Kushal Diwedi
Current Organization: Encore Capital Group.
Work experience: 4 years
GCD August 2018 Student
Goal: Intend to build a career in Data Science.
In our recent Accredian spotlight edition, we caught up in a real-time conversation with one of our students.
In the following discussion, our academic head Vikas Mehta is in conversation with Kusha Diwedi who is currently in our GCD Programme and has completed the first term.
Vikas: Kushal let’s start with your background and your professional journey so far.
Kushal: So let me start with my highest education. I did MCA in 2008 from Bangalore University. That was a recession period so even after getting campus placement I did get the joining letter. Anyway, I joined a company and worked there for 8 months.
After that, I joined an educational institution as a computer science professor because I had an inclination towards teaching and I worked for the same institute for 4.5 years.
I realized that there is a lag between the education curriculum and industry demands.
I myself felt that professors are not updated with the latest content and that there was not much growth, so I decided to shift my career from education to corporate and also it had been 4 years for me in the same job.
I felt out of date on the latest techonoligal headways, so I started looking for new entryways in the market.
I felt the need to explore some trending technologies because if I start my career in .net and Java there would be no difference between my students and me, it took around 5 to 6 months to find out what I really wanted to do.
During my research, I got influenced that Data Analytics could be a great start for my corporate journey.
Initially, I started with a small company and trained myself in advanced excel.
I left my job as a professor in April 2014 and the next 6 months I was giving freelance training in various colleges. I utilized that time for my research.
Aug 2015 I joined a well-known media company Jagran Prakash Lmt. I was working on the same platform SAP and on excel implementation.
I was working with their marketing team and classified team.
My responsibilities included conducting full lifecycle analysis of their business scenarios including requirements, activities, and design.
Developing analysis, reporting capabilities, monitor performance and quality control plans to identify improvements.
I worked with them for one year after that I worked for the Indian government under a contract on a similar profile in the finance and power ministry both at the same time.
During this I was looking out for more options to experiment with my capabilities because till this point also I was not satisfied with how my career was shaping up.
I started looking out for different opportunities, in July 2017 I got a job in Encore capital as a Senior Data Analyst.
Encore capital is basically a leading provider of debt management and recovery solutions for consumers and property owners across a broad range of assets.
I was a part of a team which analyzed solutions to drive right party contact and recovery with powerful segmentation, communication and decision strategies, using predictive analytics, models and scores to prioritize recovery efforts.
Vikas: You are already into this industry and you are a Senior Data Analyst then why did you think of joining GCD programme with Accredian?
Kushal: When I started my career I learned about SAS, Excel, R, and Python.
SAS had a very good market share of about 70% in the field of data analytics.
R and Python had 30-35 % share but in current times the industry trends are continuously changing.
The market share for SAS has reduced to 55 %. Companies are going towards Machine learning and Automation.
So to adapt to the changing scenarios I thought of joining GCD programme with Accredian.
Vikas: How do you think Machine Learning and Data Science will evolve in your industry?
Kushal: I was really impressed by a viral video of Sundar Pichai ( chief executive officer of Google LLC) in the video he demonstrated a British salon’s appointment scheduling system which was actually done by a bot and not by actual human being.
That is an example of Machine Learning and it made me curious enough to research on the subject.
Humans are being replaced by robots and companies are investing in automation technologies.
Call center jobs can be replaced by automated bots which can answer a users query like a human would do and this is getting implemented in all industries.
In my company, I am working in SAS automation. When I started working in this company that time there were certain reports which took a few days to get executed but now after automation processes, those reports are executed in much lesser time.
So, as a matter of fact, the processes which required 2 to 3 days to get executed now they are being implemented within a few hours.
As the automation will increase lesser will be the human resource requirement. New technologies are coming up which records its users every move in the form of Data.
So in coming 3 to 4 years, there is a vast scope for Machine Learning and Robotics because of that I thought to evolve and adapt to this change which is bound to happen.
It will be beneficial to get involved in the initial stage and evolve with the changing trends.
Vikas: Sounds interesting! What was your framework while deciding to join GCD programme with Accredian?
Kushal: I was searching for options to learn Python. There are many institutes giving training on Machine Learning more or less with the same course content but what Accredian is providing is something different.
It has been one month for me in this course and the discussions that are done by Suchit at the end of every class are quite informative and increase our knowledge.
I have been a part of many educational institutes in my journey and this kind of conversation with your end user and to know what they are looking for is really commendable on your part.
Most of the institutes are interested in getting you registered and then they would hardly involve after that.
After one month of this course, I’m in this kind of conversation with you where we discuss my journey overall, its unique.
Vikas: Thanks for those kind words. well, then how did you decide that you want to join GCD programme with Accredian ?
Kushal: I went through the course curriculum it was for a duration of 6 months and I want to shift to a new role in the next 6 months so that was one reason.
Another thing was that I compared the course contents with other institutes they were completing the same topics within 2 to 3 months.
I researched some institutes and found this to be the best option. The course is appropriately paced not to log nor too short.
Vikas: Well Kushal thankyou for your time and we will have an elaborate discussion once you start working on real-time projects in Data Science.
