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To say that the last year has brought many changes would be putting it lightly. A year ago today, I was leaving the GRE testing centre with both a headache and a general feeling of optimism regarding my future career prospects. I knew it was time to pursue another degree, one that gave me a diverse set of skills and led to various and interesting career prospects. I felt that the Master in Applied Data Science programme from Frankfurt School would give me just that.
Fast forward 6 months and I was landing in Frankfurt, excited to begin a new chapter in my life and ready to face the challenges that came with moving to a new country. From the notorious paperwork, to realising that life is indeed too short to learn German, the process of acclimating was as exciting as it was exigent. Before long, however, I was in a groove of improving my German skills, attending lectures, looking up for inspiration in Stack Overflow, and having an amazing time with my newfound classmates both inside and outside the classroom.
As part of the Language of Business module, we had a guest lecturer from the WTS-Advisory Digital Architects division. He introduced both the concepts of digital transformation/data science consulting as well as several of the tools and methodologies that they implement there on a day-to-day basis. Once the module was over, I reached out to the lecturer on LinkedIn and mentioned my interest in joining the team as a working student. A few interviews later, I received my contract and set the date to begin on February 1st, 2022.
As my first semester came to an end, I had already gotten some exposure to not only Python and R, but thanks to these guest lectures, I had also dabbled with Alteryx, SAP Analytics Cloud, and AWS Cloud services, which would all come in handy once the position began. Before long, February rolled over and I officially started my role as a working student. The main goals of a working student with WTS-Advisory are to learn, get comfortable with the vast array of tools and methodologies that the team uses given their “no-favourite tool” approach to build and improve our clients’ Data Value Chain and as cliché as it may sound, to have a good time while we’re at it. It’s been exactly a month since I’ve started working with the team and I have already taken part in several projects, with more coming on the horizon.
In writing this blog post and reflecting on my journey, I have come to really appreciate the 3-day model since it enables us to attend lectures and have a clearly defined working schedule. I must admit that it becomes significantly more challenging to manage both the demanding workload of a full-time master’s degree and my newfound responsibilities while still fitting in self-care. Still, the opportunity is worth the struggle, the early mornings and the 5-6 cups of coffee a day.
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