I am a graduate of Economic Hons. from Delhi University and have done MBA in Finance from Delhi. I have been working for 23 years with extensive experience in Project Management, Operations, and Vendor management. At the moment I work as the Global Lead for Global Shared services Center for Xerox Technology for Order to Cash. Read further to learn more about my journey with Great Learning’s PGP Data Science and Business Analytics Course.
The biggest professional challenge I had was my inability to understand terms like Machine learning, Predictive modeling being implemented by the Analytics team to whom we have outsourced the work. I also struggled with a large amount of data that is received from the Vendor and my ability to interpret and slice and dice the data.
I chose Great Learning because of a recommendation from my friend who is from an IT background. She has also studied at the University of Austin in the past.
I did have apprehensions as I am not from IT and have never done coding.
The same was mitigated:
- Did pre learning module on Python
- The learning modules and videos are extremely well paced
- For Probability I used a reference text book to better understand the concept
- Clarified my doubts in the mentor sessions
- Our peer group created over whatsapp was also very helpful as needed.
- The weekly exams and the projects helped us in consolidating our learnings.
The mentor learning sessions are extremely good and relevant because (i) It gives an opportunity to us to have connected with live mentors and ask any clarifying questions that we may have from the video and other learning material (ii)The mentor sessions are so well formulated that there was always re-enforcement to our learning (iii) Mentor sessions also always captured information/learning in addition to that captured in the learning material and videos.
Mentors extend the time limit as needed and always ensure the questions are clarified. They played a significant role in helping clarify doubts and guide us in this journey. The additional industry sessions reinforced learning.
Have learned (i) to do Exploratory data analysis (ii) build predictive models (iii) Learnt to do analysis using Tableau (iv) Python basics (v) Writing reports in word and power-point (vi) Got exposure to KNIME tool.
I am from a Non-IT background and have 23 years of work experience. The advice I would give to those just starting with learning analytics:
- It’s a step in the right direction
- Maintain your notes for each section such that you capture the Case study and what is the new learning from that case study. This will help you in the latter sessions.
- Be thorough with the learning sessions provided in the videos and pdfs.
- The program is extremely well paced and well thought through. Just the adequate amount of time has been allocated for each assignment. Spend 2-2.5 hours daily if you are like me from a non-IT background.
- Make full use of the mentor sessions and ensure to clarify your doubts.
Enjoy and apply your learnings!
