I am currently working in KLA-Tencor Software India Private Limited as ‘Associate Lead – Software Quality Control’. I have 6 years of industry experience in software testing. Worked in Mindtree as senior engineer in testing and wanted to expand my skills and knowledge. As a testing engineer, my skill set was restricted to automation and functional testing and I couldn’t outshine from the group with an extra skillset. Also, I started to read about upcoming technologies and got to know that ML, AI are the future. Hence, I took the initial step to kickstart my cross-skilling with the PGP DSBA course.
Even before joining this PGP DSBA, I had my eyes set on ‘Great Lakes’ to do a full time MBA. But I couldn’t afford the time and money at that point. This COVID- 19 lockdown gave me the buffer time that I needed to cross skill. Started looking for data science courses from multiple vendors and after realizing that I can be certified by ‘Great Lakes’ I decided to do this course via the Great Learning portal.
Mentoring sessions proved to be a booster for me. This hit me with nostalgia! To remember my UG assignments/projects days and relive the days as a learner. Moreover, our mentor ‘Mr. Prabhu Ram’ handled the sessions very well and made us all comfortable and confident to learn.
I haven’t missed even a single mentoring session (Not just for attendance), but not to miss a chance to get my doubts clarified out. Though we get recordings, it can’t match the live interaction with a mentor. And the sessions were top quality. Our mentoring sessions sometimes shoot 30-40 mins extra than the allocated timing, and our mentor ‘Mr. Prabhu Ram’ was ready to stay back and address our queries.
Apart from the sessions, our mentor was ready to reply to our doubts over WhatsApp and never showed any discomfort in the process of doing it.
I got hired in ‘KLA-Tencor’ during my course. The current project we work on is based on log analytics and insights. The project needed a rare hybrid combination of ‘Test Lead, Data Scientist’. My learnings not only have helped me crack this job interview, but also it helps in proposing new feature request for new plots/ graphs/ charts and insights in the product we currently work on. During the course I have prepared 12 business reports and this greatly helped me in improving my documentation skills in work. Try to be confident and be hungry to upskill/ cross skill consistently.
Dedicate 10 hours a week for your skill development. Enjoy the challenges. If you are stuck during the course, ask for help, no one is going to judge you.
Always remember to “Progress an ‘M’ everyday, let that M be either a Millimeter or a Mile. Just don’t stop and keep progressing”
