An expert Data Scientist in the making

Most women have the imposter syndrome, seldom we know it. Sometimes, we look at female heroes and think that we could never make it there. As I want this blog to be our voice, a voice for women from different career stages. It’s important to shed the light on women who are also at the beginning of their journeys. Why? Because everyone has been through what you’re going through now, like Michael Jackson said: “Cause you are not alone”! (Cheers to those who sung this phrase).

Nikola Valesova, a Data Scientist who took a leap of faith and started working for DataSentics startup just after graduation where her main responsibility is the development of predictive models for optimizing online advertising.

Nikola Valesova, Data Scientist

Why you chose Computer Science path?

I wanted to study something that would still be needed in a 10 years’ time, that’s why I chose computer science. When I was a child, a software engineer wasn’t a popular dream job like a doctor or a lawyer. Starting with Turbo Pascal at high school for simple programs like coding an elevator, I wanted to be a programmer even though Pascal wasn’t very enjoyable, especially for my classmates. At university, I realized that IT is not only about becoming a programmer. There are so many specializations in IT like databases, security, networks, machine learning…

“I was the only woman on the entire floor”

I joined Red Hat for a part-time job, where I was the only woman on the entire floor. At that time, I thought I only wanted to be a back-end developer. But as I gradually became better at it, I wanted a new challenge. I was looking for a more scientific approach, a problem that keeps me thinking. That’s why I switched my part-time job scope to computer vision problems with neural networks at Thermo Fisher Scientific. At that point, I knew very little about the machine learning field, but I knew that this was what I wanted to do.

How do you expand your knowledge base? Do you find time for scientific papers reading?

It depends on your role. For example, our computer vision team reads scientific articles a lot. Scientific articles offer great knowledge and perspective with futuristic solutions, but they take quite some time to read.
Once, I was assigned to a new project that none of my colleagues had experience with, so I started by googling and reading around 5 articles about similar solutions, how they approached feature engineering, whether they solved it as a classification or a regression problem. It’s a good method to expand your knowledge, especially when you’re starting from scratch in a certain area.

However, for staying up-to-date with new ideas and brain teasers, Medium is my favourite source. Medium articles are usually 5 to 6 minutes long, and if you’re interested in the content, you can always dig deeper into it, ask the author or check out the code on GitHub.

Podcasts are also a great source of knowledge. It gives you new topics to think about, such as the current Covid-19 situation and how to prepare for the future. After listening to a podcast, I like to spend some time to think it through and find my inner opinion and my argumentation behind it.

But keep in mind that we need a balance between having work done, continuous learning and preserving me-time.

How do you plan and focus on your goals?

You can always set a goal for 5/10 years. But I think it’s really important to set small goals on a weekly/daily basis as well because that’s what pushes you forward. For example, one medium article a day. Such a small step has an impact in the long term for gaining knowledge.
It’s important not to focus so much on the big goals, but keep them in mind and work your way through the small steps.

At DataSentics, we use the Objectives & Key Results method. You set a general goal and detailed measures for it (quantify it). Let’s say your goal is to become a better software engineer. Small steps can vary from reading book X, through taking course Y, to doing Z code reviews. These goals can be easily evaluated. Set deadlines, which task to do when.

If a book has 300 pages and you have 10 days then read 30 pages per day.

Push yourself through when you’re physically and mentally capable. I know this covid-19 situation was mentally challenging for many people, so it’s important to be easy on yourself during such difficult situations and find a balance between being nice and being hard on yourself.

“The journey is ultimately the goal so enjoy it and don’t try to rush yourself.”

I think it’s impossible to be 100% satisfied with your job or your life. People always want more, new opportunities, new ways to improve themselves. The journey is ultimately the goal, so enjoy it and don’t try to rush yourself. Mental balance is crucial. Focusing too much on one thing can make you forget other aspects of your life, and that disrupts the mental balance.

Just remember that your life is full of opportunities in various aspects.

What do you aspire to be ?

Let me start with what I know that I won’t be. I don’t think I’ll be a startup founder. I don’t see myself going in that direction though I admire people who do and the huge amount of work behind it.

I would like to become an expert in different approaches and algorithms. I want to expand my knowledge deeper and broader in supervised and unsupervised learning.

I can see myself becoming a leader of a data science team. I like working with people, and I think that after a few years, it might be a good new challenge for me. I feel this is the direction I’m headed, but I may as well go into a scientific path developing new algorithms and approaches.

“You’ll get the confidence, the expertise and the knowledge over time.”

Advice to girls who want to pursue tech career

Don’t be shy to ask for help.
First, do your best to solve anything by yourself but don’t be afraid to ask others whenever you get stuck or would like someone to double-check your work or understanding of an issue. Ask for help if you need it and give as many details as you can. We all have been in your shoes, we will try to help because we wanted to be helped as well. You can ask for a review, correction or even come up with new ideas. These interactions will push you forward. If you work alone, you won’t grow as if you share. Have an open mindset.

Take it easy on yourself when you’re a junior. There will be so many new tools and technologies to learn.

Be patient, work hard and believe you’ll get there.

You’ll get the confidence, the expertise and the knowledge over time, believe me.

If you relate to Nikola’s path as a young techie, share your experience in the comments. You can hear more details about her everyday work life at this podcast.