At Accredian, we create accomplished and empowered Data Leaders. We groom our students to dominate the world of Data Science and AI and reshape their future. We value what our students bring to the table. We share their vision and support them during their journey and ensure that they carve a niche for themselves.
We’re proud to have tutored exceptional students all across India. Today, one such exceptional student, Vijay Mukkala stands in the spotlight.
Student Name: Vijay Mukkala
Current Organization: IBM
Batch: GCD – June 2019
Total years of experience: 8 years
Malvika: Hi Vijay, before we begin, could you tell us more about your current work profile?
Vijay: So I’m currently working as a Business Transformation Consultant at IBM, India and my day-to-day work is in technical and functional support, identifying the best practices and client performance.
I have done my graduation in Mechanical Engineering. So I started my career as a Design Engineer working in an aerospace company, in Tech Mahindra.
And then I moved to my current role where I support in functional and technical aspects. So, in total, I have 8 years of experience mostly in the aerospace and transportation industry.
Malvika: What got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
Vijay: My current role actually involves Data Storing and Data Manipulation, so during this time I came across a video by Hans Rosling.
The video is about statistics of countries having the highest child mortality and he showed it using the Tableau tool which caught my eye and this changed the way I see data.
Then I started reading on Data Science and the visualization part. This helped me understand what exactly the industry is going towards. So, this caught my interest and after attending a few classes at Accredian where Suchit had asked us to move whatever we do on Excel to Python.
So I opened this quarterly/monthly operations report. I used to use Excel to prepare the charts and after I started using Python, it was much more fun and with minimal errors and I was able to achieve this continuous learning pattern towards Data Science.
Malvika: What all tools and packages in Data Science & Machine Learning have you mastered in your Data Science & AI program at Accredian so far?
Vijay: As of now, I have learned Pandas for pre-processing of data, I cannot see any package that does a better job.
NumPy for numerical calculations and computations. For visualization packages Iuse a lot of Matplotlib and Seaborn packages and Scikit Learn.
In my opinion, these packages are basic for any database enthusiasts to start with.
Malvika: What are some of the initial challenges you faced when you got started on your Data Science journey and how did you overcome it?
Vijay: So the way to start my Data Science journey was the initial challenge.
There were many learning sites and many platforms and I wasn’t sure if I was able to cope up with coding as I come from a non-programming background but after joining Accredian, it was more of a structured approach.
Doing the assignments, which provided the practice data sets, and getting my doubts cleared on StackOverflow really helped me a lot. This kept me going,
Malvika: What is the goal of Data Science? In your view, how has Data Science evolved in the last few years?
Vijay: The goal of Data Science is to find patterns, to get some insights from the data, and to use those insights to address the business problems.
Data Science has evolved significantly from the last few years. I came to read about IBM Watson is being used by doctors for providing the details of the patient, what is his data and getting to know what is the disease and how to cure the disease.
Watson actually provides the steps and doctors are actually using it. So that’s how Data Science has evolved in the world of the healthcare industry. Recommendation engine is the major breakthrough for Data Science in e-commerce sites.
Malvika: Which are some of the blogs that you read? Which are the top two Data Science & AI influencers you follow?
Vijay: I follow Medium and towardsdatascience. Analytics Vidhya is also another great blog.
I also follow Dr. Kirk Borne and DJ Patil on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Malvika: At Accredian, students are encouraged to build high-quality GitHub profiles. Have you built a GitHub portfolio and how do you think this will help you?
Vijay: I was able to build my GitHub profile and portfolio by attending the sessions
and I will continue to improve and put more projects to build a strong portfolio so that I have a strong platform to display my work to others.
Malvika: Crafting a great Data Science resume is a critical part of getting shortlisted for Data Science roles. Tell us some ways in which you have improved your resume as part of Data Science Career Launchpad.
Vijay: The Data Science Career Launchpad sessions were very helpful.
It helped me in redrafting my resume, creating a master resume and the presentation was really good with all the essential components of the templates.
I incorporated all the points and I created my own master resume and Data Science resume. It was a very informative session. It really helped me have a strong resume.
Malvika: Accredian’s mission is to Groom Data Leaders of tomorrow. What do you understand by a Data Leader? And how is a Data Leader different from a Data Scientist?
Vijay: Data Leaders are the ones who case the business; who will be on the front face of the business and will be leading the Data Scientists while the Data Scientists are mostly into interpreting data and having the coding and mathematical modeling expertise.
Malvika: What is your advice to anyone wanting to start a career in Data Science?
Vijay: There are two things which I really want to suggest; patience and logical approach towards the problem are the key things in Data Science.
So learning the logic behind the algorithms rather than the code and reading a lot, gaining knowledge on Data Science understanding the logic behind it all.
Malvika: How has your journey with Accredian been so far? Do you have any comments on how the curriculum has been structured, the faculty and the support team?
Vijay: Deepesh has a very interesting teaching style.
He teaches in a pictorial way and he has a profound knowledge of algorithms and the data sets and he also conducts thorough refresher sessions
Malvika: Thank you for your time, Vijay. All the best for your future!
