Women in Data Podcast

Ep.60 Bianka Pal and Cecilia Oliveira - Starting in Data Science

This week, Karen is joined by Bianka Pal, Data Scientist at Vodafone, and Cecilia Oliveira, Data Analyst at UniQuest. In this episode, they share their experience of starting in the field. While Bianka’s first experience was through a Graduate scheme, Cecilia had already spent over 10 years in a sales and hospitality career when she turned to data analytics. You will hear about their motivations to work in data, the steps they took to land their first job in the sector (including formal and informal training), the challenges they encountered, and their top tips for a successful transition. If you are looking to start a career in data science or data analytics, this episode is for you. It will also help hiring managers put themselves in the shoes of candidates that are new to data. 

Enjoy! 

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Show notes  

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Bianka’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bianka-pal-5560b1153/ 

Cecilia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceciliagoliveira/ 

They recommend: 

• Towards Data Science: https://towardsdatascience.com/ 
• DataTalk Podcast: https://www.experian.com/blogs/news/about/datadriven/ 
• KDNuggets: https://www.kdnuggets.com/news/index.html 
• Real Python: https://realpython.com/ 
• Cassie Kozyrkov: https://twitter.com/quaesita?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor 

Ep.59 Elizabeth Wanless - Professional Athlete to Data Science: Lessons from the Field

This week, Karen is joined by Dr. Liz Wanless, Assistant Director of Analytics at Ohio University. Before dedicating herself to NLP and Sports Science, Liz competed as a professional shot putter for several years. In this episode, she starts by providing us with an understanding of the current state of sports science before sharing the lessons she learnt from her career as an athlete, and how they translate to a career in business and data science. You will hear how she was able to balance different activities at once, how she sets up process-oriented goals, the importance of rest and recovery, and how knowing her values helps her be in the right mindset to put failure into perspective. The episode finishes with an anecdote from Karen regarding how she experiences numerical reasoning tests, leading to Liz’s reflection on the need to change the way maths is taught to serve our field better. 

Enjoy!

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Show notes:

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Liz' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wanless/

 

 

Ep.58 Susan Walsh - Becoming an authentic and visible role model

This week, Karen is joined by Susan Walsh, The Classification Guru. In a field that gets excited by buzzwords, Susan used her sparkling personality to increase her visibility and make data cleansing fun. In this episode, she talks about how being authentic and visible helped her grow her business, along with the impact it has on the upcoming generation of data professionals. An extrovert by nature, she recognises that increasing visibility comes as a challenge to introverts and provides tips for them to do so without feeling uncomfortable. You will hear about how she keeps her content authentic despite the fear of judgment and negative experiences, as well as how the shift to in-house data analytics made organisations more aware of the challenges related to data quality, providing her with a space to start a business in the field.

Enjoy!

 

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Show notes:

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Susan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanewalsh/

Ep.57 Gelareh Taghizadeh - AI & NLP in practice

This week, Karen is joined by Gelareh Taghizadeh, Lead Data Scientist at Beamery and an active member of the Women of MENA in technology community. At the time of the recording, Gelareh was working at Cogx, and in this episode, she gives a detailed explanation of how Artificial Intelligence and Natural language processing are revolutionising the podcasting industry. You will, for example, hear about how graph-based summarisers enable snippet identification. You will also hear about the role cloud computing and deep learning played in improving algorithms’ performance, allowing the integration of NLP in our daily lives, as well as the top skills needed to make a start in data science and NLP. Gelareh closes the conversation by explaining how through knowledge and idea-sharing, and by showing what’s possible, London’s NLP community helped her nurture her passion.

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Show notes

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Connect with Geraleh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gelareh-taghizadeh-247b3435/

 

 

Ep.56 Natalia Lyarskaya - How to build a great data science team (in a start-up)

This week, Karen is joined by Natalia Lyarskaya, Chief Data Officer at ZestMoney. With a background in applied economics, Natalia made her career in the financial technology sector as a data scientist and later on, as a data leader building data science teams and capabilities. In this episode, she talks about her excitement at working with start-ups and being at the foundation of something new, as well as of her experience building data science teams from scratch. Not only will you hear about the challenges she overcame building and leading distributed teams, but you will also get her insights on how companies can get the most value from their data scientists, and her best tips as to how to align data science work with business objectives while ensuring data scientists and business leaders understand each other.  

Enjoy!

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Show notes 

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Natalia's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nlyarskaya/

Ep.55 Veerle Van Leemput - From data scientist to managing director

This week, Karen is joined by Veerle Van Leemput, Managing Director at Analytic Health. With a background in data science, Veerle always knew that she wouldn’t be satisfied by working full-time for an employer. Starting as a graduate with a company where she was the only data scientist didn’t help and,  she felt like she had to do things independently to grow. That was until she met Greg, her business partner. In this episode, Veerle shares her journey from employee to freelancer to managing director. You will hear about her motivations, how she made it happen, the challenges she faces, and her best tips to succeed as a freelancer or as a data scientist managing a small business. There is something for everyone in this installment - from newcomers trying to find their first role to individuals trying to find clients, price themselves, and find projects.   

Enjoy!

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Show notes 

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Veerle's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veerlevanleemput/

She recommends The art of thinking clearly:https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AJP267G/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Ep.54 - Robin Sutara - Breaking the bias in data careers

This week, Karen is joined by Robin Sutara, CDO at Microsoft UK. Having started her career in engineering, working on helicopters in the US Army, she went on to pass the bar in 2 US states, before embracing data and technology.  Now, Robin is on the podcast to drive change and inspire! In this episode, they discuss how the field of data could be more accommodating to diverse backgrounds, skills, and capabilities. You will hear about the importance of ensuring diversity in new hires, as well as how Microsoft tackles the data skills gap by creating software that enables low code to no code. An avid learner, Robin also shares how continuous learning has impacted her career and how one can make space for development in their busy life. 

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Show notes: 

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Robin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-sutara/ 

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She recommends: 

Invisible Women: https://carolinecriadoperez.com/book/invisible-women/ 

Ep.53 Gurleen Shabharwal - How to make a successful career transition

This week, Karen is joined by Gurleen Shabharwal, Data Science Manager at Intact in Toronto. They discuss how Gurleen successfully navigated a move from India to Canada. While data science is strongly present in both countries, the market couldn't be more different. Moreover, Gurleen’s network was limited in Canada and her culture meant that reaching out to strangers was making her uncomfortable. In this episode, she provides advice that is applicable to anyone making a career transition, both in terms of geographic area or changing field or path. She talks about how finding her ‘why’ helped to focus her search and land her first role in Canada; highlighting the importance of speaking with the right stakeholders and of being flexible. Finally, she touches on how she managed to make friends in a country that was so far away from hers.

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Show notes: 

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Gurleen’s LinkedIn

She recommends 

Cassie Kozyrkov 

Super data science podcast 

Trustworthy online controlled experiments 

 

Ep.52 Melis Tufur - Diving into the role of a data translator

This week, Karen is joined by Melis Tufur, ex-Managing Director at MBI research and analytics. In this episode, Melis walks us through her role as a data translator. She touches on her responsibilities, on the skills that are crucial to be successful in such a role and talks about the projects that she worked on, from market research to marketing mix modelling. In 2018, HBR published an article stating that the analytics translator was a must have role and Melis tells us why that is. 

Ep.51 Louise Maynard-Atem - Voicing what you want and stepping up into leadership

This week, Karen is joined by Louise Maynard-Atem, Head of Data Insights at GBG. For Louise, stepping into this role was a move outside of her comfort zone, and in this episode, she shares her experience and learnings. You will first hear about fraud analytics, how it benefits businesses and how Louise moved from identifying fraud after it happened, to predicting unconventional behaviours and therefore preventing it. The conversation then moves towards stepping up into a leadership role. Louise describes how she was able to leverage her network to land her current role, as well as how she crafts it every day by balancing what she wants from the role and what the company wants from her.  

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Show notes: 

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Louise’s LinkedIn

Louise Recommends: 

Radical candor

How I built this

HBR