From Project Engineer to Business Analyst : Mandvi Tyagi

My Journey so Far: Being an engineer, I worked in IT for over seven years, starting with Wipro technologies. I moved to Genpact and then switched to RBS in the same investment banking domain. I was doing QA, manual – and automation testing and domain-specific trade settlements. As a Business Analyst with RBS, I now work with SAS BA tools managing trade liquidity for the bank. In the next one year, we intend to save around 4 billion pounds for the bank using data visualization.
I Decided to Upskill to Stay Relevant: I worked in software testing for almost 5 years and reached saturation. I was also well aware that testing profiles will gradually become obsolete. I learned QTP but newer tools are making testing an automated process with very less human intervention required. Having a strong math background, I decided to go for analytics. I didn’t want to take up an online course though. I value real interactions with people and the enriching experience of learning from faculty. Great Learning fulfilled these requirements for me.
I Liked the Exhaustive Curriculum That Covers All Tools and Domains: There are two things that I loved about the program. First is that I learned R, Python, SAS, and Tableau so I could choose my tools based on my strengths and areas of interest. Second is the exposure to all domains right from Finance to Marketing to Supply Chain and Operations. I realized that I could switch my career to any domain considering I had touched upon each of these domains during the program. In fact, I keep getting offers from sales and operations. Earlier, I only knew capital markets and the financial domain but now I believe I can switch to any domain, if I decide, by learning a little bit more.
Tools and Techniques I Use in My Current Role: I use SAS for data visualization, Hadoop System, Impala, Big Data, Advanced Excel, and a bit of Tableau as well. Initially, we never used SAS at work because my team was comfortable using other tools for a number of years. But then we were faced with a unique situation in a new project and decided to use SAS. The management opened up to using new tools once we started comparing tools like SAS, Tableau, and power BI based on the problem at hand. In fact, we are coming up with a lot of training sessions in cloud AWS, SAS training, etc.
Advice to Aspirants Looking to Transition into Analytics: I have successfully transitioned into an Analytics role today. But that change came about with a lot of hard work. Self-study is extremely important. Great Learning will provide you a lot of opportunities and enable you to utilize those through career enhancement sessions, but how you choose to build a schedule to work hard at it every day, with the faculty’s guidance, will define where you end up. I knew math but I had to learn statistics from scratch.
It Wasn’t As Tough to Switch from Non-Analytics to An Analytics Role: I was already familiar with some of the tools and terminology because I had learned them hands-on during the program. The sessions covering statistics ensured that when I hear statistical jargons, I am able to understand its meaning and context. A lot of hard work is required though. When I got into a BA role, I had to go through a serious of interviews and internal screenings. I got one and a half month to show my capability and only then my transition was formally initiated.
My Peer Group At Great Learning Was Amazing: It has helped me immensely to study with a group of people from different industries with 10-15 years of experience. So, it is not just the faculty but also the peer group that makes the Great Learning PGP-BABI course unique and worthwhile. When I started, I knew very little of Analytics and its application in various industries but thanks to the interaction with my peer group, I learned a lot about what is happening in each industry and where I should focus. We still stay in touch and constantly keep updating the entire group about career and industry updates.