How I got into Data Science after a Master’s Degree in Economics

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I was always good at computers and spent a lot of time on it since I was a child. Despite having this keen interest, I went into the Commerce stream in Senior Secondary School and later got a Bachelor’s degree with Economics as one of the majors and a Master’s degree in Economics. I was happy that I studied Economics but the child in me had some dreams unfulfilled.


During my Master’s degree program, I had a knack for mathematical and statistical methods. Econometrics was however, a little challenging. As a requirement of the program, I had to complete a compulsory internship after the second semester. The professors at St. Joseph’s College (Bengaluru, India) were very helpful and approachable. One of my professors in the Economics department shared an internship opening at a development research institute named Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai. I applied and was selected. It is during this internship that I got a hands-on experience with datasets. (I had learnt some basics using SPSS before but this was more intense.) These were large national datasets. I was assisting a professor at IGIDR on his empirical research related to the Industry sector, with intensive use of Excel and Stata. Later in my Master’s degree program I was also required to complete a Dissertation, the area of which I chose as Behavioural Economics. During this Dissertation, I learnt a lot about research methods like review of literature, data collection, Econometric methods to analyse data and interpretation of that analysis in the context of Economics.

Over time, I realized that I really liked working with datasets and had a knack for problem-solving. I wanted a career in which I could work with data and maybe also where my knowledge of Economics could be useful. Around this time, the demand for data scientists and data analysts in India were on the rise. There were articles written about it often and advertisements of several courses offered by different institutes and educational websites flooded the internet.


So, I did a little research and found that getting into data science required a good understanding of computer programming logic and a certain level of ease dealing with Statistics. Both the child in me and the adult me were happy to finally find something that could connect both. I joined a Post Graduate Diploma program offered by upGrad in association with the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. The program was offered online, it was well-structured, included live sessions, regular assignments (both individual and group), had an exclusive discussion forum, had assigned student mentors and Career support. It was a complete package for getting into a Data Science career.

The course focused mostly on R as the language used for explanations and assignments but they did have additional optional modules on Python too. As I progressed in the course, my affinity towards programming logic and knowledge of Statistics and Econometrics helped a lot. In fact, many concepts like Inferential Statistics, Hypothesis testing, Linear Regression, Time Series and Data Sourcing were quite familiar. Even though I had a good understanding of programming logic, I didn’t really code much before apart from some basic programming languages, C/C++ in high school and in a paper on HTML in college. But even this meagre knowledge helped me to learn and work on R and code naturally. Overall, the difficulty level of the Data Science program was moderate for me – familiarity of Statistical Concepts and unfamiliarity of programming experience.

I believe the domain knowledge of Economics will also be really useful as I step into my Career in Data Science. That’s a story I’d love to tell someday. Right now, I’ll just be learning as much as I can for this well-tailored profession I am getting into. To all the Economics grads out there, consider looking into data science as a Career option. It feels like one of the practical applications of what we learn in Economics.

You’re the One

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The streams rise up into the sky,
The birds swim in the waters,
The trees outgrow the concrete skyscrapers,
At the sound of your name.

The musicians play the drums
To the rhythm of your heartbeat
A song finds life
In the crease of your smile.

Like a feeble chirp from a hungry bird
Is enough to stir up its mother,
So is your voice enough
To melt my heart.

Your eyes tell a story beyond words;
I am drawn towards you.
You mean more to me than just a bond
That grows stronger as the clock ticks away;
You’re the one I want to be with
Till I breathe my last.

What really formed those rocks?

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Mystical secrets lay hidden
Deep beneath unknown pathways;
Those that were buried aeons ago
Without any hint or a trace.

People today are bewildered
By tales of the same dust
That gathered after the storm
Or the ships that lay coated in rust.

One never abstains from praise
Of the lofty mountains and lions, brave.
Ever thrilling are the stories
Of the austere monk in a cave.

Cyphers with no clues,
Keys with no locks
Keep us wondering for years,
“What really formed those rocks?”

Spells of tongues lost in time,
Alive in a faint dream
Of elders, of yours and mine
May not be mythical as it may seem.

Although if we wish
to travel back in time
Just for a peek at a riddle
written in catchy rhyme,
The journey is not a mere walk
But the laugh of a clever fox
‘Cause it kept us wondering for years,
“What really formed those rocks?”

Duration and Timing

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Duration and timing are two relative concepts. Often, Duration seems disregarded in our daily life by some, while given too much importance by others. Timing, however, has a whole different purpose.

Duration is a restrictive concept. There is no accurate measure of “How much time will I need to do this?” Of course, one can measure how they performed last time and assume that the time required to do that particular work is, say 30 minutes.

However, I say that doing this will hinder any possibilities for improvement. Instead, one can look at the time as a reference rather than a measure.

For example,

Case I (Duration):

I need to write an article of 1500 words. If I try to guess how much Time it requires, I would have many obstacles in completing the work. I would keep looking at my watch to see how much Time is left according to what I had measured. I would keep getting worried about the lack of Time and become impatient. I will start doubting my speed of doing work and eventually get demoralized.

Case II (Duration):

Now let’s look at this situation another way. I need to write an article of 1500 words. I look at my watch and see that it’s 9:01 PM. I keep my watch aside, remember why I am writing the article and where it will get me. After that, I write the essay and enjoy every aspect of it – the theme, the writing… anything related to the article directly or indirectly… I choose to get engrossed in it.

You would find that in Case II, you would have finished writing the first draft of the article in 10-15 mins and the final selection after grammar checks, sentence framing, etc. in 20-25 mins whereas in Case I you might not even finish the first draft in 30 minutes.

That is why I say that Duration is a restrictive concept.

However, Timing is not a restrictive concept. Let me explain this differently.

When you suddenly get a fantastic Idea, you will be overwhelmed, and either of the following could happen:

Case I (Timing): You will execute it immediately

If you execute it immediately, you will be satisfied that you quenched your excitement. But gradually, you will realize that there are many loopholes in the execution of that Idea. If you persist, the gaps will become visible by others, and the impact of your Idea will be minimal.

Case II (Timing): You will not execute it immediately but plan to do it later

If you do not execute it immediately, you can build on the Idea. You now have the chance to think about it each day, research on queries/gaps that arise, add possible things that could make its execution ever better and give a gap period before executing it. You can also plan to implement the Idea at a time when it will reap maximum benefits. That’s Timing.

Case II has higher possibilities of success as the Idea has been scrutinized well. The impact will be much more substantial. The effect will also be even stronger if the execution is timed well. It is as simple as investing in more ingredients for food recipes when the Annual Food Fest is near.

Hence I say Duration may not be as crucial as Timing is. Still, Time is of inevitable relevance for reference.

Deja vu?

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Colours appear like crayons on an old stationery box. They look different, yet smell familiar… A smell that captures the attention of a memory strand taking me all the way back to childhood.

“Aren’t these too many pieces to be a mere puzzle?”, I ask myself.

A turn I take, a move I make; it all seems connected. It seems as if my every move is predestined and I can feel it… lucid, like the bottom of a crystal clear stream. So clear that at times I just know when to say “Hi” and when not to… I have become both the predictor and the person.

“Was that the yesterday that is to happen tomorrow?” is my confused query. The study of self is forbidden. One can only study another. But what if nature makes you move that way… like a wave takes debris with it?

In this cyclone of existence I stand, impatient and in want of faster answers.

I too want to replace my “Deja vu?” with “Amen.”

Not How Often You Fall

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Like shards of a crystal, I once broke,
Is the peril that haunts me.
Oh, how the blood oozed across my skin;
‘Red’ was all I did see.

Suffocated by the sound of voices
That keep speaking from my mind,
I’m afraid I’d forget to breathe
Before any solace that I find.

“It won’t end like this!” I say
And subject me do penance.
“It won’t be long; I must!” I say,
Hoping to end all the nuisance.

Days pass by,
Each moment felt like a lifetime tenure
Like bitter medicine,
Necessary, but the only cure.

At last, I felt it;
My time was done.
The clouds had cleared
And I saw the sun.

Each breath, so forth
Drew me closer and closer
To all, I was made for.
I triumphed in all I did, over and over.

Then I said to all,
“It is not how often you fall,
But how often you push the earth
To make the world know your worth.”