Data Science Manager at Sykes Holiday Cottages, Sayali Sonawane

Today's guest Sayali Sonawane has just been promoted to Data Science Manager at Sykes Holiday Cottages. Sayali joins Wendy this week to talk about how she got into data, how she found working in data at a time when businesses didn't even know what to call it, and the usual chat about ethics, diversity, and Apple. 

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Sayali's data career began at Manchester University. She initially planned to study computer security, but during induction week she attended some of the data science courses, although it wasn't called that back then, and realised that she wanted to do that instead. 
• The biggest challenge Sayali faced was returning home after her scholarship and finding that there weren't many data science roles. When she did manage to get a job doing that, her job title wasn't data scientist and she had to ask to have it changed to that. 
• The scholarship Sayali received is applied to by about 30 or 40 thousand people, and only about 5% are accepted. 
• Having a good network and even a mentor can be so helpful for finding the right role for you and developing your skills. That's one way going to University can help you, a good professor will mentor you. 
• Three ways to reduce bias are: 1. Choose representative data. 2. Choose the right learning model for your company. 3. Know that no company is trying to make a bias data group, so test it out in the real world, and if it has flaws, then try again a different way. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘You need to get the value out of the data to help the business' 

‘There was only one company where it wasn't 50/50 with gender' 

‘The real skill is if your models can be used in the real world'

‘Do not underestimate the power of networking and mentorship'

 

VALUABLE RESOURCES

linkedin.com/in/ethicalrecruiter

qwerkrecruitment.com

@qwerkrec on socials

Sayali on LinkedIn

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Wendy Gannon started Qwerk Recruitment in the middle of the Covid Pandemic to disrupt the recruitment sector with ETHICAL data recruitment and treat everyone with love, dignity and respect. Avid Music photographer of 15 years.

 

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

Interviewing successful Data Scientists to find out about their journey into Data Science and any struggles they've faced to help next generation Data Scientists from all walks of life to access their dream career.

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

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