Continuous learning is extremely important in today’s world, and especially after taking a career break. The technological world is advancing rapidly. Read further to learn about Akanksha Mishra’s journey with Great Learning’s PGP Data Science and Business Analytics Course in her own words.
My name is Akanksha Mishra. I am an MBA healthcare graduate with B-Pharm as my bachelor’s degree. I have experience working in administration for a renowned hospital in Hyderabad. I loved and enjoyed my work as it was something I was very good at, then due to my personal commitments I had to quit the job and start another inning of my life as a homemaker. I continued my association with an NGO and devoted my time to some social cause. I believe in continuous learning, keeping myself busy, and giving my best in everything that I do. This attitude helped me set my priorities clear.
Living in a Nuclear family and raising a child was a huge challenge for me. I wanted to spend my time with my child seeing him grow. I indulged myself in other activities and hobbies that I was quite active in my younger days. With my child growing up, I got to relive my childhood. Although I was very happy, I still was missing something in life. As my child grew older, I wanted to work more on myself and devote my time to excelling in my career again. I wanted to do something for self-growth and this pandemic played a very important role in making me realize that. I took it as an opportunity to start over.
I began looking for the right opportunities available. I realized it was high time to upgrade myself since being away from the industry for a span of ten years gave a long gap which I needed to recover. Data science being the top skill in demand by the industry made me believe that I can overcome the biggest challenge of the huge professional gap. I don’t come from a computer science background, not even engineering. Now the biggest hurdle was to decide the start. I needed appropriate guidance so I started looking for programs available and came across the Great learning PGP-DSBA program.
My journey in Data Science started with Great Learning. The initial two months were very tough for me, I was not satisfied with my performance in the weekly test which depressed me, and I would frequently call my Program Manager-Prabhjot and share my thoughts with her. She encouraged me a lot and was very supportive throughout my journey. Gradually I picked up the pace and started understanding. I would read twice, thrice, and watch the videos multiple times to get clarifications. The most important of all was the Mentoring sessions, those 2-3 hours proved to be a game-changer for me to understand the concepts. The complete journey was a roller-coaster ride for me, but the most challenging thing was to cope up with the class speed and completing the target on time. Especially the pressure of submission every weekend.
I am very happy that I took the challenge and completed this journey successfully. I have learned a lot in this course and the learning continues.
