Her Story
About Prachi
I originally wasn't supposed to go into computer science at all. In high school, I was headed towards medical, took all the classes for it, and was preparing for that path. I actually hated computer science - the idea of coding would make me sick. All my life, I've been thinking about how to make an impact on people, and going into the medical field was just the answer. Coding felt very impersonal, like I wasn't making a contribution, and I wasn't really sure what impact it had. But my mother wanted me to have a backup, so I took a computer science test. I cried like three times because that's how much I didn't want to do it. But the first CS class I took, I absolutely fell in love with it. It was an introduction lecture, and they talked about how computer science and this new emerging field of data science is actually making an impact in life. Data is everywhere, in everyone's life, and you can make an impact however you like. After that very first lecture, I fell in love with it and changed my whole path completely. I went into data science specifically because data is everywhere and in every domain, so I could experiment with what I like. I've never just wanted to do one thing - I've always wanted to do multiple things, try new things, learn new things. The idea that I could apply my skills in any domain I'd like felt really good to me, and I decided to go into it. Now I'm finishing my undergrad this December at the University of Utah, and I've been in this field for about 5 years. I work as a data analyst for DataFi, analyzing different types of data using skills like SQL, dashboards, and Tableau. I'm also working towards gaining more experience with data scientist work, which is creating models, doing predictive modeling, AI, and ML. I run a data science club at my university and work with two other companies on a freelance basis. My typical day is packed - I wake up around 5 AM, prep and cook my lunch, then take the frontrunner down to campus around 7 AM, arriving at 8:30. I have classes and breaks where I work on projects and attend meetings with my team members. After classes, I attend to my data science club around 5 PM, then have meetings with the other companies I work with until about 8 PM. After that, I come home for dinner and a little bit of me-time before heading back to sleep and starting all over the next day.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Prachi
01What do you attribute your success to?
I'd say being proactive is what I attribute my success to. I've been studying leadership a lot, whether it's leading my club or going into programs where they talk about leadership and what really being a leader is. I think one of the main qualities of a leader is being proactive. Whether it's in my workspace, I come up with ideas by identifying gaps - hey, this is something that the product is lacking, this is something that will make everyone's life easier, or this is something that will give us more profit. I've come up with different projects and I've worked from start to finish to complete a product that helps our team or makes the product we currently have better. When I'm being proactive, I try to make sure that I take into consideration the feedback and the opinions of my other team members or the people that I'm working with, to make sure that I'm not forcing it, to make sure that I'm not just trying to be proactive but I'm identifying something and then applying it so that it's not just something useless that's been created and all the time and effort is not actually worth it. I usually discuss all the ideas that I have in one-on-ones with my manager, and he gets to hear about it and see, yes, this is very much needed and would be very helpful. After the feedback, the process starts of delivering what I suggest.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in my field right now is that people in this industry aren't very social. Computer scientists or anyone in this industry - and this is not to stereotype, but it is actually true when I look at my surroundings - people entering the industry aren't very social because the field is like this: you're on your computer all day, you write code, it's not much interaction with other people. It's very natural that people come to this field hoping that they don't have to interact with people and communicate. But the people who make it in this industry are the people who are the most social and communicate very clearly and easily, because that's how most of the world is. You have to communicate, you have to talk with each other, and that's how you work. But that is difficult for people who are in this industry. I would say I've tried as much as I could to make my communication better, but I think where I lack right now are the social skills. When I worked at many different jobs, all of the feedback I got was really good, except for the fact that even though I tried to be social within my team, there were chances of me getting to know other team members a little bit more and have small conversations, small talk with them while passing or during lunches. I think expanding my horizon from my team to everyone in the company would be helpful. That's very important because sometimes when people vote for Employee of the Month, it's not just your team voting, it's everyone in the company voting. Everyone should know your value, your worth, the effort that you put in, and what kind of a person you are, because even though they don't work with you directly, at some point or the other, you are going to encounter them. It's very important that you are friendly with everyone in the company. That's where I'm working towards, because again, I was also not that social, but slowly and steadily, I'm trying to build on that skill.
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