18th May 2018. A day to remember in which I completed Data Science Immersive course with General Assembly. It’s such a mix feeling approaching the end of the course. On one side, I’m glad that I can finally go back to a healthier and normal life style with less coffee and more sleep times. On the other side, I’m kind of missing the full attention periods with least interruption that I can concentrate studying topics of my interest. From someone who knows little about coding to someone who has a little webpage of my own with portfolio projects, I can now say it is really DO-able :) It is such an amazing journey with joys and pains that I treasure and will definitely remember the moments…

The Trigger

In the transition to new role as business analyst after more than 10 years doing technical development works, I was hunger to acquire new skillsets in order to perform my new tasks as competently as my previous role. I was lucky at the beginning to have a very nice colleague who generously guided me on basic query language. I then started to take off on my own to create more business relevant queries and supported the development of performance metrics dashboards that were deployed successfully within short period of time. I had received feedbacks and calls from operation team appreciating my works that improved and simplified their tasks. Having achieved this milestone from non IT background, it gave me a confidence to do more and I started to love the coding experience. In the midst of exploration, the departure of the only technical member in the group triggered an even more urgent need to get myself equipped with the necessary skillsets.

I started to do survey online and on sites to check what mode of learning would be the most effective and efficient one for me to pick up the overall skillsets and yet aligned to my own long term interest in the topics. Having weighted the various consideration factors, I finally firmed up my decision to start a Data Science Immersive (DSI) course with GA. Temporally setting aside the job that I hold, I had applied 3 months leave for the course. While the primary reason was not fully understood in conjunction with high turn over rate when the decision was made, a simple self study plan became complicated than I thought. Having the leaves approved with condition, I was finally able to look forward the start date of the course.

The Start

While doing the pre-course works, my initial excitements turned into anxieties. Even though I tried hard to study the materials, the pre-assessment outcomes were terrible. I started to burn midnight oils to get myself familiarised with some of the basics before the course officially started hoping to mitigate the impact of diving into a new study field. During the Orientation Night, we were told to prepare to have no life for 3 months which literally itself was already quite scary in addition to a chart showing how generally the mode of confidence level would change along the 12 weeks. Looking back after completion of the course, I think the advices and introduction given during the Orientation Night was quite fair and well described what would be experiencing by a total beginner.

The Struggle

The first few weeks were so tough for some of us. We were struggling with the basic coding, getting ourselves to understand the basic syntax and how to use them. Apart from the lessons and labs, we were also adjusting ourselves to the new learning experience of getting the answers via web search on Google or Stack overflow most of the time without being rendered clearer step by step guidance which generally a more local approach of learning we had in schools. The mismatch of expectation and diverse background among the students at the beginning caused a tough start and some unpleasant learning experience among us. We had people who were already extremely good at the basic and could start straight to the core syllabus. But, we also had total beginners who needed a more personal guidance on how to go about simple codes. It was quite tense at the beginning due to the diverse standards.

I still remembered together with a few other course mates who had no/little coding experience in the past, we were wondering when we would stop experiencing the drop of confidence level each day coming to the class as new topics would be taught everyday. Having a weak foundation could mean tougher times in the subsequent lessons. We were wondering if the bottom of the confidence chart shown during the Orientation Night had over.

In the class that I attended, I could feel how left out I was in the past while focusing to raise up 2 young children, and how smart and amazing of the young generation today. My classmates’ ages were ranging from 20+ to 60. It was very diversified but also very eye opening to see the various age groups of people coming together with individual goal, but gelling well for courseworks , and working towards the same topic of interest / job market. Each of us carried own background that we could learn from each other. It was very inspiring and encouraging to see senior to work as hard as the young ones, sometimes even more diligent and tougher in view of the fact that he was still holding a job after attending the lessons but yet studied again after that till early in the morning. In this class, there was a real life long learner that no other propaganda could tell better.

Getting on Track

Knowing how far I was behind at the beginning, I had made a commitment to catch up and the typical hours of the day were 12-14 hours of study including Saturday and Sunday. I had cut of all unnecessary social events and dedicated the times to the course. Stepping into the 3rd month, I wasn’t struggled on basic anymore, but working hardly on other topics. Similarly, I was no longer hearing others worrying about the syntax. Many of us started to know how to go about the weaknesses and focus on our chosen topic and tried the best to work it out.

DSI is an immersive course. It’s compact and intensive, many new topics are to be delivered in fast pace. Therefore, self reflection, adjustments and commitments are needed along the track. Only with the acknowledgement of what we are capable of, what we can’t cope, how our competence level has progressed, we would be able to adjust ourselves to the most fit condition to pick up the topics effectively. Competence level is still own responsibility, instructor can only assist to ease the path by delivering his knowledge in the best form that he can. It is not a magic course that will turn you from Zero to Hero without commitments and hard works of our own. It is also crucial to stay aware of not overestimating own learning capability and underestimating the technical difficulties of the concepts.

Towards the presentation of our individual final capstone project, I was touched to see awesome project outcomes from the course mates. Those who had previously so doubtful about own ability to follow the course had eventually presented the projects in a way beyond the expectation and surprised many of us. We might not be all-rounded in every sub-topic, to know every model thoroughly in such a short period of time. It is fine to have a core strength in a particular one and build the competency from there. I have seen some of us achieving this pretty well, and really hope them to be able to take off from where they are good at and excel further.

Coping with Family

Before starting the course, it’s such a norm as a mother to wake my daughter up every morning to go to school on time. However things changed after I started the course. As I studied till mid night and slept late most of the time, I could hardly wake up early enough to do the usual thing. Instead, my 9 years old daughter was the one who wake me up as she needed to go to school and said goodbye before she left. Sounded as a terrible mum, huh? To my surprise, she has now become more discipline, know how to set the alarm clock and wake up on her own. I had also delegated a few simple tasks for her to help taking care the younger daughter. The outcomes weren’t too bad at all. The only time I skipped my class was when my younger daughter had reminded me few times about the Mother’s Day celebration in her ChildCare Centre where she would have performance for me. Though it was supposed to be a day not to miss in the class as classmates were presenting their codes concerning the final project, I had decided to skip the morning session and went to the children show instead. I knew my presence was important to her for that day. I could have missed others but not this one…

At the junction between the study and the family, I have learnt to be present totally at the point of time when I’m most needed and most obligated. Setting aside the mix feeling of guilts will enable a better focus and can yield surprising outcomes which hopefully will benefit back as other form of live example to my children on how to go about chasing a goal and conquering obstacles.

The Bonus

While we were working into the mid nights trying to clear the technical debts and rushing for assignments, the status of other course mates who were online together providing a virtual companionship that encouraged each other and gave certain support when assistance was needed. We also initiated our own little hidden pantry with people contributed coffee, snack, biscuits for the sleepy ones to stay awake, and the hungry ones to have something to chew. We shared useful information and tips. We had teaching assistants who were guiding us based on their past experience as the student of earlier batch. The little kind-hearted acts from one to another from time to time made the life for the past 3 months was wonderful despite the hard start at the beginning. Apart from the serious topics, we had lots of fun and jokes, running exercises, drinking sessions in the campus to keep us away from being a dull student but a balanced person to enjoy both study and life.

The best part of DSI is the people. With diverse backgrounds and age groups, our stories are unique. We were here enrolling to the course on our own will, own interest and own cost. The initiative and commitment level was therefore very different than what I experienced in the past with other institutions or trainings. There was no competition to see who was the first. We were here to learn, to acquire new skillsets and to get ourselves closer to the data analytical world. Course mates were mostly sincere, helpful and nice. Our friendship strengthened as we experienced the joy and pain together in this journey. We know each other better and tolerate the differences from time to time.

Acknowledgement

I am so glad and feel so blessed that I have made the right choice to enrol into this batch and therefore meeting a lot of nice people in this journey. Thanks to all my dear course mates for their friendship and companionship. Sincere appreciation to my instructor, Edo and the teaching assistants Jeryl and Rayden. Last but not least, the previous dedicated instructor Wee Kiang who had been supportive and provided lots of useful guidance through the entire course even though he did not really oblige to take care our batch. A good handover and assurance of the new batch well progression into the hand of next instructor had demonstrated a respectful dedication and professionalism of an instructor. The course is not perfect, but this is the best ever learning experience that I have so far. Thanks for being there with me at the right place and at the right time. Hope we continue to learn and keep making progress. Do what we love, and get to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contributions.