The Accidental Analyst

Most modern-day professionals who move into the world of data do so consciously because of everything that the field has to offer. However, Vicky Crasto, one of our former students, found himself making this shift more due to circumstances than anything else. In the process, he discovered that he had a strong knack for analytics. After completing a course with Jigsaw Academy and winning several contests, he is now building an extremely rewarding career in the data space.

However, Vicky never had any intentions of going down this path. “My background is finance,” he told us. “I completed my MBA, and hadn’t thought about analytics at all. I was working at an e-learning startup after that and eventually my job began to involve more and more number crunching and I soon had to handle large amounts of data on a daily basis, as our user base began to grow.”

“After a point, Excel wasn’t efficient enough to handle the amount of data that was coming in. So, I began to look into studying R, to help me with the work I was already doing. After a lot of self-study, I realized that it was exactly what I needed for my day-to-day work and that encouraged me to do a full course to strengthen my knowledge of how to use it.”

Even joining Jigsaw Academy was somewhat fortuitous and happened largely due to advice from a classmate. “My friend was already studying at Jigsaw and he highly recommended that I also sign up for a course there if I wanted to study data in more detail,” said Vicky.

“Once I joined the program, which covered R, SAS, Python and other essential tools, I realized that it was the right decision. The course was very practical, which was something I liked. It was challenging at times and I had do a fair bit of self-study. At the end of it however, the course material was excellently designed for someone like me, who didn’t have any background whatsoever in programming.”

Despite this fortunate series of events, Vicky stressed on the importance of hard work needed from anyone looking to move into analytics. “At the end of the day, any institute can only take you that far. They will provide you with the materials needed to learn the subject but you have to work very hard to make something of it,” he told us.

“For instance, my first few job interviews after I’d completed the course didn’t go well at all. But I continued my learning side-by-sid, and eventually I was able to get 3 very good offers, and I was eventually able to join a reputable, stable company in the data science team.”

“I definitely feel I was in the right place at the right time when I moved into analytics but the hard work never stopped. And if anyone else ends up following a similar path, that would be my advice to them too. Keep putting in all the effort you need to, so that you can get exactly what you’re looking for.”

Data analytics is a rapidly growing field, touted by global experts as one of the hottest career prospects of the 21st century. If you’re looking to move into the world of analytics, you can visit our website to find a course that fits your requirements.