Working with a Microsoft Accelerator – Adil Ali’s Success Story
Adil Ali (Big Data & Visual Analytics Program – Class of 2018) recently aced his interviews with Tarnea Technology Solutions – a B2B Transaction and Data Analytics company and one of Microsoft’s chosen accelerators. Tarnea was selected into Microsoft’s Accelerator program from amongst over 2,000 startups across the world in 2016. What is Adil’s success story? We catch up with him to find out.
Hi Adil! Could you tell us a bit more about yourself?
I am an Electrical Engineer by profession. With a work experience of almost 6 years, I’ve donned several hats including that of a Software Engineer, Entrepreneur, and then a Branch Manager with IndiaMart.com.
I joined SP Jain’s Big Data & Visual Analytics program (Batch-08) in mid-2018 to update my skillset and be ready to face the new age business challenges.
You recently cracked the interview at Tarnea, a Microsoft Accelerator company, and will be joining them as the Assistant Manager (Data Science) in just a few days! How did you achieve this?
By preparing rigorously and practising coding every day. Cracking this interview was a top priority for me. Our professors had always insisted on us getting our coding right, understanding the algorithms well, and discerning the business meaning out of statistical model results. Right before the interview, I researched well about the company, the work they did, and the business problem they were solving – this helped me demonstrate how I, a data scientist, would be able to assist them immensely. Revising my basics in statistics and machine learning also helped me a lot.
The projects I completed at SP Jain were a major area of discussion during the interview. I was asked to explain, in detail, every step I took to implement my project and why I chose to take those steps. During the interview, I focused on being succinct and confident, a practice developed while taking mock interviews at the campus.
What are the skills you learnt during your program which helped you get through your interview?
The short and well-structured nature of the program played a pivotal role in helping me crack the interview. It rigorously covered all the areas of Data Science focusing on R, Python, Statistics, Machine Learning, Data Structures, Algorithms, and Predictive Modelling.
These, along with live data analytics projects & business case studies, helped me understand the concepts thoroughly. The college regularly organised lectures by eminent academicians and leaders from the industry, giving us a wholesome exposure to the challenges faced in the real world.
Did you receive adequate support from the SP Jain community during this process?
Our Program Director – Dr. Abhijit Dasgupta, Malabika ma’am (General Manager – Corporate Relations) and Ravi sir (Manager – Corporate Relations) were of immense support throughout the placement process and even before that. I can’t thank them enough for their relentless efforts in getting the best for us. We not only got trained by globally renowned faculty, we also got placed in world-class companies.
As I mentioned earlier, the mock interviews conducted on campus went a long way in preparing us by giving us better insights into our strengths and weaknesses.
What tips would you want to give the current SP Jain students who will be preparing for their placements soon?
Be consistent in your efforts and be very thorough with the concepts of Statistics and Machine Learning algorithms. Coding should be on your daily to-do list as it is a skill which needs both time and practice.
At the time of the interview, you should be confident and calm and not worry about the outcome. Also, do some research about the company and people before an interview. It will help you to converse better and will send the interviewer a message that you are serious about the job and have done a prior evaluation of the opportunity.
