstone project. The team has shared the guidelines, according to which I will now complete my project and submit it. Meanwhile, here at Deloitte, I’m also involved in the QC activity.
In Deloitte Digital, we had a visualization competition, Deloitte Analytic Summit. Because I had learned Tableau at Accredian, I attended and voted for that competition, reached the second round and was close to qualifying the third. Out of 100 participants, my rank was 30. This was indeed an achievement for me and one action point I took in the last two months.
Apart from this, I have taken part in many ML related competitions too. In one such competition, we were required to predict the bitcoin price. I worked on that competition and got 23rd rank.
After being an active participant in various competitions and having hands-on in the practical sphere, I am looking forward to better opportunities here in Deloitte.
Ankita: That is a great achievement on your part and congratulations from my side. What tools and packages in Data Science and Machine Learning have you mastered? Which ones are your favorite?
Balaji: As of now, I am good at Python, NumPy and Panda package and this is why they are my favorite. In ML, I am learning Sci-kit packages. This way I have gained confidence that I can work on these packages.
Ankita: Great. Any specific machine learning algorithm that is your favorite? If you could please detail the reason too.
Balaji: My favorite is Decision Tree because it can easily solve the regression and classification problem.
Ankita: Were there any initial challenges that you faced when you entered the Data Science space? If yes, then how did you overcome them? What were your strategies?
Balaji: My first thoughts were to learn the technology through self-study. But that is not possible for me with my full-time job. One day, I got to know about Accredian from Facebook and attended Manav’s introductory webinar.
This really motivated me to join the course at Accredian. In this webinar, he gave the basic knowledge as well as insights, as to why it is just the right time to get into a Data Science course. This made me even more interested to start learning with the help of the great Accredian faculty.
To be very true, I even searched about Accredian on the internet and found some good reviews about the institute. So, I finally made up my mind and got my journey with Accredian started to give a structured approach to my Data Science studies.
Ankita: That’s so nice of you. My next question to you would be- how do you take out time to manage between your studies and the part you have to play in Deloitte?
Balaji: My focus is to study more on the weekend, i.e., for four to five hours. I divided my time between working on the projects and revising the technology that was taught in the class. I read blogs daily, and on the weekdays I take out time for 1-2 hours in the breakout session.
Ankita: That’s actually a scheduled way to study. If we talk about the future in Data Science and machine learning, what changes do you see from the current scenario?
Balaji: In the healthcare industry, specifically, we can use the technology of Data Science. For instance, if I am a health insurance advisor and sell health policies to the patients. They need to know the premium beforehand. Therefore, in order to calculate the premium amount, we can use the machine learning algorithm for getting a survey done from the patient.
On the basis of the responses recorded, I can calculate the monthly premium and tell them the amount, which will depend upon their present condition too. This will be an application of the data science and related technology and indeed a changed scenario in this sphere.
Ankita: Are there any blogs that you read?
Balaji: Currently, I am reading towardsdatascience and Medium blogs. This is because these blogs are always updated with the latest trends and happenings in the world of machine learning. I do this on a regular basis to stay updated with the latest in the field.
Ankita: Okay! So at Accredian, students are encouraged to maintain their Github profiles. I believe you also have a GitHub profile. How do you think it will help you in the future?
Balaji: I have uploaded my EDA, Term 1 and Term 2 projects, the machine learning foundation part in my Github profile, and now I just need to update the README, which I will do by this weekend. Maintaining a Github portfolio will help me a lot because the prospective employers check the work experience of the candidates, like which datasets he has worked on, which competitions did he take part in and others. So, all these things will matter in the interview.
This is why I believe that the Github and LinkedIn profiles are the selection criteria to get through the first round of the interviews.
Ankita: How do you think your resume has improved as a part of the Data Science Career Launchpad?
Balaji: Yes, the program was very helpful to me. As of now, I haven’t updated my resume for the last 60 days. This program helped me a lot to update my resume with specific points like technologies I have worked on and my career objective etc. After updating my resume through this program, I uploaded my resume on LinkedIn and Deloitte website too.
Ankita: Good to hear that. My next question to you would be that Accredian’s mission is to groom Data Leaders of tomorrow. What do you understand by Data Leaders? And how are they different from Data Scientists?
Balaji: Data Leaders are the people who make the decision and know which technology to implement in the business, at which point of time and corresponding to which objective.
Ankita: What will be your advice to anyone who wants to start a career in Data Science and who is actually a fresher in this field?
Balaji: I would like to suggest to them that start with the basics and then move ahead to explore the new things that are coming in the market. Staying updated with what’s happening around, is the key so that they can easily enter this field and learn more about it.
Ankita: This brings me to the end of the interview. Do you have anything to say about us, the team at Accredian and the course that you have taken? Any experience or feedback that you wish to share?
Balaji: I would love to take this chance to say that the faculty at Accredian is very helpful. Whatever questions I put on the Accredian Community, Forum or Mail, I always get a reply within an hour; sometimes, even in less than an hour. They are very active in resolving the problems that the candidates face.
Accredian’s Career Launchpad is extremely helpful in making my career. I would also want to mention a career summit in Deloitte. Dr. Shailesh Kumar, the Chief Data Scientist at Jio, came and explained AI in detail; something which was already taught in the Accredian sessions. The sessions are extremely helpful and have been great at exploring students’ talents.
This is the particular thing I wanted to highlight. Thanks to Accredian for getting great leaders on-board, delivering insights and solving my queries related to AI and ML. This has helped me a lot.
Ankita: Thank you so much for that generous and genuine feedback. I will surely pass it on to the team that addresses your queries. We will be keeping up with that pace to help you, whenever you are in doubt.
Thank you so much for your time. All the best for your career!
Balaji: Thank you!
