Personal Career Exploration

Yaw Johnson Arkaah

1

1.Data Science – My Career Path

Data Science ProfessionMy dream career is to be Data Scientist. Data science is deep knowledge

discovery through data inference and exploration. It basically employs mathematical, statistical and algorithmic techniques to solve most analytically complex business problems, digging out troves of raw information to bring to bear hidden insight that lies beneath the data, usually large data. Data science borders around evidence-based analytical rigor and building robust decision capabilities. In the end, data science is important as it enables businesses and organizations to operate and strategize more intelligently. Data science is all about adding immeasurable business value by learning from data.

Industry DemandData science is big deal across so many industries. In recent past few years,

data science has seen an incredible rise to relevance, as businesses and organizations invest to be smarter in how they do business by becoming more data-driven. This trend has enabled the job market for data science expertise to grow at an exponential pace. Major players in this career path include biotechnology, energy, banking and finance, gaming and hospitality, government, healthcare, insurance, Internet, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, retail, telecommunication, travel and transportation, utilities, marketing research, just to mention a few. Basically, everyone and anyone is looking for a data scientists. In short, no matter which area one picks, fact is that data science is in its infancy, and its outlook seems exceptionally bright as data become further entrenched.

2. Goals and ObjectivesObjective To take a challenging role Data Scientist and to provide an efficient and effective solution that will help the organization to achieve its objectives, provide the best solution in data and information related issues, and ultimately increase its productivity and profitability in this modern competitive business arena. 

2

Short-Term Goals To be a full time-employee in the field of data and information

warehousing, retrieval, analysis and reporting by January 1, 2016.

To continue to learn and develop my skills in the field of data science by staying on as a Data Analyst at Johnson and Johnson Company, not relenting in finding new job opportunities both internal and external.

Intermediate Goals To obtain an M.S. degree in Data Analytics from University of Maryland

University College by June 1, 2015. With a total of 30 credits required to complete this degree, I will put in all the energy I have in me to help me achieve this goal.

Long-Term Goals To complete both M.S. Data Analytics degree and other certification

courses, namely, SQL, Hive, R, Certified Analytics Professional and Certified Business Intelligence Professional to ensure that I have almost all the necessary credentials that will propel me to become a Senior Data Scientist in a quickest possible time.

To regularly attend seminars and conferences in the field of data science and statistical data analysis to help me stay abreast with the changes in the data science arena.

To earn a top management position within the field of data and information science by January 1, 2018.

Personal SWOT AnalysisThe following SWOT analysis (Table 1) is presented with the view to sharing

the competitiveness of the environment for the career path as data scientist as well as my strengths and weaknesses (my internal environment) and opportunities and threats (my external environment).

3

Table 1: Personal SWOT AnalysisSTRENGTHS

Vast work experience as data analyst and statistician

Education Paying attention details Technical skills and knowledge (e.g., SAS,

SQL, Matlab coding skills) Personal characteristics (e.g., excellent work

ethics, self-discipline, fine working under pressure, creativity)

 WEAKNESSES Lack of work experience in this area Impatient Perfectionist Rush in some presentations

OPPORTUNITIES Potential employment Having the relevant foundation by being a

statistics, econometrics, and mathematics major

Area needs my set of skills Opportunities for advancement in your field

THREATS Competition from college graduates with

your same degree Competitors with superior skills,

experience or knowledge Competitors with better job-hunting skills

than me Competitors who went to schools with

better reputations.

StrengthsI have been working as a data analyst and statistician for over twelve years.

This means I have rich experience in data capturing, warehousing, analysis and reporting. To ensure that I prepared myself for corporate work, I have earned various academic degrees including B.S. in Mathematics, B.Com in Statistics, and M.S. in Mathematical Statistics. I have that gift of paying attention to detail. I have developed this strength since I started in charge – be it as class captain while in primary school, class representative while in high school, entertainment chairman while in college, and at work. Each of these responsibilities has taught me to take time to ensure tasks are well and smoothly executed at every stage of execution. My technological skills are also my biggest strengths. As an advanced SAS programmer and intermediate Matlab programmer, I have used these

4

technological skills at all facets of my working career. In addition, I have great expertise in Microsoft Office, especially in Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

I used these software packages daily for reporting, presentations and analysis. For most data sets, I have used Excel for data capturing and SAS for data analysis, graphing, and querying. Lastly, I have developed my communication and writing skills through report writing and presentation in front of audiences, large and small, as well as writing business memos, e-mails, and engaging in business conversations with co-workers.

WeaknessesMy weaknesses include being impatience, being somehow a perfectionist,

and rushing during some presentations. An example of be being impatient is when, at I was first appoint Tourism Research Officer, and as the only statistician on the team I found my team to be too slow to work with me at the pace I wanted so a s ensure speedy completion of research projects. It was very difficult for me but after putting a little bit of pressure on them worked out eventually.

I know I am a bit of a perfectionist.  I like to do thing right the first time so as avoid delaying getting it done. This allows me to move onto my next task within the shortest possible time.  However, in some few other instances, I find myself spending too much time trying to perfect some tasks which may not necessarily require a high priority as some other tasks. My communication skills, although excellent, I tend to rush in some presentations, although not many.  This is something I need to improve on.  I believe I can overcome this by practicing and making more presentations. 

Opportunities My opportunities include the market demand, networking, ability to

incorporate social media, and having the requisite coursework to support. My biggest opportunity is the fact that data science is relatively new and that almost all businesses, large and medium, are rushing to employ trained data scientists. My next biggest opportunity is the links I have managed to establish with my classmates, professors, family friends and co-workers. I have used these links to create a network that I think will eventually pay off in terms of landing on a good-paying job. Networking through social media has also allowed me to expand my

5

chances of being called for interviews.  From the twelve companies I have since sent my resume to, eight have offered me an interview. Of these eight, four were offered through social networking, three of which I have already completed.  I will continue to use and expand my network with the view to increase my chances of landing a well-paid data analytics position. I fully believe incorporating social media in my job search is a great opportunity and that its arrival could not been better timed.  My network could lead to job opportunities in the future. I also believe having the relevant university coursework for this career path is indeed an opportunity for me.  Threats        My main competitors include competition from college graduates with your same degree, competitors with superior skills, experience or knowledge, competitors with better job-hunting skills than me, and competitors who went to schools with better reputations. Threats as they may seem, I am more than prepared to turn them into opportunities for my dream career as a Data Scientist.

3. My Skills, My Competitive EdgeEducational Career

Over the course of my educational career, I have developed a wide variety of skills that will ensure my success as a Data Scientist. A huge asset that I am able to bring to bear in any organization is my self-taught statistical software programming and data analytic skills. During my time at the University of Science and Technology in Ghana, University of North West in South Africa and University of Pretoria in South Africa, I took upon myself to learn statistical data analysis software packages, including SAS, Stata, R, Matlab and S-plus along with my core statistics courses. The main courses include mathematics, regression analysis, econometrics, multivariate analysis, actuarial statistics and business decision theory. In addition to classwork, I have passed a computer proficiency examination testing my knowledge in Microsoft Office, Excel, and Word. Together these disciplines have given me the knowledge to complete many tasks in every organization I have worked for.

In what follows below, I present more information regarding these skills. By having them, I can add value to any organization. These skills include my

6

knowledge in computer technology, the ability to effectively communicate, the ability effectively work within a team, and my ability to lead a team. Although these skills are well developed, I am continuously working to further improve upon them as supported by the fact I have even enrolled with the University of Maryland University College to learn more and to enrich my skills.

CommunicationIn the corporate world, it is important and essential that one is able to

effectively communicate to managers, co-workers, and customers. I pride myself in being able to do exactly that, both orally and in writing. During my time at the North West Parks and Tourism Board in South Africa as Tourism Market Research Officer and as Tourism Research Manager, I interacted with Board Members, Executive Members and key players in tourism industry on a daily basis to ensure they are well-informed about the trends in the industry. During this time I have developed a skill to be able to clearly communicate during unscheduled meetings and busy schedules when distractions are abound.

While working at the North West Parks and Tourism Board in South Africa, communication was one of my responsibilities as all research output ought to be presented to the Provincial Tourism Development Committee, the Board, and the Executive Management. Finally, as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, I regularly have had to communicate to the classes I was tutoring. On a daily basis I had to meet with the Head of Department and the Dean by e-mail or phone. These interactions have helped me develop my skill to ensure everyone that I talk to gets exactly what I talk about and exactly what I need. Besides job related experience, I have also have developed my communication at the University of Pretoria by taking courses in public speaking and writing.

Leadership and TeamworkAnother important skill that I have and strongly believe will add value to

any organization is my ability to lead and work as a team. Throughout my working career, I have worked with research teams either as the leader of the team or a team member. In both cases, my tasks had been to ensure that all research projects are completed on time. It was my duty to ensure that these

7

research projects were properly designed, well-implemented, and results presented. The tasks of assigning duties, setting up meetings, including deadlines, and providing direction to other members of the team in the course of the project execution were responsibility. I single-handedly ensured research projects were successfully executed with high quality standards.

Although I see myself a good leader, I still fit in easily when working as a regular team member. As a leader, I feel very much fulfilled when I find myself as a regular member working with the team to get a job done. As a leader working in a team environment, I also am able to provide constructive criticism and do not bear a grudge receiving criticism from my team members.

Technological KnowledgeMy greatest asset, besides my education, is my technological knowledge. I

am an advanced programmer in SAS, Stata, Matlab and intermediate programmer in R. I have excellent grip on the three important components of Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I use Microsoft Word on a daily basis for report write-ups and Microsoft Excel for charting and basic statistical data analysis. I also have rich experience in writing professional memos and reports using Microsoft Word. Using PowerPoint, I have created numerous presentations including narrated PowerPoint presents.

8