Agne’s Experience
Wanting to leave academia was a no-brainer for me, however, getting a job in the industry seemed like a very daunting task. My research focused on tropical rainforests and climate change, and while it was a very interesting and relevant topic, without any working experience outside university, getting into the tech world was difficult. I did not attempt applying for any jobs as I didn’t know where to start, what I wanted to do, and had no faith in my skills set. I was recommended the S2DS program and it seemed like a very relevant course.
The S2DS course was challenging, but rewarding. I didn’t have much data science experience before (but worked with difficult data my entire career), worked in R while my course colleagues did in Python and on a topic I was not familiar with (train movement data!). The days were intense, and we had a lot of work to do. This was massively helped by the people I have worked with: my team members were extremely clever, considerate and overall lovely human beings, and the course leaders and coaches were attentive, extremely helpful with guidance and inspiring!
I learnt how to communicate effectively with people, communicate remotely, work with fast approaching deadlines without panicking, and enjoy this type of work (not having a deadline in 4 years and a goal of four papers to write by yourself). I learnt that my skill-set is valuable, and I am in a unique situation with a strong academic background, which is appealing to a lot of companies.
As a result of the S2DS course, I now work as a solutions engineer and data scientist (8 months!) at Hitachi Vantara, and international data and innovation company. I work with customers to help them realise the value of their data and guide them through digital data transformation. I can honestly say that I love my job – the projects are really interesting and diverse, expectations are reasonable and goals are achievable. It also feels great being an adult, earning a salary and sleeping at night! Any academic unfortunately will know what I mean…
As I found out later, Hitachi Vantara were a host company for the S2DS course to recruit new additions to the company and for me it was a months long interview. Almost a year after I started the S2DS course, and while it has been a bit of a fast moving and blurry year, I couldn’t be happier of my decision to join the programme.
