In this Accredian Spotlight interview, we feature Nikki Rodrigues, who is an Information Security Analyst. Her desire to upskill led her to join the PGP in Data Science & AI, at Accredian.
Question 1: Which program & batch are you part of at Accredian & tell us more about your current work profile?
I am part of Accredian PGP Data Science & AI, August 2021, batch.
Currently I am working as an Information Security Analyst for various clients in India and overseas.
Question 2: Walk us through your career journey & what got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
I have spent more than 15 years in the IT field, working with IT and Non-IT companies. I started my career as an ERP Project Manager After that I worked as an IT Business Analyst and further down my career, I excelled in managing large IT Projects.
What got me interested in Data Science and Machine Learning was making meaningful sense of data.
Looking at various Data Analytical tools and representation of data in a fancy and meaningful manner was very educational, attractive and convenient at the same time.
Question 3: What all tools and packages have you mastered in your Data Science & AI program at Accredian so far?
I am yet to master Data Science , but I have worked on Python, SAP BI Tool and Dashboard. I have practiced SaS Analytics during my few Software projects.
Question 4: What are some of the initial challenges you faced when you started on your Data Science journey and how did you overcome it?
Initially, I was very confused, and found all data science concepts very complicated. But as I started to attend the classes online, and watched their videos again and again, it became easier to understand.
Question 5: Who is your favorite faculty at Accredian and what did you learn from him the most?
So far I have attended classes of Suchit and Sai. Both faculties are very good and put in effort to explain the topics.
Question 6: What is the goal of Data Science?
According to me, the goal of Data Science is to have organised, structured and meaningful data in a visual and acceptable format for companies to make future business decisions.
Question 7: In your view, how has Data Science evolved in last few years?
In my view, Data Science has evolved exponentially in the last 10-12 years.
Telecom sector was first to evolve, even before Retail, to show companies power of collected customer data and how mass population mobile usage behaviour can be sliced and diced to predict retention of customers.
After telecom, it was Retail and Financial firms who showed the importance of data for their business decisions.
Question 9: Which are some of the blogs that you follow?
To be honest, I just follow Accredian Blogs and Accredian Guest Speaker’s Blog.
Question 10: What is your advice to anyone wanting to start a career in Data Science?
Generally, I don’t like to give advice in the IT field from a career perspective. But I would just like to suggest that if you are not passionate about data then don’t pursue data science.
Since I have worked on MIS, Data Science looks like Mecca to me.
Hope you enjoyed reading this interview. If you want to read more such interesting student stories, check out Accredian Spotlight.
