Whether you’re from a technical background or not, upskilling in the field of Data Science and Analytics can be really helpful in your career. Rohit was interested in Data Science and decided to go ahead and upskill. Read further to learn more about Rohit Kumar Rawal’s journey with Great Learning’s PGP Data Science and Business Analytics Course.
I am an M.Tech postgraduate from IIT Kanpur in Aerospace Engineering. After the completion of my post graduation, I worked as a GMAT, GRE and SAT counselor and trainer for almost 3 years. I had an interest in data analytics and felt this could be my true calling. I was working with Princeton Review as a counselor and trainer for almost 3 years.
Firstly, I was from a non-IT background and I had my apprehensions that non-IT people struggle a lot in getting into data science. Secondly, my prior work-ex was not relevant for the data analytics domain. Hence, I was a bit skeptical about even taking the first step towards data science. I thought either I will never get a chance to enter this domain or I will run out of patience before I get my break.
I did a lot of research, took feedback from various sources, thoroughly went through the curriculum and the structure of various similar programs and finally decided to choose GL because of their 360 approach towards analytics, well structured curriculum, hands on experience and most importantly, placement assistance.
I preferred classroom pedagogy as we get to interact with fellow learners and learn from their experience. Also in classroom format you are more focused and attentive. Interactive mentored learning sessions filled this gap. Active whatsapp groups gave a particularly good platform for query resolutions apart from forums on LMS.
Best part of mentoring sessions is that the mentors are from industry and apart from theoretical aspects of topics they also cover topics from industry perspective. So for those who have no prior experience in analytics even they get to know about the industry practices.
I feel mentoring sessions are not merely revision of the pre session videos; they are an extension to them. They also act as a window to look into the industry practices. Mentors are in continuous touch with the learners for any post session doubts.
Mentors gave me confidence that even being from a non-IT background I can learn these totally new concepts right from the basics. Mentors helped fill the gaps in understanding of the concepts and gave ample industry exposure to help me get ready to meet the industry demands.
All the guidance and hard work made me confident during the interviews and finally got into one of the leading analytics organizations as an analytics consultant.
Data science or analytics industry welcomes people from almost all sorts of backgrounds, given they are good at the relevant tools. List some tools based on the industry demand and your own interest. Practice these tools on the datasets provided in the assignments. Also do your own projects. Take help from the mentors and fellow learners whenever you are stuck. Just make sure to do a lot of hands-on practice, which will make you confident during the interviews.
For more such success stories, watch this space.
