Upskilling for Career Growth-Juliet’s Story
Juliet Sackey, a research scientist from Ghana, has over 5 years of experience working with data in fields such as energy, water, and medicine. She has supervised daily R&D activities for postgraduate students through project planning and resource allocation. Juliet describes herself as curious and focused on learning in both her personal and professional life. She aspires to use her skills to make a positive impact on society by using data to derive innovation and growth as a data analyst.
Juliet decided to upskill after realizing that many job applications require some sort of programming language, which she lacked. Although she has a PhD, she was out of work for almost two years, so she decided to develop her skills in data science, which would make her more attractive to potential employers. She found out about the Women Techsters Fellowship program through a WhatsApp group chat and applied. The application process was intense, but she was excited to be selected for the Fellowship.
Juliet was three months pregnant when she started the Women Techsters Fellowship program. It was challenging to stay focused during classes, coupled with assignments, quizzes, and community projects, but the orientation session was power-packed and gave Juliet hope and inspiration for the future. Despite poor electricity supply and sometimes no access to the internet, Juliet remained determined to complete her training. As a wife and mother of a 17-month-old girl, and being pregnant, Juliet had to remind herself of her motivation for being in the program and was determined to not let any barrier or obstacle stop her from developing the skills and tools that would allow her to become financially independent.
Juliet is forever indebted to Tech4Dev for giving her the wings to fly in her career journey. Juliet’s proudest moment was being able to work on an assignment and meet up with the submission deadline while she was in labour. She believes the skills and tools she obtained from the Fellowship are going to help her leverage data in creative and impactful ways.
During the training, Juliet learnt Python [python data structures and algorithms, pandas, machine learning models such as [linear and logistic regression, one-hot encoding, decision tee], some Excel such as [Vlookup, PowerPivot] and some visualization tools, including Power BI. Even though the training was intense, her highlights were the course on Power BI and the soft skills sessions on Fridays. Juliet’s facilitator was Kosisochukwu Ashara, who made sure to carry everyone along and tried to make the class as interactive and fun as possible.
Moving on, Juliet has decided to develop a curriculum for Data Science and AI to teach undergraduate sandwich students at her home university in Ghana. She has already started applying for internship opportunities for experience and also to put into practice what she has learned. Juliet’s husband is inspired by her growth and success and has started taking a course in Data Science as well.
