Data Science is a growing field. Upskilling in Data Science can help you enhance your career. Read further to learn more about Sherlin Thomas’ journey with Great Learning’s PGP Data Science and Business Analytics Course in her own words.
Hi, I’m Sherlin Thomas from Kerala, India. I am currently working at EMPULSE Global Market Research and Data Analytics.
As a programmer and team lead, I keep myself abreast of the changing technologies and love to learn. Big data is becoming an important tool for businesses and companies of all sizes. Statistics show that there is a steep increase in the demand for data scientists which suggests that a career in data science is well suited for the future. It was only natural that I wanted to transition into this interesting field. Thinking back, it all started after I read an article in the newspaper about data science and its future potential. Since I deal with data extensively in SQL, I wanted to leverage my skills and experience to get trained in this new field. Great Learning provided the perfect platform for this transition. The weekend classes are really convenient for a working professional like me. The coursework at GL has been designed taking into consideration the demands of the industry while providing a good foundation in statistics. The reviews were really good and hence zeroing on Great Lakes was a logical and sensible decision.
Even though I was very excited, I had few fears about managing coursework, office work and duties at home. But later I realised the transition into Data science is simple: “BRACE UP FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE”. The coursework at Great learning is thorough, the classes are well structured and planned and include basics of statistics, SQL, Programming languages. The staff is experienced and their support during my journey was awesome. The best part is we can access our class recordings and course content 24/7. And we got a great opportunity to participate in hackathons to check our data science skills and improve them. The Capstone Project gave me the confidence to apply various ML techniques learned through our course. My team had the great opportunity to present part of our Capstone project at the MARSOC International conference in July of 2020. It was a great opportunity to understand the kind of work done by peers. The Capstone project is an end-to-end project life cycle that puts our learning to good use and gives the much-needed skills and confidence to handle a real job in Data Science.
Given the COVID situation, multi-tasking was always a challenge but being a team lead at work and having faced few unrealistic deadlines, I had the skillset and mindset to prioritise the deadlines at work and my studies. Professionally, this press has made me look at Data with an analytical bent of mind. On a personal note, I am very proud of the fact that I was able to multitask housework, office work and my coursework and this course made me push beyond my comfort zone. I must add that it was quite challenging at times to meet deadlines at work and GL was given the COVID situation. I can proudly say that I am happy that I came up with flying colours. In my view, as with many things in life, change is always daunting for anyone and women in particular because of household responsibility and the time needed to devote to learning. I have seen many students at GL who do not have a programming background but have managed to do very well in the coursework. This resonates with my thought that “where there is a will, there is a way”.
