Introducing Myself & My Data Science Journey
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Welcome to my first official blog! A little bit about me- My name is Veronica Leong and I live in New York City. I graduated in May 2018 with a degree in Computer Information Systems, where I discovered my passion for programming and analytics.
As a kid with a limitless imagination, I told people that I either wanted to be an inventor or a detective growing up because I loved the idea of creating things and ‘Mystery’ was my favorite genre to read. Thinking back, Data Science involves data exploration and building models, so I guess you can say I’m achieving my childhood goals. 🙌
The first exposure I had to anything related to Data Science was the AP Statistics course I took in my junior year of high school. I was fascinated by the various ways data was collected and analyzed to find patterns and trends not seen initially by the naked eye. From this class, I was so sure that I was going to study actuarial science in college….until I failed the AP (lol). That discouraged me from pursuing the field as a major, however I was still hooked on the analytical aspect.
The college I attended was primarily known for their Business school. I knew that if all else failed, Business was extremely broad and I’d hopefully be able to find a field of interest within Business. I explored any area I was somewhat intrigued in. One was Finance, mainly for the numbers aspect, however jargon, like ‘dividends’, ‘bonds’, or ‘EBITDA’ never stuck with me. I also never found much appeal in stocks or keeping up with financial news. After speaking with a lot of my friends, many of them mentioned that my personality might fit Marketing, since that major is mainly known for its creativity. I knew I didn’t want to design graphics or work with photoshop, but one thing that lit a slight spark of curiosity was marketing analytics (because analytics, of course). Unfortunately, my school at the time didn’t have structured courses for marketing analytics, so Marketing was pretty much off the table for me.
After a year long of talking with people in different majors and looking into the classes within various majors, I ended up declaring Computer Information Systems in my sophomore year, since I noticed Data Analytics classes were offered within the major. I took an assortment of CIS classes, from Project Management, to Object Oriented Programming (C++), to Web Design (HTML), to Data Warehousing and Analytics (SQL). I enjoyed every class and liked learning about all things CIS. In my senior year, I decided to take a Python class because I heard that the readability for Python was easy for beginner programmers to understand, plus the language was quickly becoming popular in the industry. Luckily for me, that’s when I discovered my passion for programming and data exploration. I love the logic behind coding and the creativity we have to automate anything!
After college, I landed a job doing digital marketing analytics, which coincidentally sufficed my marketing analytics interest I had at one point in college. I primarily worked with Tableau, Excel, and SQL. Initially, I enjoyed the work and learning about the backend of advertising and marketing campaigns. My favorite part of the job was analyzing and visualizing data, and extracting insights. However, I knew that something was missing for me to feel fulfilled in my work, and that was programming (specifically Python). Eventually, looking at marketing KPIs and brand measurement studies didn’t excite me anymore and I realized that there was little room for horizontal growth, as the Engineering department in the company required its team members to have years of programming under their belt. On top of that, working from home the past year due to COVID expedited the burnout. I felt stuck.
Being in the STEM field, I was aware of different coding programs, such as General Assembly and Flatiron School. I leaned more towards GA mainly because I enjoyed the free workshops and events that had been offered and the Admissions team was extremely responsive and welcoming. Fun fact, I actually took GA’s 10-week part-time Python course from August — October 2020 to rebuild my Python foundation, especially since I wasn’t coding throughout my job. Fast forward to January 2021, I took another mini GA Machine Learning/Data Science 2-Day workshop that gave me a (small) taste of data mining, machine learning, and modeling. That experience left me wanting more, and sealed the deal on my Data Science curiosity, my passion for analytics, programming, and good ol’ stats.
Before enrolling in the Data Science Immersive course, I attended GA’s information sessions, wrote down a list of pros and cons of the course, and spoke to many close friends and family to talk through my career pivot decision for reassurance. I also did adequate research and reached out to former students on LinkedIn to hear about their experience of the course. I knew that coding bootcamps required a lot of time and effort, and was a big financial commitment. Most of all, my biggest fear lied with the months after the course and the unknown of how long I’d be searching for a job. Of course, everything I felt was totally normal and I came to the realization that our mid-20’s is a pivotal and essential time, and working towards our long-term goals and aspirations require sacrifice.
I took the leap and left my first and only full-time job since college to truly work towards my passion. I didn’t want to wonder anymore about the ‘what-ifs’ or the ‘maybes’. From the GA bootcamp, I look forward to making new connections, elevating my analytical mindset, and learning as much as I can about Data Science, so that I can be at a company where I’m excited about my work just as much as the company itself. Although it’s been an emotional, but mainly exciting, ride so far, I know that there’s so much more in store for me on my Data Science journey. Stay tuned! 💯
