At INSAID, we create accomplished and empowered Data Leaders. We groom our students to dominate the world of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence 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, Amit Rana stands in the spotlight.
Student Name: Amit Rana
Batch: GCD – February 2019
Total years of experience: 8 years
Area of expertise: Technical Support Engineering
Malvika: Can you start by telling me something about your professional journey so far?
Amit: I’m a cost accountant and I completed my MBA from IMT, Hyderabad. I then joined Capital First as a Credit Manager. I was based in Chandigarh and then I moved to Delhi. In Delhi, I was working as a Manager for Kotak handling corporate loans. After that, I became associated with Equitas Small Finance Bank in the same profile. It’s been two and a half years and I have been going strong in Equitas Small Finance Bank.
Malvika: What got you interested in Data Science and machine learning?
Amit: When I was pursuing my MBA from IMT Hyderabad then I had to choose between two majors- finance and analytics. In analytics, I had been using SAS. In my college days, there were so many practitioners or chartered accountants or cost accountants coming to take the practitioner sessions in Data Science. From there, I have inculcated so many things, which was quite decent for the future.
Just to say, for example, I was using a Decision Tree and Logistic Regression in my SAS model. So it was quite convenient for me to associate that in the future, the demand for Data Science will be quite high. That’s why I was very much inclined towards analytics. As a cost accountant, my aptitude towards finance was quite decent and I got placed in a bank. A few years later, I understood that in banking as well, for future growth, I needed to diversify my education also. So I opted to take the Data Science program from INSAID.
Malvika: Are there any current trends in the Data Science space that you excited about?
Amit: Yeah, here in the Equitas as well, there is one analytical division. There we encourage thinking about how the credit default analysis comes through, how I can tap the untapped market using Blue Ocean Strategy, how can we proceed forward so that the loan sector can give us a huge advantage? So the thing is I’m coming across all of this in the analytics division of a small finance bank, and even though it is a very new bank, they are depending heavily on their decision making in analytics.
That’s proof in the banking sector, how credit analysis has changed. For example, they are taking the analytical view of the population, analytical view of the repayment ability of people, they are just looking at making decent decisions. If we look at the developed country economies like China, they have already transformed themselves to have a digital banking system. That’s how they’ve reduced their turnaround time, increased their portfolio of books in the loan market by using this analytics. Five years down the line, India will also be at the same position. So I think that in the banking division, data science will be playing a huge role.
Malvika: What do you think is the goal of Data Science?
Amit: The goal of Data Science is to minimize the effort and maximize the profit. Till now all the things were done manually but as digitalization has been increasing, the size of the data is also increasing. You can see how Google is transforming itself to include a strong data science team and taking decisions in seconds. Also Amazon is doing $35 billion business with it’s data science team.
So the goal of Data Science is just to minimize the effort and maximize the profit using business intelligence. With the help of business intelligence, they can get an advanced edge over many other aspects as well. I learned from independent surveys that most brands that are using Data Science have an MPO of less than 1% as compared to other bands who are not using it. These are the lucrative benefits of Data Science. Harvard Business Review has also suggested that Data Scientist will be the sexiest job in the 20th century. All these things are quite mesmerizing.
Malvika: How do you think Data Science has evolved through the years?
Amit: Let me give you an example. Two years ago if I applied for a credit card in a bank, it took around one month to get one. But now it takes me only 7 days to have my credit card in my pocket. Another thing is, Data Science has given me a huge opportunity to reallocate all my expenses, for example, you can take ET now app as an example, the app is just reading my own expenses and advising me where I can save all the money. In these few years, the market and personal lives of people have changed a lot by the help of Data Science.
What we are doing, what we are seeing, what we’re eating, all the things that are being judged in the form of data, and all the things has been analyzed. And with that has only we are getting the products that need this control this thing. So I think that in two years, also the data has changed our lives. So you can see that what will be the transformation in 10 years down the line.
Malvika: At INSAID, students are encouraged to maintain high quality GitHub profiles. Have you also built a GitHub profile? How do you think this will help you?
Amit: Social platforms, like Facebook, help us to connect and undertake lot of networking. Github is a replica of your Facebook/ Twitter profile. It is the social networking platform for all technocrats. It gives us tremendous support and a platform to discuss the needs of the future technology.
By way of networking, we will have a decent advantage to learn all the things which we did not know of. Another point of comparison is that my Facebook profile being so attractive, invites people to connect with me. A strong Github profile can be used to make a more mesmerizing impact on my professional connections. A prospective employer will be inclined towards a strong Github profile and will probably give me an interview call. From a professional and personal standpoint, a strong Github profile is super important.
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 a part of Data Science Career Launchpad.
Amit: The Data Science Career Launchpad sessions have been indeed very valuable. Nikhil conducted the resume session for us and stressed on the importance of a leaner resume. He gave a lot of insight on how to trim down your resume, shared the nuances of how the resume should be structured, and how it should be edited, and how you should approach the structuring process to get it into the eyes of the employers.
Malvika: INSAID’s mission is to groom Data Leaders of tomorrow; what do you understand by Data Leaders? And how are they different from Data Scientists?
Amit: First of all to become a Data Leader, I have to become a Data Scientist. A Data Leader is someone having a lot of domain expertise, a thorough knowledge of Data Science. They need to understand the application of models, algorithms and structures into a particular problem so that they can handle it quite efficiently. So to be a Data Leader, I have to become a Data Scientist first. A Data Scientist with enough expertise, context and vision of the future is a Data Leader.
Malvika: Amit, you do not have a coding background. Is Python the first language that you learned? How was your experience with Python?
Amit: In the beginning I was hesitant. Knowing that this is a technically heavy course I had apprehensions of putting my hard-earned income into it. In the initial stage, I was fearful but by the technical skills given to us by coaches, Suchit and now Lavi were quite comprehensive. Initially, I thought I’d have to code like how you do in Java and that had me scared. Coding is the cup of tea of people with an engineering background. Slowly I came to realize Python wasn’t that hard to pick up, after all, a lot of important libraries are already ready to import and use.
Pandas and Numpy are most useful and great for a beginner. Matplotlib and Scikit Learn are also very powerful Python libraries. Matplotlib has helped me a lot currently because now I can use this to build graphs and charts which have a mammoth role to play in my current role.
Malvika: Amit you must have a busy schedule already working as well as learning Data Science. Do you have any advice for a newbie on how to manage your professional life and also catch up on all the studies?
Amit: The most important thing is that you should always have some passion and the will to move forward. You should have a passion to perform in each and every field of life. Have a taste of all the things to finally understand the way you want to go in life. I was a Cost Accountant and life was good. When I got hired for cost accountancy in Genpact, I came across people with an MBA degree and they had quite a decent knowledge about things where I was lagging. So I went ahead prepared for CAT and earned my MBA from IMT, Hyderabad.
Right networking determines your progress in life as well. My network keeps me passionate. This passion to perform is like a fire in your belly. You should be ready to learn and improve whatever the stakes. The travel time in Delhi is quite high. Approximately 12 hours of work plus travel leaves very little time for you. Even then you need to stay updated, follow trends and be on your toes. So there will always be limitations, Malvika. These limitations are outdone by the passion in your mind. The will to go the extra distance, to stay on your toes and to challenge yourself.
Malvika: In the end, Amit tell me how your journey with INSAID has been so far.
Amit: The INSAID team is doing superbly. It was one of my best decisions to invest in this certification. INSAID has given me a lot of confidence that I can not only do better in finance, but I can also tap the technological world and dominate the realm of data. I was doubtful; how can I learn Python, how can I become a Data Scientist? We know that it is an engineering dominated field. With the help of the INSAID team, I understood none of that matters. Data Science is not a field dominated by engineers but by people who have a passion to perform. People who understand, learn, analyze things and solve problems. Hearing the different guest speakers and the faculty motivated me to perform. The desire to learn and perform is something inculcated in me by INSAID and for that I’m very grateful.
Malvika: Thank you so much for all the appreciation. This brings us to an end to this interview. It has been very informative. Thank you so much and have a good day!
