Learning Journey

How did you decide to become SDS™ certified?

I wanted to give more credibility and confidence to myself, my employer, and my potential future employees. Having technical knowledge is one, but I've always wanted to have strong evidence in hand that I really know what I'm the best at. This brings more self-confidence and removes any barriers or doubts while working on complex business projects.

What were the best aspects of your SDS™ learning journey?

I really liked the information flow, clear and concise. I knew what are the requirements, what I'll learn, and what the exam will look like. All the factors convinced me and confirmed my opinion that SDS™ certification is a great choice. I liked the books which I received as a preparation kit. The content was structured, standardized, and relevant to Data Scientist's daily work.

Please share some insights into your approach to preparing for the SDS™ exam.

I read both books in detail, trying to dive deep into each chapter and get the most out of it, this was my base. The rest was purely based on my previously gained experience and courses in statistics, programming languages, data analysis, and cloud computing.

What career advice would you give to aspiring data scientists?

Mastery is key. I recommend starting with one programming language or cloud provider and mastering it by doing professional certifications. It's always better to have advanced knowledge of one topic than have a basic or intermediate understanding of several ones. Before choosing the right one, it's always good to do some research on what is currently trending and what are the requirements while looking through job offers and keep learning.

This way, you can solve any business case and convince or attract potential employers to your candidature.

How has your SDS™ credential and the applied knowledge helped you in your career and personal growth? How does it help you in remaining competitive?

It's too early to say because I've just passed the exam, but it gave me a high level of self-confidence and belief that I'm able to deal with any complex business case. Apart from that, gaining knowledge from the preparation kit provided me with a broader view of business, on methodologies of solving business problems and validation methods. Having an SDS™ certification, I strongly believe, it will help to remain competitive by justifying one's knowledge and technical abilities.

What are, in your opinion, the essential characteristics of a Data Scientist?

I'd focus on three key aspects: firstly, insights, by seeing the data, observing not the obvious things but something 'in-between,' and drawing conclusions from it. Secondly, problem-solving, which means you should be able to read the data and extract a message which helps businesses to improve, gain more customers, or simply develop. Last but not least predictive analytics, each Data Scientist should answer the business question about what is to be expected by using time series, cloud computing, or the whole range of ML models, which helps to tackle business problems.

How will you describe your SDS™ certification journey in one word?

Flawless

Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your learning journey?

I'd like to strongly encourage anyone to take the opportunity of the SDS™ certification journey, there are no cons, only pros, and remember, never stop learning.