During his time as a food scientist in a food tech start up, Marcus Tan had the opportunity to get exposure to data science through his colleagues. This profession piqued his interest and he decided to pivot to this career path. After completing the 9-week Data Science bootcamp at Le Wagon, Marcus landed a role as a data scientist at Micron, a semiconductor manufacturing company.
Read about his journey.
Congratulations on your new job! Tell us what you do at Micron.
Thanks! My job at Micron is to optimise the mNAND chip production by improving on machine learning models to predict whether certain parts need to be sent for specific testing stages or if they can skip the testing stages.
Compared to my previous role, this job is heavily focused on IT, coding and computer-based work. The domain knowledge is also very different, from food science to semiconductors.
How did you manage the career switch?
The Data Science bootcamp at Le Wagon helped a lot in terms of technical skills. The syllabus covered an incredible amount across a broad range of topics. This ranged from the basics of Python to web scraping and SQL, data analytics and visualisation tools like Numpy, Matplotlib. I also learnt different machine learning and deep learning algorithms, how to use the command prompt, how to launch the models into production through containerization, and more. The skills I gained are very relevant and applicable to my current job.
In terms of soft skills, going through an intensive 9-week bootcamp taught me perseverance when troubleshooting my code, as often the bugs in the code are really hard to catch and I need to try out different ways to figure out the problem. The bootcamp also taught me to have an open mind when it comes to learning. There are so many things to learn and it is important to learn and understand, rather than just replicate what others have done.
Why Le Wagon?
After reading several bootcamp reviews, Le Wagon came out as my top choice. In addition to all the great reviews, the website was informative and the administrative staff were responsive and detailed in answering all my queries. This made me certain in my decision to enrol in the Data Science bootcamp.
Even before the bootcamp started, I had to do an extensive amount of prep work which included challenges and reviewing the resources provided. In all, it was over 40 hours of prep work ranging from coding to statistics and even using the terminal and Git. During the bootcamp itself, a bit of time was spent going through these basics to ensure that we had a solid foundation in general coding and math, before diving into the specifics of machine and deep learning. As someone with almost no experience in Python prior to joining the bootcamp, these extra resources helped me a lot and eased my transition into data science.
What do you like about Le Wagon?
The lecturers at the Data Science bootcamp were knowledgeable and clear in the way they taught. They did not hesitate to answer any questions we had, even questions beyond the scope of the lecture. What I found really useful was the advice our lecturers gave us along the way. This included tips on how to survive in the data world, how to manage projects, and stories from their own experience. These are things you can’t learn online or from books so I am very thankful for such passionate lecturers.
The career support at the end of the bootcamp was fantastic. Le Wagon organized a career week and invited several alumni and external speakers to talk to us about our prospects. We also received help in jazzing up our CVs, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles. I am very appreciative of the tremendous effort that Le Wagon has put in and I’m so thankful that the bootcamp has kickstarted my career as a data scientist!
