A classroom program and exposure to industry experts can be very helpful when you’re someone who believes in the importance of education through traditional methods. Here is Mohammad Amir Ashraff’s journey with Great Learning’s PGP Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning course.
Tell us about your professional background.
I did my Electrical Engineering from NIT Jamshedpur. I have 17 Years of work experience in the IT industry. Before getting into Machine Learning, I was a mainstream programmer.
Why did you decide to upskill?
There was a career-drive in our company, wherein there was a very visible push towards digitization and how it is a major part of the future. That’s when I realized that I had to either upskill or stay stagnant in the industry. I decided to go ahead and upskill in an industry that seemed interesting to me. I did a couple of different courses, but I left them halfway through because they didn’t cover the programming aspects, and I was very interested in programming.
Why Great Learning?
I had done my research about various institutes that offer this course. I came across a lot of good feedback regarding Great Learning, and this pushed me to take up the AIML course quickly, the course content was promising. Being in the industry for a long time, I was able to understand that this content will be good for me.
What did you like the most about the PGP-AIML course?
The classroom program was really attractive. I understand the importance of education being imparted in a traditional classroom manner. Over time, I realized that the exposure to industry experts and the capstone project was something to look forward to. I am now a mentor here at Great Learning and I have realized the beauty of the mentorship program, I can relate to all the topics in detail and gain a deeper understanding.
Did you have any short-term and long-term goals in mind?
I have always gone ahead with one goal in mind, be the best at what you do. If I like something, I will put my 100% effort into it. If you excel in something then opportunities will knock on your door. I have realized that I am interested in Data Science too, and am working within my office teams in this domain.
Tell us about your Capstone Project.
My capstone project was on Natural Language Processing. I was in a team of 5 people who were very driven and loved finding problem areas and coming up with the solution. We decided not to rush our research in 2 months and picked up a different topic, but our project was among the top 300 out of 4500. The mentor support was good. They helped us understand how the whole process works.
Advice for future PGP-AIML aspirants.
I would like to suggest that you make up your mind about what you want to achieve in life. Once this is done, if you are motivated, there is no shortage of resources available. If you focus on a particular goal, there is no one stopping you from achieving it. Work with passion, find your area of interest and approach the tasks with a certain amount of zeal.
For more such success stories, watch this space!
