Built my first project

Hello readers, This week I completed my first python project and I think I understand the importance of creating projects, How im going to start listening to podcasts in the morning to improve my business acumen.

##Got my second certificate

I got my second foundational certificate from Dataquest this week, this was only possible by completing a project. The project objective was to analyse 2 datasets and create an app that you deem would be most profitable. This was a guided project, where DQ breaks down into small chunks what you are supposed to do. This was the most difficult challenge I faced from Dataquest so far, since applying what I already learnt from previous lessons to a project is harder than I thought it would be, specifically when it came to producing frequency tables to hold certain information. There were benefits from this project, since this was the first time I was able to produce content outside of coding on DQ, I was actually able to look at the data and create an app profile I deemed as profitable. I understand some may want to see this Juypter profile project in question, however, I need some time to learn how to use Github effectively to be able to do that, I tried uploading and ran into an error, so please stay tuned for a few weeks and then ill be able to start linking the projects I have created. I do hope to share all the projects I complete during university.

##What did I learn?

Like I said before, I was able to dip my hands with story-telling with data. However, this isn’t my first experience with story-telling, In fact as an economics student my I do have experience, specifically when it came to econometrics, whereby I use data to understand the economical theory. So, when I started story-telling with the data I was generating I was very pleased since this wasn’t new territory but it was still a challenge since the general practice of DQ was that I should explain what my code is doing at every step, this is different compared to econometrics.

Since I’m relatively new at coding, I spend a lot more time understanding what im writing than creating a narrative to guide the audience to a particular result, this led to a project which isn’t outstanding by my standards, but it was still important in my development as a coder. So the entire project wasn’t one that showcased my story-telling abilities, but more so my coding ability, which won’t be enough if I want to land a job in data science as an economics undergrad.

The project overall, was important in me cementing my foundations in coding. When I realised that I needed support in creating frequency tables, I went back to the previous dictionary exercises provided by Dataquest and found them incredibly easy, so it is obvious that projects are the only way I can improve when it comes to producing frequency tables which is a positive, im growing as a data analyst/scientist.

What’s next?

I will be following the learning path of Dataquest, I will be continuing with data cleaning then later pick up object orientated programming. Sooner rather than later ill be intending to pick up SQL, the reason is that im currently applying to data graduate schemes and multiple roles prefer applicants who have a level of experience when it comes to SQL and I have little to none at the moment, so I want to have a project so I can be confident so I can at least complete problems using SQL.

##Podcasts

I’m someone who loves a podcast, my personal favourites are BBB [Christian podcast] and The positive mindset Podcasts. However, I recently learnt that it would be beneficial to pick up podcasts that can support my journey of becoming a data scientist. The experience in question was an M&S personality test report. The report i was given stated that despite having a data-driven mindset I scored low on the business-orientated parameters, this was shocking to me because I have a strong interest in business… one of the solutions they offered was reading the newspaper, which was confusing since I read regularly, but it may be a case of not reading enough business-related content. Given my current university lifestyle, decided podcasts may be a good way to absorb business-related content to improve my business acumen.

##Conclusion

Apologies for the Haphazard blog, it has been a tiring week of coding on top of keeping up with university content, so I just created a blog of my unfiltered thoughts under headings I wanted to talk about. I may edit this blog in the future, but I wanted to uphold the consistency of uploading since it will ensure that I also keep up with coding in my spare time.

My next blog will most likely be about Github and Data cleaning, I will try to create a blog that follows a clear theme. If you got this far, thank you for supporting my blog, it is something I want to keep up for a long time and im proud of my current progress. Since the start of my journey, I feel like im really making progress when it comes to being proficient in data analysis and data science, if I finish university with a degree and a working level of competency in data I would be proud of myself.

I will edit this blog with a link to my project once i learn how…

Thank you

By SKL