A software developer and a senior data analyst, Rina Mhatre, not only work with data daily but uses it to detect fraudulent incidents. Allured by the diverse concepts of data science and their applications, she enrolled for the Global Certificate in Data Science & AI (GCDAI) program at Accredian.
In this interview, let’s see her take on the evolution and impact of data science and how her learning experience has been at Accredian.
Question 1: Which program & batch are you part of at Accredian & tell us more about your current work profile?
Rina: I am part of the Global Certificate in Data Science & AI (GCDAI) program, March 2020 batch. Currently, I am working in C-Edge Technologies as a data fraud detection analyst in a pension project.
Question 2: Walk us through your career journey & what got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
Rina: I started my career as a software developer at Channel G in dot net technologies for a banking domain project in 2013. After two years, in 2015, I switched to another company named GDL in the telecom domain. After eight months of experience in that company, I got a better offer from C-Edge technologies in 2016. Here, I have worked on different projects like PPF, public provident fund, senior citizen savings scheme, the Demonetization File Transfer API. Currently, I’m working on a pension project since 2018.
Data Science and Machine Learning is a new trend in the market. And due to this, all other technologies are augmenting into new levels of development in the recent years. Data Science includes multiple interesting subjects like research, analysis, visualization, new and latest coding languages, and much more in which I can explore my abilities and overcome challenges at every point.
Question 3: What are some initial challenges when you got started on your Data Science journey, and how did you overcome them?
Rina: When I started my data science journey, I faced many difficulties in understanding statistics, models and Python coding while implementing them in a project. To overcome these mini speed breakers, I have started to read Accredian tutorials for each concept and also follow blogs like Towards Data Science, GeeksforGeeks, DataCamp for statistics and Python. The tutorials and blogs helped me a lot to overcome my challenges.
Question 4: Who is your favorite faculty at Accredian, and what did you learn from him the Most?
Rina: My favorite faculty at Accredian is Suchit Majumdar. He is very good at Python concepts, and he knows how to teach students from scratch.
Question 5: In your view, how has Data Science evolved in the last few years?
Rina: I think by 2011-12, Data Science has become not just the trendiest but the coolest job of the 21st century. Data scientists job listings have escalated by 1500% which explains the growing demand for data scientists and specialists across industries. As per a 2010 article by The Economist, data scientists have the combined potential of software programmers, storytellers and statistical analysts. And, right now, companies like Uber, Google, Facebook, and many others have set up software research teams in data science to grow their business by increasing their machine learning models’ precision and accuracy.
Question 6: What are the current trends in Data Science that you are most excited about?
Rina: Currently, data science has become a powerful medium to bring order to chaos. Here, the disorder is all about streamlining the scattered data available from multiple sources. And, Data Science provides the tools and techniques that can be deployed to transfer raw data into legible and impactful insights. I’m very excited to become a part of the data science community that has evolved in multiple fields like in pharmaceutical research for coordinating vaccines, cancer research for detection, compliance, etc.
Question 7: Which are some of the blogs that you follow?
Rina: I follow several blogs like Medium, Toward Data Science and AnalyticsWeek to develop my statistics and Python skills.
Question 8: What is your advice to anyone wanting to start a career in Data Science?
Rina: My advice to anybody aspiring to pursue a career in Data Science would be to have a basic skill in logic. You should have an eye for detail and a curious mind.
This was a conversation with one of our GCDAI students – Rina Mhatre.
For more such interesting student interviews, go to Accredian Spotlight.
