My journey from being an IT engineer to Head of Analytics

guest_blog 09 Jun, 2017 • 5 min read

Background – when sufficient is not enough

I was an engineer working with an MNC in a pretty cushy job. It would have been a pretty happy life for people, but I had some other dreams. I wanted to do an MBA from outside India. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t work out – there were issues on the financial and personal fronts – and eventually I figured that maybe my ambitions were somewhat unrealistic.

 

The Analytics Adventure

Although my MBA plan had fizzled out, I realized that I needed to chart out a new route. I researched the internet and discovered a new field called ‘Analytics’. I had no idea about Business Analytics at the time and neither did I know much about the programs available for formal training. A deeper study convinced me that Analytics was an interesting domain but it was complex as well. It was evident to me that in order to make analytics as my career I had to devote substantial time to learning it.

I therefore sought a full-time classroom program and discovered Praxis (courtesy a banner on Analytics Vidhya) – a comparatively emerging business school but a kind of pioneer in formal, full-time teaching of Business Analytics. Praxis had a pretty comprehensive curriculum, an impressive set of professors and a growing bunch of alumni.  Convinced that this was the career I wanted, I applied to Praxis and fortunately got selected.

 

The Challenges

I was thus far used to taking the tried and tested route to a career option. This was the first time I was trying to do something ‘different’. Obviously, it was not going to be easy.

The first change was adapting to a different kind of academic environment – one that encouraged debate, discussion and critical thinking;

The second challenge was to grapple with  a variety of subjects that were all new for me. Though I had pursued an engineering degree, I was never a numbers or tech geek. When I joined the program, the scope and range of the course, with subjects as varied and complex as advance statistics, data mining, machine learning, econometrics, visualization etc. along with tools like SAS and R was quite intimidating at first.

However, the presence of the professors and my peers made sure that the learning, though rigorous, was effective and enjoyable.

 

Life@Praxis

The program at Praxis was intense to say the least. The program design combines classroom lectures with case-studies, labs and projects; there is continual assessment in the form of quizzes, assignments, exams and project presentations. Some of the courses were entirely taught by industry experts.

We all spent multiple sleepless nights solving assignments with midnight deadlines, doing projects and preparing for tests that tested and rewarded thinking. I got a new sense of confidence by solving various problems and completing projects on new subjects.

Knowing that this was all in preparation for the professional world of my choice and liking made the exertions substantially sweeter.

 

My first break

The year spent in studying analytics set me up for a career in this domain. My first job (that I landed through the campus placement program) was 3i Infotech. They were building an analytics team at that time and we were some of the initial members. We used to work mainly on Excel and R to create project demos for clients. The 3i journey was interesting, but it ended abruptly when the Head of analytics decided to leave the firm and work on his start-up.

 

Learning through different roles and Executive program

My next assignment was with Nabler Bangalore and they promptly sent me to the USA to work on building a product recommendation engine for a Fortune 30 company called ‘Lowes’. This was a golden opportunity and thanks to some wonderful colleagues, I managed to work hard and learnt a lot. The work culture and practices at Lowes helped me grow as a professional and I was ready to lead a team.

During this year, I also did a 1 year Executive program in Business Analytics and Intelligence from IIM Bangalore to help me transition smoothly in to the senior management roles that I was aspiring to get in to.

CarDekho was building their analytics team and I joined them as Senior Manager – Analytics. The role was quite different  – plus you had to be intrapreneurial – you had to dig down and conceptualise a project, take it to the CEO, get it approved and implement it – kind of on your own. Also, I was actively involved in hiring and managing people.

 

Head of Analytics@Yatra

Eventually, I moved to Yatra.com as Head of analytics. The stakes were high and so were the expectations. It took me some time to settle down and understand the system, the product, the people and of course the data. We have a dedicated dashboard team which builds executive dashboards for C level executives and business heads.

We have a data warehousing team which collates the data from different sources i.e. booking data, CRM data and web data and stores it in a usable format. Then we have a predictive analytics team which is involved into long term projects such as customer churn analytics, cross-sell and recommendation engine based on Machine leaning concepts. My role involves end to end delivery of the projects, from the conceptualization to implementation. A good chunk of my time also goes into project and people management.

 

Reflections on the journey

From the time I graduated with a qualification in Analytics in 2013 to my taking up a leading position as Head of Analytics at Yatra.com in 2016, it has been a remarkable journey. I attribute this success to the following factors:

  1. Realizing that I needed to do something other than the IT job I had landed post my engineering and actively seeking a more ‘suitable’ career option,
  2. Backing my instincts and taking the plunge by enrolling for a full-time course in Business Analytics to transition to this field
  3. Choosing my institute with care – Praxis has certainly played a critical role in setting me up for a sustained career in this field – and making sure I made the most of the opportunity to maximize my learning at Praxis
  4. Engaging with passion, never ceasing to learn while working and making a few well-timed career moves.

 

End Notes

Life comes back a full circle and I am sharing this journey at the same portal where it all started! I am sharing this story so that people like me – who want to do something ‘different’ and out of box can see what it takes and how to go about planning their career.

If you have any question, feel free to ask questions in the comments below.

Ritesh is an adroit professional more than 8 years of work experience in the area of Analytics and Product management (Statistical analysis, Social Media/ Digital Marketing), Strategy, Product development and Marketing and served various domain such as BFSI, Technology, Education, IT & FMCG.

Disclaimer: Our stories are published as narrated by the community members. They do not represent Analytics Vidhya’s view on any product / services / curriculum.

guest_blog 09 Jun 2017

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Responses From Readers

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Subhau Nath
Subhau Nath 07 Jun, 2017

@Ritesh : Thanks for sharing your inspiring and motivational journey though AV and it is needless to say the least the kind of value AV is adding for every day in and out to the community. Thanks a lot Kunal for that. Is it possible for you to share your professional/academics journey in a very high level in the form of a line diagram indicating important milestones. I know as an individual, it took a lot to go through apart from academics and professional rigour to achieve such a remarkable heights,

Shreya
Shreya 07 Jun, 2017

Due to some financial constraints I cannot take up a full time course in analytics . I have 9 years of dev experience with C++ in CAD domain. Could you guide me to what can be mu options be for pursuing analytics course which are either weekend or online? Thanks in advance

Kaushik Baul
Kaushik Baul 07 Jun, 2017

motivating. Gives enough courage to me. Thanks.

Abhishek Garg
Abhishek Garg 07 Jun, 2017

Hi Ritesh, Reading your story is so much inspiring. I am also very much thinking to make my career shift to analytics but have few questions in mind. Please help me out 1st, is it late to make a career shift in analytics, looking at industries have moved so much into analytics and also my experience of 6.5 years in IT now ? 2nd, And if i can make a move now also, then is it necessary to go for a full time program to make a good shift. ?

Vaibhav Jain
Vaibhav Jain 07 Jun, 2017

Bravo Ritesh, proud of you...

balaji
balaji 07 Jun, 2017

Will you prefer data science over business analytic!!!

Srini S
Srini S 07 Jun, 2017

Great !!! good work and great career..

wellwisher
wellwisher 08 Jun, 2017

Sounds like a Praxis advertiement .. Why there is no mention of IIMB MBA program which is between Praxis and Head of Analytics ..

Amy Ukaegbu
Amy Ukaegbu 08 Jun, 2017

Thank you Ritesh for sharing this timely and motivational write-up. Testifying that you hit your stride in Analytics all the way from your background in Engineering is very hopeful to me. I am an IT Auditor and have my first and second degree in Computer science. Though I did not major in programming but I have an advanced data analytics skill with a computer-based data analysis software. To me this is a very narrow track compared to what business analytics skills will offer and the huge expectation from a supposed Data Science professional. This is a gap which will deprive one a lot of important opportunities. Having read a Harvard Business Review article a few years ago on Big Data Analytics, I realized that this career line has come to stay with very few hands available to the industries presently. In view of this, I have been looking for opportunity to enrol for a course on business analytics, unfortunately I do not have any of such program close to where I live. 1. Does Praxis offer online Analytics course? When I think of online course on this I'm usually burdened with lots of mixed feelings because I strongly feel that this kind of program is better done on campus where you have opportunity to interact with the instructors, your peers - group projects and all. What advise may you have for me who do not have access to any school facility now. I need to enrol. 2. How long is the program - part time and full time respectively? And how much do you think it will take one to complete the program - tuition, books and other necessary resources? For instance, I can see an advert on my screen for a workshop in Mumbai on Marketing Analytics in Banking and Finance - very useful session but i do not have access to it. Please help. Any useful advise and contribution from all would be appreciated. Please help me with possible advice to realize my dream quickly. Thank you for your time.

Johnny
Johnny 09 Jun, 2017

Nice! Glad you are sharing your journey more.

Maze
Maze 13 Jun, 2017

you are grown like a rockstar. However, Analytics is an important factor to measure all the pos & negs

hemanth
hemanth 19 Jun, 2017

Great Post!! Thanks for sharing your inspiring story...

Nishant Kumar singh
Nishant Kumar singh 20 Oct, 2017

Hi Ritesh , I am android developer having 4 year of exp. I have done machine learning and python.Know some devops tools like Ansible ,vagrant ,terraform. Learning hadoop currently. How can I combine power of duo(Android +Analytics).How can I shape my career in Data Science. I am willing to do course in mathematics(Statistics) from IGNOU also. Can U help me with your great experience in shaping my career in analytics ?

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