In this Accredian Spotlight interview, we feature Archana Singh, Senior Principal Consultant, Genpact Headstrong Capital Market. Her quest for knowledge and passion for upskilling led her to enroll in the Global Certificate in Data Science Program at Accredian.
Question 1: Which program & batch are you a part of at Accredian & tell us more about your current work profile?
Archana: I’m a part of the GCD May 2020 batch and currently I’m working as a Senior Principal Consultant with Headstrong India Limited.
Question 2: Walk us through your career journey & what got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
Archana: I started my career with IBM Global Services India limited in 2003. Initially, I was interested in the CRM domain. Later, started working as a Java developer.
But I got interested in Data Science when I started working on data connectors. Gradually, I started analyzing data and working with BI tool, used to generate different reports.
Question 3: What tools and packages in Data Science & Machine Learning have you mastered at Accredian so far?
Archana: I have majorly worked with Python and its various packages like NumPy and Pandas for Data processing and calculations. While for Modeling I have used Sci-kit and for Visualization, I use Matplotlib and Tableau.
I have also used Jupyter and Google Collab. I’m interested in learning coding languages like R and SAS.
Question 4: What challenges did you face when you started your Data Science journey and how did you overcome it?
Archana: The major challenge I faced when I started my Data Science journey was to memorize the core concepts of Statistics. So, I started making my own notes and checking various interviews questions on statistics topics in ML algorithms. I also started following blogs and channels like Towards Data Science.
Question 5: Who is your favorite faculty at Accredian and what did you learn from them?
Archana: There is no doubt that Accredian has the best teachers as all of them are very diligent in teaching concepts. I’d like to mention Deepesh and Suchit as my favorites.
At Accredian, I felt I was taken back to old school days where teachers used to explain the steps on board and it was so simple to understand that concept. The notes are simple, crisp, and great for a quick recap. The examples given by the Instructors are so realistic and useful.
Question 6: What current trends in Data Science are you most excited about?
Archana: There are many trends, concepts, and questions to ponder in Data Science that I’m thrilled about like how customers behave, why the market is fluctuating, what makes business strategies succeed or fail. I am learning and observing a lot of them.
Question 7: Which are some of the Data Science blogs that you follow?
Archana: I follow blogs like Towards Data Science and Analytics Vidhya. Sometimes I take up a problem and start following different Algorithms and study various ways of resolving it.
Question 8: What advice would you give to a beginner in Data Science?
Archana: My advice would be to pursue Data Science only if it’s your passion. The idea should be to become a master in Data Science.
And do remember, an unqualified and un-trained Data Scientist can lead to wrong predictions and disastrous results.
Hope you enjoyed reading this interview. If you want to read more such interesting student stories, check out Accredian Spotlight.
