In this Accredian Spotlight interview, we feature Brijesh Nair, a Service Delivery Head with over 18 years of experience in the IT Industry. His insatiable passion for knowledge and upskilling led him to enroll in the Global Certificate in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence program at Accredian.
Question 1: Which program & batch are you a part of at Accredian & tell us more about your current work profile?
Brijesh: I am a part of the GCDAI program (May 2021) batch. I have over 18 years of experience in the field of IT Service delivery including P&L management. Currently, I head the Service Delivery for network operations of the largest private sector banks in India. As part of this role, I am accountable for ensuring the uptime of branches and ATMs.
Question 2: Walk us through your career journey & what got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
Brijesh: I have over 18 years of experience providing successful strategic and tactical leadership with a proven track record in program recovery and transformation while bringing in operational efficiency and profitability improvement through data-driven insights.
The industry has transcended from reactive support to proactive support leveraging various monitoring tools for reducing downtimes. Now the customers are looking at predictive support i.e. to be able to predict the events before they occur so that downtimes can be avoided.
Data Science and Machine learning address this industry problem and as a Senior Leader in the industry, I must be abreast of the methodologies and techniques to identify and implement the same for the betterment of support while enhancing my skills and making myself future-ready. Hence I joined Accredian.
Question 3: What tools and packages in Data Science & Machine Learning have you mastered at Accredian so far?
Brijesh: Accredian curriculum is well equipped to train and initiate anyone to the world of Data Science. All modules are sequenced well and every subsequent one is a logical progression to the earlier module.
I have so far learned about Python, Statistics, EDA, Machine Learning techniques like Linear regression, Logistics regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest and applied the concepts in the projects that were required to be submitted as part of the Data Science Journey.
Question 4: What initial challenges did you face when you started your Data Science journey and how did you overcome it?
Brijesh: I didn’t have a background in Programming and hence was apprehensive however the study materials at Accredian coupled with group study sessions with cohorts of my batch and systematic pursuance of all activities/projects assigned by Accredian has helped me overcome this fear.
Further, the Faculty has been supportive, I have made my own repository and practice regularly to overcome all doubts.
Question 5: Who is your favorite faculty at Accredian and what did you learn from them?
Brijesh: All Instructors have enriched my knowledge about Data Science eg. Suchit who initiated me to the world of Python, Neelamani who clarified the initial concepts of Machine learning, and Dr. Darshan who gave colloquial explanations for complex concepts.
Question 6: What is the goal of Data Science?
Brijesh: Data is new wealth and Data Science provides us ammunitions to convert the data to wisdom. Data Science techniques and tools have democratized the usage of data even to people who do not belong to a certain domain to derive actionable insights and prediction models.
As the old saying goes “what can be measured can be improved”. In today’s world of Data Science, “what can be predicted is most likely to be prevented”
Question 7: How has Data Science evolved in the last few years?
Brijesh: Data Science has evolved from being a statistical and actuarial science to an era when databases have become powerful with not only transaction processing capabilities but with analytical capabilities too and the sky is the limit with advanced machine learning models, auto-EDA, etc. enabling to do things better and faster.
Question 8: What current trends in Data Science are you most excited about?
Brijesh: Data science has penetrated all walks of life. I am particularly excited about the use of Data Science in the Medical field eg. Data Science can be used to predict the mortality of patients based on historic data and what features could positively have an impact. It can be used in the world of Finance to help the common man from being victims of fraud, primarily taking the application from fraud detection to fraud prevention.
Question 9: Which Data Science blogs do you follow?
Brijesh: I follow Medium and Analytics Vidhya extensively.
Question 10: What advice would you give to a beginner in Data Science?
Brijesh: Remember the longest journey begins with the first step. If you do not try you will fail 100%, but if you try you have a 50% chance of success.
Accredian has a well-curated curriculum to start with and if you follow the instructions and are regular with your classes and assignments, you will sail through it successfully. So just hop in.
Hope you enjoyed reading this interview. If you want to read more such interesting student stories, check out Accredian Spotlight.
