Jumping into the field of data: Qingyao’s Story

Hello, I’m Qingyao and I did Le Wagon’s data science bootcamp batch #825 in Amsterdam. I’m now working as a Data Scientist in the agricultural industry.

Before Le Wagon, I was actually working in the agricultural industry as well, but more on the research side. I studied biology and sciences, so I was working in the research and development department to investigate new products for animal nutrition and health. For example, I would research how to replace antibiotics in animal rearing sectors. During that time, I was not really focusing on tech.

The company that I work for is an agricultural company that produces food for animals and provides nutritional concepts to farmers all around the world. Within this company, I did some research with my manager to follow a tech track in order to upskill within the company. I actually proposed Le Wagon’s data science bootcamp to my manager and we both really liked the structure of the course as well as the fact that the learning experience was offered on campus.

When I was working in research, I was already doing some data analysis and basic coding. At this time, I was looking for a switch in my career to jump into a more technical role. There was then this opportunity within the company that I was already working for so I decided to switch from research to the data science department. I then decided to go with the Le Wagon bootcamp, which my company actually sponsored so that I could upskill!

I truly believe that data science is a great field to be in, especially now as it’s growing so much. Only three years ago my company didn’t have a data science team and now you can see that they’re putting a lot of resources into it. There’s a lot of growth within the company as well so data science is definitely a good field to upskill in and jump into.

The content of the data science course with Le Wagon really stood out to both myself and my manager. The course syllabus was exactly what we were looking for.

The sense of community was definitely a highlight for me. I really enjoyed the atmosphere with my fellow classmates, but also with the teachers. I learned so much from my teachers and it was especially great to have an in-person learning environment. I honestly just really enjoyed the whole vibe of the bootcamp. We became quite close on campus and you got this sense that everyone was highly motivated and committed to taking this step in their careers, which made all the difference.

There are so many amazing aspects of the bootcamps, but one thing that I would like to mention is the content and how the bootcamp is setup. It’s not only beginner friendly, but we have many deep dives so that we really get this full sense of how different things work, giving us a full understanding of a wide range of concepts.

I can see the impact of this in my new role. For me, working as a Data Scientist, I need to not only be able to work in the field, but also be able to explain various concepts to the business stakeholders that don’t have a coding or tech background. I believe that this full understanding is therefore crucial within my role.

Before Le Wagon, I had completed my masters in the Netherlands, which was a more typical education track, being two years long. It’s quite difficult to compare this to a bootcamp as they’re completely different. Having said this, for me, Le Wagon was really object oriented. I was focused on being able to upskill and work in a data science team. With this in mind, doing a bootcamp is a really quick and effective way of learning.

Within my new role, I’m now working as a Data Scientist. To give you an outline of my daily job, I spend most of my time coding, but then about 20% of my time is spent making dashboards to show businesses how the data can tell a story. Another big aspect of my role would be to find more data and integrate it in our data lake. Finally, I’m also involved in data integration and data engineering as well as communicating with the business stakeholders.

Agriculture tends to be quite a traditional industry, so the data science department is quite new within the company. Having said this, this chance of moving into this new team is marvellous. Of course moving into the data science team was a big step for me, but I can honestly say that I feel quite confident with my new knowledge. I also really like the security of having the lecture material and the Le Wagon community to fall back on if I’m ever feeling stuck or if I need a quick refresher.

I would definitely recommend Le Wagon to anyone thinking about doing a coding bootcamp. My advice is that it’s really important to be motivated when signing up for a bootcamp in order to make the most out of your learning experience.