Data Science, Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence(ML/AI), Analytics - the sudden rush!

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!