Pre-dojo:
- Worked as a student assistant at her university
- He had a passion for data science but wanted guidance, support and guidance
- Received a degree in cognitive sciences but lacked the practical skills to enter the industry
After Dojo:
- Works as a data analyst at Western Digital
- Has strong skills and a knowledge base to support her new career
- Dreaming of returning and achieving her master’s degree after gaining more experience in her field
program: Part-time online data science
Certificate of Appreciation:
If I had not taken this bootcamp, I know I would never have gotten a call back or even been willing to think about applying for jobs in the data sciences.
Tell us a little about yourself. Age, hobbies, passions, and what did you do (professionally) before the bootcamp?
So right now I’m 23 and have hobbies like any fresh graduate. I love hanging out with friends and actually just got home. So it was nice to just paste them all.
Before I took this bootcamp, I was just an assistant student at my university.
Beyond the desire to study data science, why did you decide to enroll in a coding bootcamp?
In college I got a degree in cognitive science and felt I got a very theory based theory and it was not so technical background in cognitive science. I have always loved data science and learning about data science. So as soon as I graduated, I just wanted to join a boot for data science.
What signed the deal on Coding Dojo? Why did you choose us over other programs?
So I graduated from college in December, 2020, and before that semester I was already looking for a boot camp for data science, and I think back then, Coding Dojo was the first to just pop up online. I checked it out, but obviously I was in college, I thought, “Okay, I’ll just put it in my head and come back to it when I’m ready.”
And it happened when I came back, I also hooked up with an old company and she actually signed up for bootcamp on Coding Dojo. It was really nice to know that someone close to me was already a part of this bootcamp. So I was like, “Okay, if she has positive things to say, then I should try this.”
As for why I chose Coding Dojo over other programs, I was drawn to the fact that you did not need any experience in the program, which I did not have. I took one introduction to C ++ in college, but other than that I had no programming experience. And that was also the price point for it. I looked at other boot camps and the price was great, and so was the duration of the class since you also had overtime and you can meet up with your friends in Zoom and talk about work. So everything worked out perfectly for me.
Tell us about your first few weeks in the program. What were the parts you liked? Parts you struggle with?
My expectations came in. I wanted to learn all about data science. I was very interested in machine learning and the whole aspect of data cleaning. So when I looked at the curriculum, it touched on every subject I wanted and extensively. The nice thing was even before the dive into the depth of data cleaning and machine learning, we also learned Python. So it was also really great because I was trying to take Python myself, just google and try to figure it out, so it was nice that someone would really teach you and be there during office hours to help with questions and all that.
Do you have any fun anecdotes to share about your time at bootcamp? Meet good friends? Pleasant memories?
It was really funny because my teacher was so great. So there will always be times when you wonder what to do when you have missing values. Do you just want to undo everything or do you want to fill it in or specifically in machine learning models? What models to run or what metrics to apply to those models? And the best part was, well, obviously we’re working on a project and we know the answer or what we’re trying to find, but when you’re in the real world, you’re just trying to answer other people’s questions.
So whenever we would run these models and there are so many metrics to choose from, we would always ask her like, “Which one do you think is right?” And she would always say, “It depends. It really just depends on what you’re trying to get from the data.”
So that was the best part. It was like a joke in our class that every time someone would say something and we would answer, “No, no, no, it depends, what are you trying to find?” It was really funny. Then in class, every time if it went really well for us or something, our instructor Noel could not reward us but she would always give us brownies points because her last name is Brown, so she would give us brownies points and we would all be really happy about it.
As your graduation date approached, how did you feel about your skills and job prospects?
Yes, so I think I finished the course in April and then I worked for about a week or two on my resume. And from there it was just like head to head, apply, apply, apply. So I used many sites, LinkedIn, Indeed, Zip Recruiter I just went into a company website, looked at their career pages and then moved on from there.
I also want to mention that beyond your classroom, there is a huge support system. Coding Dojo has Discord servers especially for Coding Dojo students and adults with many different channels. So within the server, you can work on your job search, celebrate your successes and connect with others. There is a channel for contacting people on LinkedIn. So you just drop your LinkedIn there. If you need some connections you can get some connections there. So it’s fun. During my downtime, I just log in to the server to just check what people are saying. They also have a LinkedIn group, so Coding Dojo publishes information there as well. So this was great support that Coding Dojo also offers.
How was the job search conducted? Where did you get a job?
So I probably applied for more than 500 jobs, maybe 600 jobs. I will say that if I had not taken this bootcamp, I know I would never have gotten a call back or even been willing to think about applying for jobs in the data sciences.
So the positive thing about it, from referring to so many companies, is that I got a lot of repeat calls. It was always like every week there were like two interviews and then the next round and then they would give a technical evaluation. So I did not worry about not hearing from people because yes I heard from a lot of companies.
As also a fresh college graduate, I applied for many internship positions, for fresh college graduate positions, and frankly, some job descriptions said “Hey, we’re looking for a data science bootcamp man.” So yeah, so I really checked every job description. Then when it came to Western Digital, they wrote it down explicitly because it’s a new position as a graduate of a data engineering college. So when I saw it, I was like, “Okay, I have to jump on this. It’s pretty close to home. Just try.”
When it came to realizing the role, I had phone interviews and I had interviews with Zoom. I also had one of those interviews where you have back-to-back interviews with several people on the team. They also really checked out my projects and my portfolio. So they got a really good sense of what I was capable of doing.
Beyond the expertise in data science, did bootcamp give you anything else?
Well, the motivation was definitely built from taking this bootcamp in advance. I was interested in data science, but to be honest, I would not do it alone. So it definitely gave me the motivation, the desire to just succeed and focus all my time and effort on learning, getting good exam scores and trying to answer those difficult questions. So I think Coding Dojo and this lesson in particular gave me the motivation to do that.
Then when it comes down to it, in terms of soft skills, like submission and even an interview, it can be a little nerve-wracking and you can be a little anxious. But I think just coming to class every day, talking to your instructor, talking to friends, it definitely gained me the courage to just move on and deal with the interviews in a calm mind and not be so nervous all the time. Then we also had presentations where we had to present to the whole class so it definitely helped me in that sense because then I was sure to talk about data science.
What advice do you have for others who are interested in coding / data science courses or are just starting one?
100% I would recommend. I think if anyone has the opportunity and if he has the motivation, the urge to get into a data science boot camp, you should definitely take it on Coding Dojo. I had a great experience with Coding Dojo. So I would 100% recommend this specific Bootcamp to my friends and family.
What are your goals / dreams for the future, say in 5 or 10 years from now?
When I graduated from college, I was like, “Okay, I know I’m not going to find a job, but I have two options, bootcamp or a master’s degree.” And I actually applied for a master program close to home, but I applied as a confessor in the spring so the program was already full and I was like, “Okay, well, I can not waste my time so that’s why we’ll take this bootcamp offered by Coding Dojo.”
So if we go back to that, I would love to get a master’s degree, work maybe two years to get more knowledge and experience and this position I am in now will definitely give me this opportunity. And from there, I would love to join a master’s degree program in data science or data analysis. So definitely move up the organizational ladder, just keep getting better, get the job recognition and yes, just raise myself from there.
It’s been two years of hard work, but I know the rewards will be great. Just like I worked very hard at bootcamp and at the time I was not sure where I would be in a few months, but now that I look back, I am thankful that I struggled and learned the material and then now I am much happier.
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