How everything started (and how it is going) around here
My name is Ricardo Raspini Motta, and I’ve started writing this blog to document my progress and to serve as a memorial of the steps I’ve taken. And this first post is about how my career had a strong turn.
My whole way towards Data Science (sorry for that joke) started with a very tough decision.
The year is 2020, September. I’ve got graduated as Mechanical Engineer at UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina), one of the greatest engineering degrees in Brazil.
I was working at one of the country’s top tier building engineering consulting firm, where I was for 2 years and 8 months. The team was great, I liked my job and the activities and had a strong purpose sense. There I had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest professionals I’ve ever met. And it gets worse: there was a promotion on the table. In January 2021 I declined definitively. But wait, why?
I all started when I first discovered Data Science field.
Wait… People are getting paid to analyze and visualize data? Like… Do people pay for those beautiful plots, dashboards, etc? Can I do all these with python? And Machine Learning and AI is included??? — Ricardo Raspini Motta to himself
I’ve had already worked with MS Excel (as most of the engineers that enter in this field), and I was passionate about the data-driven decision and the power that statistic and data visualization has on the business context. My analytic background (the engineering) made me love the greatest data visualizations of all time.
But, like most of the people that choose to go down this path, I’ve got astounded with all the possibilities, tools, frameworks, courses and materials available. How can I start? Which tools would be the best ones? Programming language? At least, the first contact with Matlab and Python within the college made the choice of the first step a little bit easier.
My first learning choice was the Python for Data Science course, taught by UCSanDiegoX at edX. It is part of a Data Science Micromaster’s program, which is composed of 4 graduated level courses, with a structured pathway to learning the essentials to become a data scientist. I’ve already finished this first course (and I will write about it in the next text here), and already started the second one. I guess this program can give you some sort of guidance of what to study and in which order, and this was the first problem I’ve faced in this field.
There are so many possibilities that I am completely unable to predict where this career move is going to take me, and this is ain’t this blog objective. For now, I can only tell that was hard at first, but now I see it was a move to do something I am passionate about. Also, I can keep updating you on the things I am learning while I am doing it, and showing the progress I make in every step, and maybe motivate you to do the same. I am glad you are coming with me!
