IIIT Bangalore-UpGrad, combined offer a Post Graduate Diploma course in Data Science. The course has been designed for working professionals and offers an IIIT Bangalore Alumni status to its students. On asking a few questions about his journey during the course, Ritesh Kotian, one of the graduates, shared his journey with AI Monks. Continue reading to learn about his experience.
Ques- What was your educational and professional experience at the time of taking this course?
- I had cleared my CA in May 2016 and had 2 years of post-qualification experience in the domain of fraud investigation and forensic audits when I started with the course (September 2018).
Ques- Why did you choose this course? What features/qualities made you finalize this course?
- Based on my research, I felt that the course was best for the price (INR 2,35,000/-) for 11 months and was comprehensive in terms of coverage (SQL, Python, Tableau, Introduction to Big Data using Hadoop and Spark and Machine Learning).
Ques- What are the other courses that you evaluated while joining this course offered by IIIT Bangalore-UpGrad?
- I had limited my research to online courses as I did not want to take a break from working and amongst the online courses, I had evaluated the following apart from the one offered by UpGrad:
- PGP in Business Analytics & Business Intelligence (Great Learning & Great Lakes)
- PGP in Data Science and Machine Learning (Jigsaw academy and University Chicago)
- Post Graduate Certificate Program in Data Science and Machine Learning (Manipal ProLearn)
Ques- What were your expectations from this course? Were they met?
- I had an expectation of learning about new tools and languages that would supplement my analytical skills along with using examples of how the same are implemented in real-life projects.
- The course covered the use of SQL, Python, Tableau, and Introduction to Big Data (using Hadoop and Spark). The modules for the program were designed in a way that there would be an assignment to be submitted based on the theory learned during the previous week. My expectations were fairly met as part of the course.
Ques- Would you recommend this course to other analytics and data science aspirants?
- Yes, I would recommend this course to others based on my experience. My overall experience from the course has been satisfactory. Despite coming from a non-technical background, I could cope up with the course content so I would recommend it to others who would like to sharpen their problem-solving skills and enhance their analytics skillset.
Ques- While joining this course offered by IIIT Bangalore-UpGrad, what all aspects should people be aware of before joining?
- Some of the important aspects to be kept in mind while enrolling for the course are as follows:
- The course requires an average of 10-14 hours per week and if you do not have fixed working hours you’ll have to be ready to spend most of the weekends on completing the course. The course has tight deadlines so it is essential that you plan for the studying schedule well in advance.
- If you don’t have an engineering or statistics background, you’ll need to spend extra hours on the machine learning modules.
Ques- How was your batch mix? Did you enjoy studying with them?
- My cohort included a good mix of professionals from different backgrounds. It included a mix of bankers, data analysts, system engineers, software engineers, etc. Each module of the course consists of one group assignment which gives you the opportunity to form a group with people from different backgrounds. I did enjoy the group assignments.
Ques- How was the overall curriculum as per you? Did it cover an adequate amount of theory, coding, case studies, and projects?
- The overall curriculum covered a good mix of theory, coding, and assignments (both individual and group). The course covered the use of various tools/programming languages including Python, Tableau, SQL, Introduction to Big Data (Hadoop and Spark) and Machine learning along with the necessary statistics.
Ques- Does the college provide any kind of placement assistance? If yes,
- Which all companies visit the campus for recruitment?
- Did you see any improvement in your overall salary or job profile after completing this course?
- Three months into the course, the program included sessions from industry experts to enlighten the learners about the options they have, post completing the course and included sessions on how to prepare for Data Science related interviews. UpGrad had provided the option for the learners to enrol for their placement assistance program (part of the course) wherein they would help you prepare for the interviews and post openings within the data science field amongst their partners. UpGrad has been frequently modifying their placement related offerings and anyone enrolling for the course should seek clarity on the same if the expectation is to get placement after or mid-way through the course. In my case, I had updated my profile on job portals based on the learnings for the course and had received an offer without the assistance of UpGrad.
Ques- Are you satisfied with the course? Did the course meet your expectations?
- Yes, I am satisfied with the overall learning experience of the course. It did meet my expectations on most fronts but someone who’s from a non-technical background would need to put in more hours for the Machine learning modules, I had to put in extra efforts on that module except for that overall experience was good.
Ques- How did you find the overall industry exposure as a part of the overall program? Was there adequate interaction with industry people in the form of guest lectures/ projects/ partnerships/ case studies?
- Yes, there were adequate opportunities for interacting with people from the data science industry. Live sessions from industry experts would be conducted as part of the course over the weekends. The course also includes a capstone project where you’d be given an option to choose between one of the three domains amongst Banking and finance, healthcare and e-commerce. The capstone project would involve calls with industry experts before the final submission. Besides, there would be a couple of one-to-one mentoring sessions with industry experts as part of the course.
Ques- What were the different tools/software you learned in the program?
- The tools/software/languages covered included the following:
- SQL
- Python
- Tableau
- Hadoop
- Spark
Ques- Do you think this course has helped you in accelerating your professional career?
- The idea behind enrolling for the course was to enhance my analytical skills which would enable me to independently analyze large datasets (which would be difficult in Excel). It has helped me professionally in understanding the challenges of dealing with data. It has enabled me to be a mediator and bridge the gap between the expectations between a finance team and the data analytics team. With the new analytical skillset, I can solve most of the data related issues and given my background in finance it has helped me to manage assignments with minimum reliance on the data analytics team.
Ques- Were you able to manage the course curriculum, assignments, projects and other things along with your job? How easy or difficult it was?
- The course duration is 11 months and on average, you would require to spend 10-14 hours per week. It is really challenging to manage both work and the course especially if you do have fixed working hours. The course has tight deadlines and hence requires additional efforts to be put in over the weekends.
Ques- Is there an internship as a part of the course? If yes, where did you do your internship? And, how was your experience?
- UpGrad has recently come up with this initiate wherein they would provide you internship opportunity in Data Science but I had not opted for the same. It would be advisable to seek clarity on the same at the time of enrolling for the course. UpGrad keeps coming with such initiatives for the learners.
You can find details about the course PG Diploma in Data Science at IIIT Bangalore, in association with UpGrad here.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this post are solely of the author. Neither do these views reflect the opinion of AI Monks now do they bear any responsibility on AI Monks.
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