Ashwini Mohan has worked as Software Tester and been in leadership positions in the past six years. However, an article in 2018 opened her eyes to data science. On reading some more articles on the same, she knew for a fact that this was the field she wanted to pursue and enrolled for the Certificate in Data Science Foundation (CDF) program at Accredian.
In this interview, let’s what interests her the most towards data science and how has 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?
Ashwini: I am part of the Certificate in Data Science Foundation (CDF) program, April 2020 batch. Currently, I’m not working. I have quit my job and I’m trying to concentrate on my studies more. I have six years of total work experience.
But previously, I was working with Intel Private Limited. I was a software test engineer and part of a wealth management domain-based project. It was a migration project where we migrated the existing clients and their portfolios from the legacy system to the new application.
During my tenure in Syntel, I also got the opportunity to work at the London client site. So, I was in London for 3.5 years, where I was a team member but I was an acting leader on the client-side, communicating with the stakeholders.
So my significant responsibilities were requirement analysis, discussions with the stakeholders on the project approach, overlooking the team members, doing data mining for the team, and creating a test plan.
Question 2: Walk us through your career journey & what got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
Ashwini: I started my career in the year 2013 with Syntel Private Limited Corradino mess at Law Center. As a software test engineer in Syntel, I have been part of multiple capital markets and wealth management-related projects.
The project, which has been majorly part of our soul migration project for our client TST Solutions, is currently known as SS NC. During my tenure in the S&T project, I also received onset opportunities.
I was working in London for almost 3.5 years where I was an acting lead. And my roles and responsibilities included having discussions, meetings and workshops with the team, mentoring new team members in our group, providing daily status updates, communicating with stakeholders discussing the project progress, and so forth.
And the point where I got interested in data science and machine learning was I read an article in the year 2018, which made me realize data science is furbishing and how data has been an integral part of social networking sites.
Later on, I started reading more and realized that data science is going to be huge and is not something to fade away eventually. So that is one of the significant factors that interested me in choosing data as a career path.
I started reading more articles about data science, and then decided to join Accredian and made it clear that I need to pursue data science as a career.
Question 3: What all tools and packages in Data Science & Machine Learning have you mastered in your Data Science & AI program at Accredian so far?
Ashwini: I won’t call myself a master in any of the packages. I still feel that I have a lot to learn. But yes, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, and Seaborn are some of the packages that I have used a lot in both of my projects and which I feel I’m very comfortable with.
Question 4: What are some initial challenges when you got started on your Data Science journey, and how did you overcome them?
Ashwini: Since I’m from a non-technical background, I was nervous about my coding skills and the Python coding required for this particular program. And the thing which helped me overcome my fear was the Starter Kit provided by Accredian.
In Suchit’s class, he explained the key, went through Python’s Starter Kit, and explained all the coding basics in detail. And that moment increased my confidence level. I successfully completed my first ad project and did all the coding myself.
Question 5: Who is your favorite faculty at Accredian, and what did you learn from him the Most?
Ashwini: My favorite faculty at Accredian is Suchit Majumder. I like how he explained every complex concept in a simplistic way that any layman would understand. And also, the one thing I appreciate about him is he focuses on the solution. Still, as he would say, it doesn’t matter if you try to code off ten lines or two lines so far if you’re providing a solution to the customer, that is the most important thing, and I like that approach.
Question 6: What is the goal of Data Science?
Ashwini: Data science aims to analyze the past or existing data and use those insights to improve the existing business or find new business opportunities in the market.
Question 7: What are the current trends in Data Science that you are most excited about?
Ashwini: The current data science trend that excites me the most is continuous intelligence, where real-time data will guide business decisions and provide business solutions. And secondly, the increasing demand for data scientists because of the availability of huge amounts of data and the popularity of the data science field in general.
Question 8: Which are some of the blogs that you follow?
Ashwini: I follow Towards Data Science and Data Science Central.
This was a conversation with one of our CDF students – Ashwini Mohan.
If you want to read more interesting student interviews, check out Accredian Spotlight.
