I did a lot of research in choosing the right college, says Laxman

From quite an early age I always had a keen interest in statistics, mathematics, and logical reasoning. This served me greatly in my initial years as it led me to be more pragmatic and avoid bias in many situations. My curiosity for mathematics was the major reason I opted for science during my higher secondary education. Around this time, I was also introduced to the world of programming, which seemed to be the new cool thing at that time. It fascinated me as to how I could practically communicate to the computer using its language. This heavily influenced me to choose computer engineering as my undergraduate program at Goa College of Engineering (GEC).

I would say that four years in undergraduation set the main base for my eventual shift to the world of data analytics. The structure and relevance of the course helped me gain numerous skills and knowledge from a highly skilled teaching team at GEC. I worked with front-end technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and so on. When I was introduced to the C and C++ program during the second semester, I was happy to see that it required a great deal of logical reasoning, similar to mathematics. I was introduced to the concepts of Data Structures, Algorithms, object-oriented programming, Computer Networks, and theory of computation, providing me with a solid basis for these concepts that proved to be extremely useful later in my profession.

What truly generated my genuine interest in the field of analytics was my final year project. I chose the field of machine learning and natural language processing. I worked on various natural language processing and machine learning packages in python. I also worked with various datasets to choose the best one for our model. The research that I performed during this project, showed me the scale and application of data analytics and machine learning.

I always intended to obtain prior work experience in the corporate industry before pursuing my higher studies. That was my rationale behind joining Persistent as an associate software developer post my graduation in 2019. Working in an industry truly revealed to me the intricate inner workings of an organisation. I worked under several managers and tried to learn everything I could from them. Despite my desire to be a leader, I more strongly desired to be part of an effective team because now I realised how important each member of a team is. I also understood the impact of management on the overall productivity of an organization. It dawned on me, how much I had to further push myself and learn so much more. I feel an early exposure to the industry has led me on the right track. Apart from my routine work, I also went the extra mile to improve and learn new skills in the field of data science and kept my repertoire updated. I attended a Skillathon Bootcamp on data science. It was a three-month duration course that covered various technologies used in data science, which included MS Excel, SQL, R programming, Python and its associated ML libraries, data visualization tools like Tableau and Power BI. During this time, I also completed several certification courses on various e-learning platforms like Coursera, HackerRank, etc, which included advanced R programming, data visualization, Google led data analytics course, MongoDB and son on. These courses helped me realise the true scope and applications of data analytics. Being an avid gamer myself, it was fascinating to see how gaming companies use data analytics to set reward schedules for players that keep the majority of players active in the game. I was intrigued by how content companies used data analytics to keep you clicking, watching, or re-organising content to get another view or another click, how it helps businesses optimise their performances, how much of a difference it makes to the efficiency of the existing business model and how it helps make better business decisions. This reignited my passion for data analytics and pushed me to pursue a career in analytics. After working at persistent for about two years I was finally ready to move on, as I felt I had gained enough experience and knowledge to take the next step towards my goal, pursuing my MBA.

I did a lot of research in choosing the right college that would facilitate me in my endeavour. After going through countless articles and websites, I came across the special PGDM BDA (Big Data Analytics) course offered by the Goa Institute of Management. GIM is among the top-rated B-schools in India and the techno-managerial course (BDA) it offers is highly sought after. It also offers scholarships to meritorious and needy students, which was a big plus point as I’ve always depended on scholarships for my education. What further reinforced my choice to apply to GIM were the numerous positive Student reviews, the impeccable placement records, and the excellent infrastructure. The program is structured to have a 40:60 mix of business knowledge and BDA-related experience, which is exactly what I was looking for. Students are facilitated to develop those qualities and to internalize those values which will make them effective leaders in organizations. The program also involves the extensive application of case-based learning, the use of simulations, seminars, and actual hands-on training, assignments both at individual and group levels, and intensive exposure to the actual business problems through on-site industry projects. I appeared for CAT and scored 92.3 percentile, which was enough for me to qualify for the interview round at GIM. I also scored 92.0 percentile, in the internal test GAAT for BDA. The overall interview process was smooth and I was also qualified for the spot interview. I truly feel this is the right place for me. This course will help me enhance my techno-managerial skills and imbibe data-driven decision-making. I hope to further acquire new skills, hone my existing ones and take full advantage of this distinct opportunity.

About the author

Laxman Bist is a student of BDA at GIM - Goa Institute of Management

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha