My name is Heera, and I am from Chennai, India. I work as an Assistant Manager of Finance for an IT company in Chennai and have over 8 years of experience in the field.
Recently, I undertook a PGP-DSBA program alongside my full-time job. I was facing a challenge in my finance career as I felt I was capable of doing more and had limited opportunities for growth. My interest in analytics was sparked when I took a Business Analytics course during my MBA studies at the Great Lakes Institute of Management.
I carefully considered various programs and sought the opinions of friends who had completed analytics programs through Great Learning before making my decision. As I had already completed part of my MBA program online due to the pandemic, online learning was a familiar environment for me.
The mentor sessions in the PGP-DSBA program were especially beneficial for those with non-technical backgrounds like mine. I was able to connect with highly qualified data science professionals and clarify my doubts in real time. My initial mentor, Aditya Shankar, shared valuable insights from his work experience and taught me how to approach data science problems in a practical manner. Although the mentor sessions were 2 hours long, I would suggest extending the duration to 2.5 hours or 3 hours.
At present, I am still working in finance, but my ultimate goal is to transition into data science. I have applied the skills I learned in the program to the projects assigned in each module, and I understand that learning is an ongoing process. My advice to others is to never stop learning, practice regularly, and participate in hackathons or analytics competitions to further develop their skills.
