The demand for Data Science and programming skills is increasing year by year in Malaysia. More and more people are trying to acquire the skills needed to make data-driven decisions to solve more business problems.

In this post, we talk to Gary, a student from Data Science Uncut Bootcamp, to learn more about what made him decide to pick up data science.

Meet Gary.

Gary works as a web production analyst in a multinational company based in Penang. His daily work focuses a lot on content management. 

Trained as a software developer, he initially wanted a role in web development right after graduating. However, after some sour experiences he had during an internship, he decided to take on a different role. Even so, Gary very much still enjoys programming and enroll in various online courses to continue learning.

The problem of self-learning.

Gary’s interest in data science came about from his hobby of programming. As a young, 26-year-old working professional, one of the best things he can do is to constantly upskill himself and be open to opportunities. 

In the beginning, Gary took it up to YouTube and even enrolled in several online courses to learn data science. 

But he started to lose focus and get distracted. There is simply too much information you can find online, but no one to help you focus on the ones that matter. Plus, Gary had to always muster up the discipline to follow through with his learning plan – as he is learning alone, with no one around to push him.

“Usually, when we do self-study, we lose our way easily because we can not keep up with our own decisions,” he said.

This shows that there is a growing demand from companies looking for data scientists. Companies quickly realize that data science can add value to their business. It helps unveil solutions and decisions across many industry verticals.

The lack of talents in data science makes this the perfect time to build a career in data science. Working in data science doesn’t mean just being a data scientist.

Depending on your interest and strengths – there are plenty of roles in data science, such as a data analyst, machine learning engineer, and data engineer. 

How to commit to a learning plan?

To overcome his challenge in committing to learning, Gary decided to enroll in Data Science Uncut Bootcamp. This helped Gary commit to learning. 

The Bootcamp runs for 30 days and Gary had a programming assignment to work on every day. The community in the Bootcamp is also buzzing with posts, so there’s a lot to discover there as well. 

“The lessons and assignments at Bootcamp required you to be attentive for 30 days, and you had to complete the assignments and set aside time to do them. That helped me the most,” he said.

Gary also mentions that one of the biggest challenges to learning is time management. 

“I think time management is crucial because I have to study while working full time,” he said.

But when you commit to a program, you tend to make time for it. Compared to not scheduling time for learning and having to negotiate with yourself every day, if you should sit down and learn something – having to do and post up assignments, means having to make time for it.

Don’t underestimate the power of consistency.

We asked for advice Gary would give others and he said, “Don’t underestimate the power of consistency”.

So often people want to do something meaningful, like learning data science. But doing anything substantial takes a lot of time and mental effort, and they tend to procrastinate. 

Rather than trying to learn data science, set aside an hour a day and practice analyzing a dataset. Don’t negotiate with yourself on whether you should do some learning today. Rather set a schedule and stick with it. 

The consistency of coming back to learning and practicing would eventually accumulate – and one day you’ll find yourself as someone skilled in data.

What’s the secret sauce in Data Science Uncut Bootcamp?

“I think what I love about the program is the community itself. For example, if you have a problem with a task or we have missed something because of your busy schedule, you can ask those questions in the Pro Group and learn from each other. So I think it’s a really good learning concept that everyone should experience.

The Pro Group is a discussion board open to participants in the Bootcamp. Following a blended structure of having instructor-led tutorials and peer-to-peer learning, participants tend to learn faster, as they spend their time getting help, discussing problems, and working with others. 

When you teach someone else something, you have a chance to learn twice. First, when you initially learn it yourself, and second, when you teach it.

Take your first lesson in programming for data science.

We set up LEAD to help people who want to upskill in data science – including Gary. And we might be able to help you.

If you like to get straight to learning by doing, then Data Science Uncut Bootcamp is a perfect program. It’s made for beginners to practically explore data science and experience working on real-world data science projects. 

If you’re not ready, then we’d suggest you start by taking our free lesson on programming with Python here. You’ll learn to build a prediction model, that will help you predict outcomes from a dataset.