Nathaly Cobo Piza

I think it's hard work. For me to come to this point when I'm currently working at a tech company, even though I have moved countries, I have changed careers, and I have done many things in order to get to where I am, it's really been hard work and focus. I think that's what has taken me where I'm at right now. My journey hasn't been straightforward - I've had to overcome significant challenges including relocating internationally and completely shifting from environmental engineering into the tech and data analytics space. But through consistent effort and staying focused on my goals, I've been able to build a career in this field and work with major companies in Silicon Valley.

I think the best advice is to always be learning something new. It's very important. I keep telling my friends to try to study something, don't just stay where you are at, and try to take every opportunity that comes along your way. In my own experience, I had to continuously educate myself - I did a bunch of courses before starting my master's because I was changing careers and had to train myself in the data analytics space. That commitment to ongoing learning has been crucial to my success, and I believe it's essential for anyone looking to grow in their career. You can't just be comfortable where you are - you need to keep pushing yourself to learn and grow.

I think it's important to understand that this field is very complex. Before starting, it's not that I don't want to encourage people to come into this field, but I think it's not just learning the classic data analytics tools, or just Python and SQL - it's more than that. We definitely need to be a little bit ahead of the game with AI tools, and how we can integrate AI tools into our day-to-day work. And it's not just about focusing on analytics - if we can do a little more of data science, and even learn a little bit of data warehousing and data engineering, I know it sounds like a lot, but if you can bring a bunch of skills that are not just focused on one part of the puzzle, I think that will make you stand out from everyone else. The field is evolving rapidly, and being versatile and multi-skilled is what will set you apart.

I think the opportunities are huge because everyone uses data currently, and the amounts of data that are being created every single day are extremely big. So there's definitely a lot of room for us to work around and try to understand all these puzzles that companies need in order to make business decisions. What I would say is challenging is that we in the analytics space, even in the data science space, are a little bit afraid of the AI intervention, just like many other professions. But I feel it's for us, at least at my work, been more about using it to make my work faster and more efficient, rather than thinking my company's going to come and replace me. Because it's very complex to understand data, and we can train models, but we have to understand the data first, and then train the model, and then follow up and see that the model is doing a good job and it's not hallucinating. So I think AI could be a threat, but it can also just be a tool to make our work faster and better.

I think honesty is one of the most important values to me. That's one of those core principles I hold dear. I also think responsibility is essential - being accountable and reliable in both my professional and personal life. These values guide how I approach my work and my relationships with others.