It’s been 20 years in the IT industry, and currently, I am working for US-based Insurance clients with Cognizant. Started my career as a mainframe developer and worked through different roles through J2EE development, and then moved on to leading projects, programs, and portfolios. Currently playing a delivery leadership role for a portfolio of Insurance clients leading teams towards digital transformation. I spent a few of my early years in the US and am currently based in Chennai. I completed my UG in Engineering with PSG College of Technology, post which my career with Cognizant started in 2002. Before joining the PGP-AIML course, I was working on leading teams at Cognizant.
I will highlight two major Biggest Professional challenges I faced before joining the course. First is the timeshare between multiple threads, given my responsibilities. Second, keeping myself updated with the industry, I felt that I needed to scale up on AI/ML to be relevant to the industry that I have been working in for so long.
Great Learning was referred to by one of my friends who had gone through the program in Great Lakes. Initially, I did have apprehensions about my ability to scale and cope with online learning. The framework of Great Learning is very mature and structured and was very helpful in making me cope. Flexibility and the program manager’s support were extremely good.
Mentored learning sessions have been very fruitful in the following perspectives, in my view. It helps to provide a realistic feel to the course and gives a great experience of a true class. It brings the opportunity to clarify questions and real-life implementations. The support and coordination in arranging and managing the mentorship sessions have been great. It has ensured the effectiveness of the mentorship session. The quality of the mentor sessions was very good. Despite the pandemic, the efforts taken to arrange for the mentorship session had been great.
I feel that the mentor plays an important role in the success. The mentors supported in understanding and brushing up on concepts. It would be good if the mentors could help through the projects and guide us there as well.
Through these newly learned skills, I have started to look at the problems with an eye on data and utilize data in my day job today. I still haven’t started implementing anything yet, as I’m still halfway through the course.
My piece of advice to people joining newly would be that- Do not feel apprehensive based on individual background capability. An open mind to learn is all needed. Planning of time is needed. Be prepared to prioritize time between the regular job and course.
