Finance or Data Science? Why Not Both?

It’s a widely held belief that doing an MBA could open up plenty of opportunities for anyone in the professional space. While this is certainly true for some, a lot of MBA students have begun to realize that the future lies in data science.

To that end, they are working to learn the right data science skills they can marry with their degrees, in order to build far more challenging and rewarding careers for themselves.

We recently spoke to one of our PGPDM alumni, Minati Parida, who is venturing down a similar route. Having completed her MBA in finance and explored the option of doing the CFA exam, she soon discovered the speed at which the data science industry was picking up and this inspired her to begin exploring her options in the field.

“I started off by enrolling for the SAS course with Jigsaw Academy, which gave me an excellent introduction to analytics,” she said. “Once I was done with this, I knew that I wanted to build a career in analytics going forward, and it was just a question of finding the ideal program to do it.”

After doing even more research about the best step to take next, she came across several far more comprehensive courses she could have pursued. “I was considering enrolling at the Tech Mahindra Academy for a course in Python, but once I found out about the PGPDM course, it was a straightforward choice. The University of Chicago certificate in particular really appealed to me.”

Once the course began, it was more than just the certificate that Minati found to be useful. “The program was the ideal match for a working professional, as there was very good balance in the way the topics were taught,” Minati told us.

“Our doubts were very well clarified by the faculty thanks to the in-person sessions and the mixed model gave us enough material to study on our own time. And the capstone project was a definite highlight – we were able to work on real-life data sets, and by working in a group, we were all able to learn a lot from each other.”

Now well on her way towards building a career in data science, Minati has been looking for more ways in which she can diversify her skill set even further. “I’ve found that Big Data is growing rapidly at the moment, and companies are especially looking to hire people in those roles. While I haven’t yet studied Big Data, I know the potential that the branch holds. So, I’m going to keep working to move my career in the right direction.”