Any Data Scientists or data analysts here?

[r3aper]

As the title says, any of you guys work in such fields? Or know someone who has a job description like such?

I work with numbers mostly, manage a large data set to make simplified reports mainly in excel. I have developed quiet an interest in working with large data sets however due to lack of awareness I can't really much of the large data I have besides some usual reports (most of which I have automated already)

Lately I have been reading a lot about data scientist a recently saw a few job openings for a data scientist at Mobilink. It got me thinking there might be people in Pakistan who are somewhat related to the field.

Any leads or any ideas you guys may have, please do share.

 

[Gizmo]

Data science is hot shit these days. I'm no expert or anything, but mainly you need to know your stats and be able to predict future variations from the data sets you do have. That's one major aspect of it anyways AFAIK. Looking forward to some more interesting replies here.

 

[sunny945]

Data Analyst and Data Scientist are usually scientist who have learned the Computer Science and specifically the field of Data Mining. In the field of Data Mining there are different Algorithms, Techniques that are used to analyse the Data. one of the most famous is Association Rule Learning and Apriori Algorithm it is usually used to analyse the trends in dataset in form of Support and Confidence then there are many other different Algorithms like Naive Bayes, C4.5, PageRank, K-Means, Knn etc that are used to analyse the data, Classify the Data, and process data in such a way that it gives some valuable information or outcome.
If you have interest in this field then this is a little hierarchy of the Field:

Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> Data Mining

 

[r3aper]

Data Analyst and Data Scientist are usually scientist who have learned the Computer Science and specifically the field of Data Mining. In the field of Data Mining there are different Algorithms, Techniques that are used to analyse the Data. one of the most famous is Association Rule Learning and Apriori Algorithm it is usually used to analyse the trends in dataset in form of Support and Confidence then there are many other different Algorithms like Naive Bayes, C4.5, PageRank, K-Means, Knn etc that are used to analyse the data, Classify the Data, and process data in such a way that it gives some valuable information or outcome.
If you have interest in this field then this is a little hierarchy of the Field:

Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> Data Mining

Woah thanks for that information, I am guessing, either you are a teacher or area vaguely related with the field or you like to read up about latest trends.

Anyways I have been researching about this topic since quiet some time, I have been very busy lately with my job and life to spare out time to dig out more info about this sector hence I am looking for people who are practically into this field and can provide guidance needed for being on the right track for entry into this field.

Thanks to all these technological leaps, we are being ushered into an era where data will be the most valuable commodity. Look at why Zuckerberg bought Whatsapp, they are sucking up all the details from our conversations/messages our likes dislikes, it gets a bit scary if sit and think how much of an obvious trail are we leaving behind on our online presence.

I am really interested in meeting someone who is directly involved with such projects.

Oh and here is a bit clarification which may clear up some vagueness, give this a read.

 

[sunny945]

Woah thanks for that information, I am guessing, either you are a teacher or area vaguely related with the field or you like to read up about latest trends.

Anyways I have been researching about this topic since quiet some time, I have been very busy lately with my job and life to spare out time to dig out more info about this sector hence I am looking for people who are practically into this field and can provide guidance needed for being on the right track for entry into this field.

Thanks to all these technological leaps, we are being ushered into an era where data will be the most valuable commodity. Look at why Zuckerberg bought Whatsapp, they are sucking up all the details from our conversations/messages our likes dislikes, it gets a bit scary if sit and think how much of an obvious trail are we leaving behind on our online presence.

I am really interested in meeting someone who is directly involved with such projects.

Oh and here is a bit clarification which may clear up some vagueness, give this a read.

Well i am just a student of Computer Science . basically this field is one of the most hot field right now in the Computer science and as you know the data on the internet is increasing at a very rapid pace but we are not absorbing all the data at same rate so what we need to have is that someone process all the data and just output the most important part of it. now regarding the usage of the data, My Supervisor once said that if these Telecommunication companies just realize and process all the data they have then just from the analysis of this data they will be able to generate as much revenue so they will make all those calls,SMS, and internet free of cost for the end users because we all know how important the data can be and how important can be the information that can be deducted from this sort of data. You just see Apriori Algorithm and see what are the usages of this algorithm, i mean this algorithm has changed so many things in this field. big companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google etc always analyse their data and use the information extracted from it to adapt their systems according to it.
The field is even more interesting if you take a deep look into it and some of its techniques and has so many subfields. if you are interested in this field and want a job in the field then maybe you need to have a degree in Computer science but if you just want to know about it and learn more about it you can see a research paper about it or even on youtube you will find so many videos describing many things in the field.

 

[shahbakht]

I am a mechanical engineer, but I have recently started developing interest in Data Science. I read up a bit on it and found it fascinating. I took courses on Coursera (Python + Data Science, both) but due to lack of background in Computer Science am having a difficult time. But I am not willing to give up. I will be taking the Udacity Nanodegree next for Data Science.

It's definitely hot shit these days and it has immense potential, and is only expanding ever more due to the nature of technology these days. Also, you can read up on 80,000 hours about what exactly this job entails. Quora is also a good stop to get info. But, I would also like to talk one on one with anyone in Pakistan who is doing that.

 

[rafay22]

I think MonoQ, a PG member here is a Data Analyst if I am not mistaken. I am highly interested in this field but have failed to met people related to it. I also contacted some guys at Teradata as well. Did many internship hunting also in this field with no luck.

 

[krazyhamad420]

Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> Data Mining

Just To Correct you. Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence are both sub-fields of Computer Science, Data mining is not a sub-field of AI. and we use different AI techniques/algorithms to inspect some sort of data or to obtain results from that data.

Data scientists are there to manage BIGDATA. ofcourse mobilink would be requiring data scientists to manage their records etc etc.

PS.. and yea Teradata here in Pakistan is a company that are proficient in datamining and dealing with big data. they helped NADRA for managing all the records

 

[sheryarp]

True data scientist is a master statistician
That being said Tera Data is one of the few companies in Pakistan leading in data science (DS)
Also if you want to learn DS i'd suggest beginning with R rather than Python

 

[sunny945]

Just To Correct you. Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence are both sub-fields of Computer Science, Data mining is not a sub-field of AI. and we use different AI techniques/algorithms to inspect some sort of data or to obtain results from that data.

Data scientists are there to manage BIGDATA. ofcourse mobilink would be requiring data scientists to manage their records etc etc.

PS.. and yea Teradata here in Pakistan is a company that are proficient in datamining and dealing with big data. they helped NADRA for managing all the records

My friend Data Mining is always serves as a foundation of AI and other machine learning techniques while AI is a very broad term. Algorithms and techniques from Data Mining, Machine Learning, Big Data,etc are used while mostly under the umbrella of AI anyway you are right about not calling Data Mining a subfield of AI but still all these are interconnected and work mostly by AI techniques.

regarding everybody talking about BigData we really need to know about BigData thing. And in simple words databases are no longer good for our data due to huge amount of data also expense of Databases, throughput and all that sort of stuff.
As a good example of BigData we can take a look at Google BigTable structure and see how google is managing its data. Google is using GFS to manage its data that his own version of file system. most of the other big organizations are using HDFS or Hadoop Distributed File System that is one of the top trends at this time and if anybody of you is interested in BigData then you should learn Hadoop at all costs. and if you want to get start learning Hadoop what you need to do is that first you need to work in Linux ( you can start with Ubuntu in the start) then you have to learn bit of Java if you want to go into BigData Dev. the biggest advantages of HDFS are that it can be run on Commodity Hardware, throughput is very high, Fault tolerance and it don't stop working even if its Master PC is failed, i mean its one of the best and can handle big amount of data at a very very affordable rates and all the software cost is free because everything is opensource i mean Linux, HDFS,Java and all the software that run under it so only you have to pay for the hardware and offcourse Programmers and BigData experts.
Right now what i saw here is that big companies like Mobilink etc are also taking interest in this thing, even if its late for them to move towards this thing its a very good sign so what a IT person can do right now is that if we get some courses etc on BigData analysis and everything like this we can surely get a good job in this and BigData pays are very good all around the word due to the hotness in the topic so get start by first taking a look at Hadoop, Hdfs, Map-reduce, use Linux, install Hadoop on your Linux yourself (its not easy to install and configure a Single HDFS Node on your Linux Machine so try it), then you can do alot of things. Its very interesting and so many things to learn in this topic.

 

[haroonshaikh]

Yaar Data science is huge field with growing demand. This will be the main stream of the future

I would prefer you go to coursera and do some free online courses on data science
The courses are exceptional and are free.

 

[krazyhamad420]

[MENTION=14308]sunny945[/MENTION] that what I was saying though.

Hadoop is cross-platform

 

[deltree]

As the title says, any of you guys work in such fields? Or know someone who has a job description like such?

I work with numbers mostly, manage a large data set to make simplified reports mainly in excel. I have developed quiet an interest in working with large data sets however due to lack of awareness I can't really much of the large data I have besides some usual reports (most of which I have automated already)

Lately I have been reading a lot about data scientist a recently saw a few job openings for a data scientist at Mobilink. It got me thinking there might be people in Pakistan who are somewhat related to the field.

Any leads or any ideas you guys may have, please do share.

If you are interested in media buying, Starcom Pakistan may have space for you. There is separate division for data and analytics. There are always research firms both media and marketing research who could use your talents.

 

[r3aper]

[MENTION=4219]deltree[/MENTION] at this point, I don't have any certificates or academic qualifications which can grant me an entry into the field. So this is my first barrier to entry, and I can't really see a way - a quick one to be precise - to overcome this barrier.

If by chance, any such firm shows interest in hiring me I might just leave my current job and join people who are actually making good use of the data.

Those of you who are looking for a community of data scientists check out kaggle.com, they also have a few starting out lessons which are very basic though but enough to give you a rough idea about things.

I plan to use these data science tools in our Pakistani environment, predict trends and needs. Because currently its all being based on rudimentary methods and tools.

 

[deltree]

@deltree at this point, I don't have any certificates or academic qualifications which can grant me an entry into the field. So this is my first barrier to entry, and I can't really see a way - a quick one to be precise - to overcome this barrier.

If by chance, any such firm shows interest in hiring me I might just leave my current job and join people who are actually making good use of the data.

Those of you who are looking for a community of data scientists check out kaggle.com, they also have a few starting out lessons which are very basic though but enough to give you a rough idea about things.

I plan to use these data science tools in our Pakistani environment, predict trends and needs. Because currently its all being based on rudimentary methods and tools.

Lot's of free online courses coursera etc. for this build your expertise in free time. I can hook you up with someone who could help you find a job. Reach out to me when you are confident and qualified.

 

[r3aper]

Lot's of free online courses coursera etc. for this build your expertise in free time. I can hook you up with someone who could help you find a job. Reach out to me when you are confident and qualified.

Yeah looking towards building the needed expertise, lots of courses available online free and paid ..yeah every good thing has a price.. Taking out time is an issue here but I am working on it. I am very keen in getting my hands dirty with data science and just as one of the people I admire the most always told me to keep a fire burning in your stomach to succeed and that is what I have in me for this field.

Thanks for support, it will be great if you can hook me up with concerned people. I'll be in touch.

 

[Crow]

hi i'm a data analyst, who woulda thunk

i work with qlikview and R professionally

 

[Crow]

[MENTION=656]r3aper[/MENTION], if you want a job as a data analyst, and you know even a rudimentary bit about data analytics, feel free to send me your CV. my team has everyone from CS, engineering, to economics and finance grads.

 

[Edifier]

hi i'm a data analyst, who woulda thunk

i work with qlikview and R professionally

I applied for the same position as [MENTION=656]r3aper[/MENTION]. I am a fresh graduate from NUST in Software Engineering. Currently working in Telenor.

Could you tell me the type of questions they ask when interviewing for a Data Scientist? Do they ask you to write code etc.

Also where exactly is your team based at?

 

[Crow]

Could you tell me the type of questions they ask when interviewing for a Data Scientist? Do they ask you to write code etc.

Also where exactly is your team based at?

Karachi.

Depends on the company you're applying to. If you're applying to a software house, typically you'll be given a test of some sort, either written or task-based. Your performance is measured based on how well you score. If you're applying to corporate, the focus is more on presentation and it's rarely about technical ability and more about how well you will fit into their organization. Questions we ask (I'm in corporate sector) are usually: what is a schema, define ETL, define fact tables, maybe some SQL based questions like define join, between and so forth.