How To Break Into A Career In Data Analytics (Without Any Prior Experience) - w/ Sai

what is the interview process like for most data science flash data umbrella roles for 2 months I had applied for 700 or 800 applications one or two calls and then they were like you are an immigrant we can't sponsor you I did my masters in Yukon in business analytics and project management with a major in data science it was around 200 AUST 2023 and then right now it's at 50,000 it was very intimidating coming from an electrical background as a fresher as an immigrant to a different country all anybody planning to come to the US for their masters is that uh generally say recommendation to have at least a year or two of work and do you have a recommendation on which coding platform or tool to use to get better at CER

or tool to use to get better at CER Python and all the other Technologies you mentioned gather as many contacts as you can when you're not desperate and then use it when you are desperate for job what was your placement experience like I feel more people should okay with considering hiring private coaches or private private mentorship welcome to the ready said do podcast where we discuss journeys of not experts who are just two step ahead of us I'm Naman Panda and in this episode featured not expert is Sai Kumar Sai is the lead data analyst at Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina coming from an electrical engineering background zi not only managed to get into a top business analytics program at the University of Connecticut but also break into his current position without having any work experience whatsoever I believe anybody

experience whatsoever I believe anybody that's currently in the job market can immediately appreciate what a gargantuan task that is and S breaks down for us the exact strategy that he used to succeed he also shares his secret source for networking effectively something that has seen him grow to over 50,000 followers on LinkedIn in just over a year in keeping with our theme of learning from somebody that's just two steps ahead of us instead of an expert my goal with this episode is to highlight sai's Incredible Journey that led him to his breakthrough job and what you can learn this is The Ready Set to podcast and to support it please subscribe to the channel and now my dear friends here's Sai Sai but welcome hey hi Naman how are you doing very well

hi Naman how are you doing very well really appreciate you taking the time today to share all of your expertise not just on data science but the amazing community that you've built on LinkedIn and that you are continuing to build every passing date it's I find I feel like your posts are just automatically always on the top of my news feed and it just tells me that whatever you're doing is definitely working because the algorithm from what I gathered loves to you know boost your stuff so maybe we can begin by that um what made you um start to post on LinkedIn and what was the initial motivation behind that so my content creation Journey started a year ago exactly in August 2023 so uh it started with uh a small motivation of

started with uh a small motivation of giving back to the community and because during my uh job search a lot of people have guided me and then mentored me because I was new to United States I was new to corporate world and then I was a immigrant so there were a lot of constraints around me which I need needed to navigate and then mentorship has pled a uh very important role uh during my job search I started creating content and then I created my topmate profile started helping out people whenever they reached out to me I set up a 30 minutes Google meet with them to uh help them in their job search Journey

help them in their job search Journey like say what kind of tools to use uh just like making some minor changes in their resume like letting them know what worked for me what didn't work for me where they can go to like what the people that they can reach out and they follow and then they can rely on so it all started with small motivation of giving back because I got helped by a lot of people during my job search so that's the uh main motivation and then later on it continued yeah absolutely so when you started you said August of 2023 just for context um how many followers did you had at the time or what was your reach like during those days so uh I had

reach like during those days so uh I had LinkedIn from 2017 to be honest and then have I haven't used it until 2022 December because I didn't sit for placements back in India and then I didn't needed a job back in India and then I came to United States I wanted a job a semester before so that's when I started using LinkedIn uh like after coming to United States so I started using in mid of uh dece mid of 2022 and then by the time uh I was in job market I had like, 1500 followers around th connections got it and uh by the time I got job it was around 2,000 because I was connecting with lot of people asking for referrals connecting withum and everything right so grew to 2000 it was

everything right so grew to 2000 it was around 200 August 2023 and then right now it's at 50,000 uh I it like that's what I was getting at how does that happen in a year that sounds astronomical to me so how did you manage to grow that quickly yeah so to start with um I've started in August 2023 and then I us it to post um twice a week until few months and then it has increased to three to four times but then from from from the past few months I've been posting at least once a day or sometimes twice or Thrice a day but it wouldn't cross more than 12 to 13 per post but then all of them are scheduled but it's about the consistency and the time do you dedicate

consistency and the time do you dedicate you don't have to work 20 hours a week on your LinkedIn content creation so spend 30 minutes a day or 1 hour a day uh like on writing your post scheduling it and engaging with other creators is is something that has help me so it's always give and take so you like someone's content you learn from it tell them what you have learned tell them what they can add or if there's something wrong point it out and then uh everyone's learning so it's a process so it's all about uh engagement like creating quality content and then um and being consistent that's the main important uh thing lot of people miss it so uh have I think I've have been consistent but that's one thing that has helped me and then learning from other

helped me and then learning from other creators connecting with them hooping on a call with them understanding their Journey so what has helped them in their content Journey what has helped what didn't help them so asking both pros and cons so that I I don't have to repeat them again so a few a lot of people have helped me uh during the journey and then have been on few podcasts connected a few competitions and webinars so all this put together uh have helped me in reaching this Milestone amazing yeah I really appreciate you sharing that um I I I had heard about briefly about how engaging with other creators can really help you know boost up your profile as well but it it's really helpful to you know kind of have you validate that um

know kind of have you validate that um what did you go to your Master's Degree for and where did you go to college so I did my masters in Yukon in the field of business analytics and project management with a major in data science I see so I'm assuming so and but you said your background was in electrical engineering so do you mind talking a little bit about how you made that switch and uh like what were some considerations that you referenced in your you know admit letters or your statement of purpose at Etc because that's kind of a big switch in my mind to go from electrical all the way to you know data science yeah that's true so uh

know data science yeah that's true so uh I was in my third year of my bachelor and then I wanted to go to United States from long back so I Was preparing for my S Sops and L from electrical background I wanted to do Masters in electrical until end of third year and then I applied for few universities got admits in electrical also for masters in electrical and then I had to take a course called SQL and then course called machine learning because I didn't know what they were at that time but they were not optional so I had to take them so I took them and then they were very interesting I was good at math so I was

interesting I was good at math so I was able to write queries understand the math behind the algorithms in machine learning so then I was doing some research on YouTube like what is data science or what is machine learning what is data analytics and everything and then it seemed like it aligned with my goals like uh I'm as I mentioned I was good at math it's because of my father so he's also very good so I got it from him so then I thought okay let me give it a try let me try data science I cancelled all the admits from electrical and then started applying in data science but I took a few months uh Gap like I graduate August 2021 but then

like I graduate August 2021 but then because my profile wasn't aligned to data science at all and uh except those two courses I knew I wouldn't get admits so I took three to four months Gap I came in Spring 2022 so in this two to three months I have done few projects done few courses and certifications just so that it boost my profile so I add those in Sops LS and uh applied for six to seven universities and then I got in all of them except two cool wow um what were some of the courses that you did or and or certifications that helped you know boost your profile for that at that

know boost your profile for that at that point of time there was uh this company called intern shella back in India it still exists I'm pretty sure yeah yeah it is still there so I did data science certification in that and then few uh certification like free certifications from UD me and then watch few videos from YouTube to understand what is what so certifications from UD me and intern has helped me helped me a lot in boosting applications and also the projects and then my SQL course and machine learning course back in Amura awesome that's so cool that you were able to you know take this leap of faith and jump outside into you know an Uncharted Territory and you know get get that done so um can you talk a little

that done so um can you talk a little bit about your Master's experience so you now studying very in detail Concepts about this thing that you've only just learned you know you've only done a couple projects have probably a kind of a brief is understanding was that intimidating at all once you were in your master's degree yeah I I'll be honest it was very intimidating coming from an electrical background as a fresher as an immigrant to a different right country culture shock so the first few days or few weeks I would say it was like haunting experience the jet lag cultural shocks and the prices not to mention coming from India to United States so all this where like initial struggle like every Master every immigrant has would have

Master every immigrant has would have faced these struggles and then we'll face so and then later on I understood that like because I had my friends they were amazing and then we had each other like they were supporting they were experienced people so I had good support from them so I got through my Master's Journey because of them and then I was very bad at cooking so they were there to help me out and coming to academics it was uh completely new as I mentioned like except from the few courses and internship that intern thing that I have done but that has given me some basic foundation so in the first semester I had taken five courses like again SQL predictive modeling project management course and everything but then I didn't have part time uh in my during my first

have part time uh in my during my first semester that's one of the advantage and disadvantage so since I didn't have part time I didn't have enough money I had to take from loan but then since I didn't have part time I used that time to learn new things exactly yeah so we my all my friends were like into academics and then they were very good so all of us we started participating in competitions and hackathons so nice that has helped me a lot in boosting my profile as a uh fresher so like my masters was filled with enjoyment vacations competition haathon everything biased yeah know I love what you said about the importance

love what you said about the importance of having good peers because I yeah I agree 100% in that most immigrant students's experiences I feel like are shaped more than by just that one factor which is peers than anything else so totally totally agreeing with what you said like if you have a good solid bunch of people that you can trust to not only grow with AC academically but also you know have fun with have engag in conversations learn more about the new place that you're in there's so much new that happens um when you first come to the US right everything's new it's like you could stop at any Street and look around and it's like wow that's this is unreal like how did I even get here so

unreal like how did I even get here so can totally relate to that um what was your placement experience like so once you were was your course a one year or a twoyear course so it was uh flexible I could graduate in 9 months 12 15 18 or 24 so I graduated in 15 months so I started in Jan 2022 graduated in uh May 2023 interesting so I took a I took courses in my summer also in my first summer because I wanted to graduate early because I came for spring I can't do an internship uh in the fall for sure so I was like there's nothing I can do in summer so I can't go to India it's

in summer so I can't go to India it's been only three months so I'm like let's take courses all of us took courses in summer we took three courses so we all of us graduated early awesome no and 151 feels like the right balance cuz I think nine is probably too less if if anything and 15 is a little bit more yeah you know a little bit more paced out so once it was time to apply for fulltime Etc what was that entire experience like for you how many um roughly obviously I know there's no way for you to remember for sure unless you are one of those uh you know tracker people which I respect a lot but I could never do that but yeah how many places did you apply to how

how many places did you apply to how many how much success did you have in terms of your applications and then how you ended up at your current role at um Blue Cross Blue sheet yeah it wasn't easy it was difficult I would say for sure I wanted to graduate in May 20123 so I started applying in December 2023 like last week of December 2023 or first week of Jan so I started like five months uh before I graduate so the first two months were very difficult so like as I mentioned I didn't apply for a job I didn't sit for interview back in India so everything was new I had a two-page resume and then like how Indians we have uh two page resume it's it's okay in India but then here it's not okay yeah for at least for a fresher it's not okay

for at least for a fresher it's not okay true so I had my career coaches in University so I set up calls with them so they told uh it should be one page and then they gave me some initial tips and I changed my resume and then like took their suggestions and then they also mentioned the importance of LinkedIn so I even got a professional headshot by the university so changed headline everything aligned with data analytics and everything but then I was new to applying for jobs uh started applying I was nowhere for two months like just applying 10 jobs every day 20 30 every day so for two months I had applied for 700 or 800 applications I was like got one or two calls and then they were like uh you are an immigrant

they were like uh you are an immigrant we can't sponsor you and then that was it then there was nowhere so then I started to seek mentorship from people on LinkedIn and then I found few places and then uh few people were hesitant a lot of people were hesitant into uh guide or Mentor so that's when I thought okay this is not going to happen I had to spend money so I hide the private Mentor for me cool awesome how did you find this person so it was on preist so uh and then I also had few career coaches that I paid money for so for like my resume review and then someone from data science someone from recruiting background so I had two people helping me and then then I got I met with few people in the industry my

met with few people in the industry my alumni also like I asked them what helped them what didn't help them again same pros and cons so then I started telling my resume to the role that I'm applying for like including all the key skills and that's when I got to know importance of referrals so I started seeking referrals from Alum many people I met on LinkedIn and then as I mentioned I participated in a lot of competitions and hackathons still I mean I still I'm touch with the judges of the competitions and ha so I got refer referred by them and my professors they have been like very helpful I knew few few professors very closely and I still talk with them and then uh they referred me at their companies they referred me at their spouses companies and then their families so they have been really helpful and uh in the next two months

helpful and uh in the next two months from March to May uh I got I applied around 400 I took my time to apply and then reach out for referral so then had gotten around 20 to 30 calls but then few of them I was fresher rejected I was an immigrant rejected so I had few interview setup and then I got this one finally wow yeah I mean I can almost relate to that to some extent obviously but it does sound like you went pretty much all in uh but no but I respect that I honestly feel like more people should be you know okay with considering um hiring as you said private coaches or private mentorship that can individually or custom apply for you um you know like

or custom apply for you um you know like because a lot of the advice that we get especially on LinkedIn and elsewhere is I mean obviously it's good advice but there's almost an element of that it's like 60% of that advice is only applicable to me the other 40 isn't really as much so to have an expert guide us through that entire process obviously can be very helpful my follow add on yeah no please go ahead so to add on that you're already spending $60 $70,000 on your master it's you're spending extra few 100 bucks don't back on that exactly it's nothing when you compare with your $60,000 absolutely that's a very good point and the site that you used you said it was called pr.com or yeah okayed I'll be linking that in the show notes

I'll be linking that in the show notes for anybody that wants to check that out and obviously I'll link your top mate as well because I realize now you're on the other side of the table and can and are obviously willing to help and continue to help so I will do that um my followup uh question to what you just laid out your experience around those times is um based on what you know now after being in the industry for almost a year and having helped so many other people walk through those similar Journeys what were some things that you wish you knew at the time I know you referenced a few of them such as importance of optimizing your LinkedIn um tailoring your resume to keywords Etc um other than that do

to keywords Etc um other than that do you remember any other you know big um realizations that you had around that time that oh man I can't believe I wasn't doing this this whole time and I should have so any call outs in terms of the application process yeah I do have few regrets also so start let's yeah let's go first one would be LinkedIn so the best time to search for a job is not when you're desperate the best time to search for a job is when you're not desperate the best time to network so I wouldn't say job the best time to network because let's say take my situation I was graduating May 2023 I started networking in December 2022 so 5 months before my graduation obviously I would be desperate because if I wouldn't get a job I would have to leave the country if I started networking when I

country if I started networking when I came to United States like a year ago I wasn't desperate for a job so I can meet lot of people I don't have to text them for referrals I can ask them for guidance and then set up a call A L of organic like that exactly you can ask people you text 100 people you get at least reply from 30 to 40 whereas if it's a referral you might get only reply from five to 10 people so the best time to network for who is watching this video is now like when you're not desperate for a job so gather as many contacts as you can when you're not desperate and then use it when you are desperate for job so

use it when you are desperate for job so that's one thing that have been doing this past one year so connecting a lot of people so that's one biggest tricket and then I learned it the hard way right for for sure and uh the other thing would be um work on your projects and your communication skills too so it's not just about your technical skills so it's always the combination of Technical and non-technical skills that sets you apart from the crowd so then there are some things that are out of your control let's say like you're giving you 100% but then your your competition is giving 101% that's not in your control if you have five years of experience if your competition has seven years of experience that's not in your control

experience that's not in your control but what's in your control is to give your best and then uh stand out as much as you can but there are things that are not in your control but don't be hard on yourself that yeah that makes total sense what was the interview process like for you and I guess to maybe re reformat the question um what is the interview process like for most data science SL data umbrella rules we'll just treat that as kind of a broad spectrum because I know there's a bunch of different things within data science you can have data Engineers data scientists all of those are different but generally for the most part under the data umbrella what does an interview

the data umbrella what does an interview process look like so yeah for ENT level it starts with a recruiter call and then hiring manager round probably one or two techn techical rounds and then salary negotiation this is for not uh Fang companies obviously for Fang companies you would have six to seven rounds and then technical coding and everything but even for non- Fang companies you might expect a coding around sometimes or take home assessments or uh live coding or like product sense depending if you're working for a product directly you might expect product sense company product role case studies or experimentation questions if you are applying for product and list roles so probably maximum of four rounds so it wouldn't Cross Four unless the role requires it or the interviewers interviewers wants

or the interviewers interviewers wants to interview you or if they have more number of applicants they want to filter they have more constraints or like if they're unable to figure out who's the best candidate so that's a problem so not more than four cool and then can you speak a little bit more about the just the specifically the technical rounds what goes on in those especially the ones that have coding and also the ones that are just you know verbal Tech Tech types like what sort of questions are asked what's the best way to prepare for those so coming to technical ones so if it's a data analyst role you can expect uh questions on SQL any visual tool like powerbi or TBL or looker and don't find on what which one to learn learn one one of the tools the skills are transferable and uh obviously

skills are transferable and uh obviously Excel it's not it won't be mentioned in job description but you're expected to know Excel for sure oh yeah yeah I mean absolutely and then having knowledge of python would set you apart and having knowledge on cloud tool like AWS Azure or gcp same thing you don't have to fight on which one to learn learn one of those you're good the skills are transferable again so understand these theoretical Concepts in depth and practice as much as you can because theoretical knowledge is different from practical knowledge so only when you practice you'll get errors and then you'll figure out what's happening and then how to overcome that error for technical rounds SQL is must and should like you might not use SQL at work but

like you might not use SQL at work but then your interviews will have SQL for sure I see and do you have a recommendation on which coding platform or tool to use to uh get better at SQL and or Python and all of the other technologies that you mention yeah I have three recommendations for that first one would be lead code obviously so uh SQL and python they have amazing questions like uh segregated into easy medium and hard and then the next one would be data for it has SQL questions from top companies like Amazon like all the companies that you can practice it wasn't there when I was looking for job I mean I didn't know it wasn't I didn't know that it was there but uh the other one I used was Interview query it's

one I used was Interview query it's amazing too it has SQL python even case studies like product sense experimentation a testing so it's very good for data analytics and data science roles so I would recommend these three and there are other websites like hacker Rank and to learn you can use W3 schools geek for geeks for Geeks so and amazing tools right now like I see a new tool every day right now with the rise in Ai and then rise in competition so yeah we'll be talking about AI in just a little bit but um so I guess on that same note my final question would be um and I know this can be kind of a tricky one but I'm just trying to wrap my head around what is the good number

my head around what is the good number of hours that somebody can aim to sync into this prep including all of those sites that you mention aside from reading about the theoretical aspects all of it blah blah um but yeah what's that rough wallpark number before which somebody can probably feel fairly confident about their chances at cracking a you know data interview so once you feel that you're confident with the theoretical part let's say SQL RBI python or cloud or any tool that or tools that you require for your Target role so start practicing every day you don't have to practice for 10 hours a day or like hours a day or 100 questions per day keep it small practice for two to three questions

practice for two to three questions every day but make sure you're consistent so don't practice 20 Questions a day and then rest for a week and then 30 a day and then rest for two weeks so make sure you're solving three questions one easy one medium one hard every day but do it for three months same with one three from SQL three from python maximum two hours per day or one and half hour per day uh more than enough or 30 minutes to two hours per day should do but make sure it's consistent you're doing for two to three months and then you'll feel uh very confident like when you compare yourself with a 3 months uh your version of him 3 months before you'll feel more confident and then you you would have faced lot of errors and then now you

faced lot of errors and then now you would know how to overcome those because you can you can expect questions on those during your interviews interviews to like edge cases like what would you do if you get this error how would you resolve it so you might expect questions also but if you hadn't practiced it you wouldn't have experienced that error and you wouldn't answer that question so it all goes back to practicing every day yeah absolutely and I actually I mean not to trivialize your experience but it feels like 3 months isn't really that bad you know like because you didn't even come from data science like you were an electrical engineer not having the strongest base that most of your peers would you say were from like computer science backgrounds is am I right in assuming that yeah right so if

right in assuming that yeah right so if you could do that in 3 months that that honestly is a very welcome sign that anybody out there there that is at least that had a bachelor's in computer science or a related field probably will find it you know hopefully easier than you did so that's just exactly a call out that I wanted to make cool um and then what was your experience like working in America for the for the first time and actually did you have any work experience in India at all or did you were you a complete fresh I wish I had experience back in India no why do you say that what makes you say that so to answer that question I got few rejections like the I had two companies

rejections like the I had two companies rejected me in Final Round saying that you perform well better than your competition but then your competition has two years of experience so that's why we have to go so that's like I that's tough pretty well than them in the interviews but then they had to choose them because of experience that's so tough that's one reason and then I got rejected for few companies in the initial round saying that I didn't meet the initial criteria of two years so gotcha gotcha and also if I had worked I would have known how Corporate World works I came without experience but knowing that would have help mean articulating my answers in a structured way maybe my job search would have been easier but I don't regret it now because I made it

don't regret it now because I made it but then I still wish I had worked for a year or two back in India got it so for anybody planning to come to the US for their masters is that a generally safe recommendation to have at least a year or two of Works before they fly out here yes if you're working in a different domain it doesn't matter because let's say if I had worked as an electrical engineer for 2 years it wouldn't haveen but then if you know that you're doing you are going to do Masters in say mechanical engineering if you're work experience is also in mechanical engineering it's perfect work for two years you know what the industry is expecting what the corporate is expecting from you you know how to

expecting from you you know how to handle uh stretch situations how to answer and then everything you'll be in a better position than fresher like me for sure so if it's relevant come with experience but then if not it's okay but then make sure to spend extra you have to spend extra hours every day or like for sure until you get job so I would recommend it but even if it's if you want to come as soon as you graduate that's okay but then it's going to be difficult when you compare with someone with experience for sure and yeah it just helps to know what you're signing up for like like we're not trying to paint any picture here we're just kind of telling it you know how we understand the things are um how did you

understand the things are um how did you deal with that though that sounds very I don't know so like if I made it to the final round of an interview and the company was like you did great we have no reason to not hire you but we're still not hiring you because you don't have I would be pretty frustrated I'm just very curious to like learn how you dealt with that because that's just you know not not ideal yeah it was difficult but then I I had to take it because if I it was difficult for few days but then I had to move on because if I hadn't moved on it would waste my time and then it would still delay my application process so it

still delay my application process so it was a hard decision to take in to uh digest it but then I had to as simple as that no yeah I I respect that I that totally makes sense what was it like when you finally got the offer letter from Blue Cross yeah it was like an amazing experience because it was my first offer letter but I did get a few fake offer letters before that oh fake offer what do you mind sharing more on that so what happened was I got an email from a company and then I saw the company it was there and then uh but the email was a fake email I didn't notice that they sent me a question here uh it was rela

sent me a question here uh it was rela into data science and data analytics I was it I thought it was genuine I answered all of them and then I sent them back in a world document and then 3 days later I got the offer letter directly and then I was like what and then I thought it was genuine first and then I was going through offer letter and then they were like they were offering me around 140k for a fresher and then they wanted to reimburse my expenses too personal expenses who would reimburse my apartment rent and my groceries no company would do that yeah so these were some red flags and then I rejected that and then the another experience it was on call too so I got the call I sent the the answers and then

the call I sent the the answers and then I had interview on video call and then I got the same offer letter again from a different company oh man that's so tough because I'm sure you would have spent at least some time preparing for that you know screening call that interview it's just such a waste of your time that's the part that makes me really like Angry not the fact that they tried to scam you because obviously any anybody would read the offer letter and figure out that this this is not genuine but you won't get that time back so that's really unfortunate I wonder why they do that is it just to like extort money eventually you would pay them money like how does that work exactly so during like when you get an offer letter make sure to

you get an offer letter make sure to read it from start to end or like proof read it if you have some TR trustworthy person like ask them to proof read it so find out the red flags in that and then when they're asking for sensitive information like SSN your passport number or Bank details I see I see that's when you figure out that it's fake like no company would ask your details before onboarding I think so so like when there's a red flag make sure to cross check it with the person who's working in that company first and then sign it so I would recommend that and I think they're doing it because the market is bad they want to take advantage and then scam as many as they

advantage and then scam as many as they can right identity theft I'm sure is a booming business in some n and corner of America I mean it you know probably has to be um do you mind talking a little bit about the work that you do at Blue Cross Blue Shield if obviously if you're not supposed to talk about it I get that but I'm just curious as to what you do there so I could give a high level understanding of what I do so yeah so I work basically work with premiums and claims like mostly how much money we make how much money we lose in terms of claims and then in what kind of regions

claims and then in what kind of regions we make and then what kind of like say which state in which state are we making more money and then which state are we losing more money and and analyzing which agent has gotten us more premium and then we also have this policy of sending them I think I don't how to say this but yeah I just wanted to get a flavor because of my next question which is that what are some tools and technologies that you use on a daily Bas yeah so I use Excel SQL powerp and AWS and also power automate I didn't know what the tool was until I join but then it's a game changer if you hadn't tried

it's a game changer if you hadn't tried it try it I actually use it almost every day at my work also so that's it's a funny coincidence yeah no yeah same it's it's so great yeah it's it's really really well done yeah and I didn't know powerbi until I joined I I learned tblo to be honest and then I got this question interview so they were like do you know powerbi so I told them I know tblo but I don't know powerbi the skills are transferable this is what's common between these both these watchs and difference between these both and that doesn't make any difference I can learn it in no time so

difference I can learn it in no time so they were fine with that so don't fight with on what to learn makes sense and are they so I'm fairly familiar with powerbi I've never even seen what w looks like for the most part would like are they actually that similar like is it not a big learning curve at all if you know either yeah it's very similar like the UI is different but then uh the concepts behind the graphs like which graph to use at what time it's they're very similar measures views all of that are kind of just the same the syntax might be different but then the skills are transferable you can learn in like if you know one tool you can learn the other tool in few days or at least a

the other tool in few days or at least a week or two so it shouldn't matter matter so but then let the interviewer know that you know this the skills are transferable but then if you don't tell them what you know they'll never know that so that's extra tip makes sense in the in the year that you work what are some data related tips and tricks that you've learned that you did that you wish you knew when you first started this so attention to detail like uh data cleaning will take up most of your time so analysis will only be like 20 to 30% of your time the most time that I spend is on cleaning data from different sources cleaning it up removing duplicates whereas in our projects we spend most

whereas in our projects we spend most time on analysis whereas making beautiful dashboard with amazing formats amazing graphs Advanced graphs and everything whereas at work a simple graph would do so it all it's all about storytelling uh the simpler the better it is whereas when we doing our Capstone projects or like a personal projects we we want to do Advanced work to Showcase in the interviewer the interview that we can do this but whereas in industry it's all completely different you spend more time on data cleaning data Gathering whereas analysis only takes 20% of your time and then uh when you're cleaning the data make sure that uh you're cleaning it in the right way that's during my first few months it was I didn't make few mistakes but then my manager had had one OD ones and then he

manager had had one OD ones and then he mentioned like things that I need to take care of and then it's a learning curve you learn and then he has been very really helpful so you learn with time and then you like you don't have to learn everything before you start you learn most of it during your work but then you need to know some things to get that job for sure but then you learn more than anything during your job so that's very true have you ever considered or do you know about altrix because that's what I use for the data cleaning part of things and it it really helps speed up the entire process for me especially if you're doing similar types of data cleanings for multiple different um data inputs that maybe come in recurringly

inputs that maybe come in recurringly across weeks or months but you just need to kind of set it up once and after that it's just like clicking one button do you have you Lo looked at that at all no I have heard of alrix because we used it when I was to for My Capstone project back in Ms uh for few days or for part of my project I we used it for uh project but then at industry uh I use Excel and SQL to clean the data mostly makes sense yes I mean I would see if um your manager can you know get you an altrix license or two because like trust me it is a complete Game Changer and

me it is a complete Game Changer and obviously this this session is not sponsored by altrix that actually has no sponsor in fact if you if you're if you're looking for somebody to uh sponsor please reach out to me but yeah um just yeah just as a side note but yeah I can highly highly recommend alri for any of your data pre processing needs be it you know filtering cleaning it can pretty much do whatever Excel does and much more but like in in a way more simpler and automatable format it's kind of like in power automate for Excel if that makes any sense yes yes it makesense I use power query to automate most of my work I see yeah no that that's that's actually like exactly the equivalent of alrix but alrix has a UI

equivalent of alrix but alrix has a UI uh it it's like it has like a drag and drop interface where you can drag tools instead of like doing that but it's really actually in principle the same so maybe you're not missing out on as much um yeah cool um and then I wanted to talk just a little bit about um Ai and how we can use if there are any AI tools and such that maybe say if somebody is a student right now from a data science or data related degree um would you say there are any tools that it makes sense for students to learn right now that would help them not only in their job search but also once they get hired they

search but also once they get hired they would be able to produce more work be more efficient have you seen anything like that at all for job search there lot of a tools but then for the work I haven't seen any air tool because I work for Healthcare company and then the lot of secur I guess that makes sense right right right I should have figured that before I asked that question yeah I should have known that you you would be allowed to yeah do that so coming to job search the job search is pretty easy right now but getting the interview call is tough but then searching for a job has been has changed a lot in past past one year with the chat GPT Gemini and Microsoft Bing so a lot of tools uh to

Microsoft Bing so a lot of tools uh to automate your job such like to start with you have career flow which saves a job description and fun fact I got an interview at one company and then I didn't have job description to prepare because I went on company website and then they removed the role I didn't know what to prepare for I joined the call and then I got rejected that's when I started saving job descriptions and that's how I found career flow which could save my job descriptions so never miss saing your job descriptions so got and simplify use simplify to automate your application filling process all of us know how much time it takes to fill the same application from your resume to workday or any other ATS format so you simplify you fill in once it takes care of the

you fill in once it takes care of the rest so and F1 higher if you want to know if a company spawn if you are immigrant and then if you want to know if a compan is sponsoring use F1 hire they have amazing features and also I mean there are like a lot of tools right now like you just simple Google search career flow job scan resume worded simplify teal F1 hire oneing oh my God like lot of tools which can make your work easier and there are tools which can apply jobs for you too like if you take scale. jobs they can apply jobs for you given your resume and then your target role so explore as much as you can invest that time like use AI to make your search easier but use the time to

your search easier but use the time to learn something new instead spending on Netflix or prime so use that time to learn something so that your work can be automated I I love how you were just able to Rattle off all of those like 10 12 names and like is there are just things that everybody knows about and I had never heard of even a single one of them so so all of those sound really cool I actually had no idea such a thing existed that will apply to jobs for you because I feel like that right there is already a game changer so I'll be listing I'll be obviously um going through all of the tools that you mentioned and linking all of them in the show notes for you know our listeners first of all for me to check

first of all for me to check out so yeah I really appreciate you sharing that and I'm honestly kind of Blown Away by how well vered you are with with that type of stuff um really the last uh kind of segment that I had here for you was you referenced earlier that you use top meat regularly to help so many of those people that reach out to you I'm curious in terms of just I guess distilling your knowhow just a little bit what are some of the commonly recurring patterns that you've seen that people need help with so it can be around resumes it can be around how they prepare for interviews but have you seen any like repeated patterns across different people that struggle from a certain thing that you've been able to help them with and you would be willing

help them with and you would be willing to share here for our listen so mostly I get questions around everything from end to end like breaking into Data it starts with that and and then preparing their resume optimizing their LinkedIn preparing for interviews and then communication skills technical non-technical pretty much everything but one of the like uh main questions would be getting calls like how to get more calls because a lot of people out there they have amazing talent they can crack the interviews if given opportunity but then getting that opportunity has been very difficult these days with the competition and the market one thing I often tell them is when if you're a graduate student in United States or any other country if you're student reach out your Alum they

you're student reach out your Alum they they are working at amazing companies at amazing positions don't hesitate to reach out seek their help ask for their referrals ask for their guidance and your professors if you're at a university your professors most of them would be working parttime or they already have industry connections or they would be working full-time in a company so they know what you are they have seen you for a year or two or semester so seek them for referral and anyone if if you find someone interesting on LinkedIn or like find interesting people use the search bar it's gold mine so search for data scientist data analyst or software engineer whatever your target role is find people put on filters reach out to them so like one thing that I've learned the hard way is

the hard way is so uh if you hadn't if you won't reach out to any person you wouldn't get rejected only if you get rejected that you would know that you're not getting help but then let's say someone else has reached out and then they got help and then they got the job you would have the regret maybe if I reached out to that person on that day I would be the one interviewing and then I would be the one getting getting the job so don't have that regret reach out to the person get rejected or get ignored at least you will not be in that dilemma if you get help they'll give you reply they'll guide you they'll refer you they'll help you in interview process but send that

you in interview process but send that message get rejected or get ignored that's the golden rules very very interesting call out there me that yeah and that makes sense it's like the saying right close mouths don't get fed like you need to ask for help in order to get helps and yeah the worst thing that can happen is a rejection sure you know there's absolutely nothing yeah especially given the best thing will legitimately change your life like you get a new job and you don't have to worry about anything for like hopefully you don't get laid off and such but that's obviously a different different conversation yeah exactly um best cases you get a job worst cases you lose two minutes of your

worst cases you lose two minutes of your life exactly exactly very true and any interview spef spefic related pitfalls that you've seen people go under be it be it because of communication or lack of expertise I guess the lack of experties we already addressed like they can go to all of those um tools and resources that you shared where they can practice and get better but in terms of communication around data science do you have any call outs there that you've seen any success stories that you want to call out where a student reached out to you for help and you were solve that problem for them and that way students that that are listening to this will know to reach out to you for you know

know to reach out to you for you know that if they're going through that same so to start with get mock interviews for sure like you're learning theoretical you're getting theoretical knowledge by taking courses in your University or like Udi courser or any platform you're learning theoretically and then let's say you're practicing lead code but you're getting practical experience but then you're never getting experience of giving an interview so that's what sets a candidate from like you might have amazing knowledge but then if you can't articulate or put it in structured way you might not express it and then the interviewer might not understand what you're trying to say so get as many mock inters as you can it can be free it can

inters as you can it can be free it can be paid or it can be your friend so or it can be stranger on you find you found on LinkedIn so get that mock interview like get that fear out so that's one thing that I've noticed in lot of my calls like they have never given an interview so they don't know how to talk in an interview but getting Mo interviews it can be expensive sometimes or you might have to spend some money but then it's for your future it's for your job it's end of the day you have spent a lot of money it wouldn't hurt to spend some extra money but if it's difficult let them know that this is my situation most of you people will be happy to help you if not everyone so

happy to help you if not everyone so reach out ask for help and get rejected or get help so that's one thing I would say mock interviews has been very helpful for me and then a lot lot of people so and yeah I still talk with lot of people and then that's one thing I tell them like when I talk with them understand that uh they haven't given any mo interview so or like they haven't had any interview experience so I tell them to reach out to people like different people don't get interviewed by the same person unless uh if it's paid or if you know them personally or if they're an expert and then they're your Mentor it's okay but then try out

your Mentor it's okay but then try out with different people so that you get exposure strangers obviously would be preferred over somebody you know because that's the nature of an interview you exactly the actual interview will not be taken by somebody that you know so make sense to practice like that um those were all the questions I had s that I wanted to get your take on I'd like to thank you so so much for taking the time today to walk us through not only your journey but your incredible experience that you've accumulated over the years I honestly for one had I actually had no idea that you were switching into data science which is in my mind one of the

science which is in my mind one of the hardest fields to break into um from an electrical engineering background and having gone to engineering school in India I know how just completely different it is there's like absolutely no overlap between what you must be doing now and what you used to do back in the day so really it's a testament to your adapt adaptability and how you know malleable you must have made your brain to be able to pick up all those things so really appreciate that and obviously also appreciate the amazing KN how that you share on LinkedIn and elsewhere so really really thank you for taking the time thank you for having me I mean it's

time thank you for having me I mean it's a pleasure pleasure to like yeah I can put it in words but then it has been a great journey in the past 3 years United States has changed me a lot and then if you coming it will change your lives too so it can be difficult but it'll be worth it it will be difficult it will be worth it absolutely I should just name this episode title that but uh yeah thanks again s cheers that brings us to the end of episode 23 of The Ready Set to podcast thank you all for sharing the these conversations with those that continue to benefit from them if you would like to support me the easiest way to do that is by subscribing to my

to do that is by subscribing to my YouTube channel and or leaving me up to a fstar rating on Spotify for any feedback guest nominations and any general thoughts my YouTube comments section is always open I read every comment and I'm grateful for everybody that drops comments there catch you all in the next one new episodes every Wednesday