Presenting to you the INSAID Spotlight Budding Data Science Leader interview series. This is a series of interviews of budding Data Science leaders, enrolled with INSAID in different courses. These students coming from diverse backgrounds and even different fields, have rich experience in their own domains. They have interesting views to share with the world, their experience in the industry, what brought them to the field of Data Science and many other such interesting aspects. These interviews will enrich the readers about the insights, trends and many other related points.
In a recent conversation, we spoke to Rinku Saha who is enrolled in the CDF program at INSAID.
Name: Rinku Saha
Current Organisation: Yash Technologies
Total Experience: 10 years
Batch: Certificate in Data Science Foundation, November 2018
Ankita: Rinku, to start with, could you please brief me about your educational background and professional qualification?
Rinku: I have completed a diploma in computer science. After diploma, I got a chance to work with a company called Rambus Technology in 2007 and worked there for almost 8.5 years. My work involved data migration, collaboration tools, Microsoft technology like .NET and SQL server and others. Post this, I worked with Nexwave Talent Management Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and my client was Accenture. I worked with implementation projects there and the main work in this organization was to create UI using .NET applications. Now, I am with Yash Technologies and have worked with Infosys. I am well-versed with Microsoft technologies like .NET and SQL server and frontend languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Ankita: What got you interested in Data Science and machine learning?
Rinku: My experience in working with data started with the migration and collaboration processes. As a matter of fact, most of the work has been with data. When I started working with BI, I got interested in how pie charts are made; how a story is being made with the help of data; how historical data is coming into a story; how can we make predictions etc. These things influenced me to go into a data profile. While working on the project with Accenture, I got a chance to work with machine learning and Python. All this increased my inclination towards Data Science and I decided to work in the Data Science profile.
Ankita: Now, if you could help me understand your course at INSAID; what all things did you do and how is it progressing?
Rinku: I joined INSAID in November. I have completed the basic Python package and then started working on ML intermediate. Now, I am working on my assignments and projects.
Ankita: Were there any initial challenges that you faced when you entered the machine learning and Data Science field? If yes, then how could you overcome them?
Rinku: When I started studying machine learning then a few of the terms and algorithms were really hard for me. Also, there were many statistical things that were challenging for me as I never worked with them. There were lots of intricacies about the working procedure that I studied earlier but because I was not in touch with these, getting back to them was quite a task for me. But my mentor, Suchit, helped me a lot and suggested some articles and blogs to read. This helped me get rid of my fear, and gave me an idea of how things work.
Ankita: Are there any Data Science and AI influencers that you follow?
Rinku: Andrew NG is one of the Data Science influencers that I follow. Whenever I am stuck somewhere, I read his blogs and get the answer as to how things are done.
Ankita: Would you like to name any blogs that you read, apart from the blogs of the AI influencer?
Rinku: One of the blogs that I read regularly is Medium and the reason is that the level of the topics progress from easy to difficult. This makes it comprehensible.
Ankita: What are the current trends in Data Science that you are most excited about?
Rinku: Fraud detection is one of these applications which interests me the most. Banks are making use of this so that there are no fraudulent transactions and defaulters can be easily caught. Steps are also being taken so that the accounts can be kept safe from the hackers.
Ankita: What current trends in Data Science & AI do you see becoming very big in the coming years?
Rinku: Hiring robots for household chores is one trend I see becoming a practicality in the coming years. Even training these robots on how to work in different situations is being undertaken quite seriously and with complete care.
Ankita: At INSAID, students are encouraged to build high-quality GitHub profiles. Have you built your GitHub portfolio and how do you think this will help you?
Rinku: I did work on my GitHub profile after joining INSAID and as a result, my GitHub profile has improved a lot. Now, my profile has an image, a description of the machine learning projects that I have worked upon. With a single glance at my GitHub profile, there will be a word about the projects that I have done and my knowledge; what are the things that I know.
Ankita: 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.
Rinku: My resume used to be of five pages and I didn’t even have an idea about how to make it concise; my HR used to tell me to make it a brief one. But compiling my 10 years of experience into a brief resume was a task which I didn’t know how to proceed with. The Career Launchpad Session helped me a lot in making my resume crispier and concise; now I knew that I had to make it in two pages and how. So, if you see my profile, I have mentioned whatever project I have worked on.
Earlier, I used to add all the insights, code level work and stuff like that. But now my profile has keywords related to my domain; nothing more and nothing less, just the required stuff.
Ankita: What is your advice to anyone wanting to start a career in Data Science?
Rinku: My first advice would be that you might not be the best coder but still you have to code. You should also know statistics and math. You should be a master at whatever you do. Follow the top leaders and influencers in the field and see how they are working to know what you should do and how. This is the most important thing to do.
Ankita: So, as a last question- How has been your experience with INSAID so far? Do you have any feedback or anything that you would like to share?
Rinku: Honestly speaking, I’m really satisfied after joining INSAID. The studies, the way classes are conducted, everything is just so good about INSAID. Due to some personal reasons, I could not attend my classes and was worried as to how will I cover the studies. But the refresher classes by Parijat came to my rescue. Everything was explained so clearly and comprehensively that I was satisfied. The GitHub and Career Launchpad sessions, webinars with industry leaders for a practical experience is something I don’t think other institutes will do.
Ankita: Thank you so much for those generous words and your time. It was really nice talking to you.
Rinku: Thanks! Bye!
