Even if you browse
aimlessly on Google, chances are that you will see an ad for Data Science, Big
Data, Machine learning or Artificial Intelligence.
I have myself
pondered, tried it, have been quizzed & grilled about it. Out of personal
experience & experience of my seniors, I will try to address, provide some
guidance & possibly clear the air around this sudden buzz.
These buzzwords -
Data Science, Big Data, AI/ML(Machine learning or Artificial Intelligence) are
definitely getting people piqued with curiosity. For those with limited info,
consider the amount of data we are generating nowadays. From bank transactions
to buying from Flipkart, Amazon etc E-commerce sites, to ordering food,
Domino's pizza online; to booking train/flight/bus/movie tickets etc involves
submitting personal/generic data online. Using this data; firms can track
previous sales, performance, buying behaviour etc as a function of various
factors like geography, gender, age group, education, income etc. After this,
they can predict future behaviour eg which product sells more at what time of
the year, age groups, gender preferences, whether or not the loan should be
sanctioned, if it's sanctioned what's the probability of default by the
customer etc... This is just a snippet of the magnanimous possibilities. And
the whole world is possibly moving towards digitalization with the advent of
smartphones & apps.
Students or those
suffering from the midlife crisis in their profession due to stagnation or
other reasons & wanting to change profile are taking up courses to get an
entry into this field.Let's make this very clear there are very very few good
institutes in India which offer a full-time course in this field. There are
hundreds of institutes which will give you the "blended" course, i.e
online, weekend lectures, recorded lectures, live video lectures etc...
Doing a full-time
course at a college which is reputed will make sense as it will help you with
campus placements. The multiple companies which will come during placement
season will give you lot of chances to get that job offer with the sought after
"Data Scientist" designation. Companies come with their requirements
& accordingly adjusted package. If you are having experience, X could be
the CTC. If you are a fresher package could be Y. My point is you will most
probably get opportunities to face the interview panel & get a job. You
will be trained during the initial period by the company that hires you which
would be a healthy on-job-training kind of experience for you. If your college
is really good, you will do an internship(which is normally a mandate in good
colleges). This will stand you in good stead.
If you look at job posts
on Naukri, Shine, TimesJobs, Monster, Hirist, Indeed etc the number of
opportunities for experienced candidates, those with 2+ years experience
overwhelmingly exceed the opportunities for Freshers. Which means
opportunities, in case you are planning to switch profiles from Sales, Finance,
Operations etc into Data Science & Analytics, are limited.
And for people
changing fields after working in a different profile; the age & package
become an impactful factor. Someone already drawing a monthly salary in the
range of 50k to 125k+ will find it difficult to adjust with the salary offered
for a beginner or with no experience in this field. Likewise, even companies
would be sceptical to take them on board considering their seniority,
previously drawn salary & currently package that can be offered on basis of
the tangible & intangible gains for the company, ROI for the company or CTC
on basis of various metrics.
Sagacity would imply
one should go for a full-time course from a reputed college, especially if one
is planning to switch profiles midway through one's career if your family
supports you/you can sustain & your pocket allows.
Now let's talk about
these "blended" courses... The range of their duration is from 3
months to 11 months. If you can maintain the intensity during the course
duration, good. I have seen people lose interest midway(from different
institutes) & some people totally dropped out. They did not even complete
the course.
Chances are that
course will be stretched by 1-2 months
duration from the earlier declared duration because of various
holidays/offs/procrastination… Even 6 months is a long duration for a part-time
course. Chances are that a course which was supposed to end in 6 months ended
in the 7th or 8th month OR to wrap up the course in the stipulated time,
content was skipped/not taught properly.
I re-iterate, this
is a part-time, online, weekend course; you will have your own personal,
family, social, most importantly - professional life to take care of. In a
full-time course, you are deprived of the burden of balancing your professional
life which comes with its share of baggage. You could miss out on important
sessions due to your work, this does not help at all. Unless your current
company is paying for it, chances are that they will not understand that you
need a certain slot of time for next 3-4 months or 9-11 months. Those
institutes which conduct classes on Saturdays will need you to be free on
Saturdays which is a big ask if you don't have offs on Saturdays. Some have classes
on Sundays which is fine, but keeping yourself available for that 3 to 5 hour
period for 3 months or upto 11 months depending upon your course duration is
not an easy task. It becomes even difficult if Sunday is the only off you get
from your office. Some institutes keep a weird timing of 6-9 @ night on
weekdays, for classes. You could be travelling from work back to home. So this
"blended" course will demand a lot from you.
Also:-
1) You need to be
absolutely sound in Statistics. Statistics is an entire subject taught in
colleges.
2) A bit of coding
background helps. It’s not a mandate, but you must not be resistant to coding.
How good is the
support that these institutes offering "blended" course offer for
doubt/query resolving can make or mar the enthusiasm of students. I have seen
very focused students lose interest because there was no concept
clearance/doubt solving assistance offered.
So, my strong
recommendation would be:-
1) If your company
is paying up for you, go ahead with a "blended" course. But you need
to be super-charged so that you depend more on yourself to be able to derive
full benefit of the course.
2) If you are
looking for placement assistance get credible & plausible info of the
scenario of students passed out from the institute you are joining by reaching
out to them.
3) If it's possible
for you depending on your family/financial constraints, go for a full-time
course from a reputed institute after checking out the placement statistics of
your previous batch. Most reputed institutes willingly share their placement
stats. In fact they publish an audited report. Check their websites. Or else
connect through their passed out students on Linkedin or Social media sights
& then decide.
Do your own
research, back your basic instincts & gut feeling. You need to take an
informed decision because ultimately it's you who will have to live with the
result accrued as a result of your decision.
Good luck!
