How I Turned my love for Maths into a career fuelled by Data

In this series, we’ll put the spotlight on Devoteam G Cloud’s experts who are always at the forefront of driving progress in the exciting and rapidly evolving Google Cloud world. In this article, we will delve into Rita’ journey, a Data Scientist at Devoteam GCloud Portugal. Curious by nature and Programmer by choice, she has been working with Data since 2018 and in the process developed a passion for Advanced Analytics: from data gathering to data mining, she believes that every step of a Data Science project comes with the potential of amazing findings. She is currently a Devoteam Digital Champion and a Google Certified Machine Learning Engineer.

Why did you choose a career in Data?

Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think I ever did directly choose a career in Data…
I knew I loved to code and create tools that directly impacted business, where I could see real change in real life.

After I graduated from my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I was looking for a Master’s program that could offer me a different perspective into the needs of the industry, and that’s when I found a program in the School of Economics that suited my vision: I could apply my coding skills in practical contexts such as Data Mining, Data Analysis, and Decision Support Systems. And after a very interesting final assignment about Time Series Analysis in e-Commerce, I was invited to join the biggest e-Commerce platform in Portugal as a BI Engineer, which ended up being the job that cemented for me that Data was definitely my path.

How did you get to this position?

I usually joke that I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up…
I already experienced several jobs in Data (BI Engineer, then Data Analyst, then Data Engineer, now Data Scientist), and I’ve found that, although I could be happy and fulfilled in any of those jobs, Data Science is where my creativity and love for mathematics have a better fit. But I got here by experimentation, by keeping an open mind, always being eager to learn different things and challenging myself to think outside my own box. And I fully intend to keep exploring in and out of the Data Science field (I always feel I still have a lot to learn!), who knows if someday I get to be a Data Architect!

What is the best thing about your job?

Every day I get to learn something new. Be it some cutting-edge concept that I read in a recent paper and a few years later I get to see it become the next big thing, or some small tweak implemented in an ingenious manner in a client process that will significantly impact their results, every day I get to witness and learn something new.

What are the most challenging aspects of your job as a data scientist, and how do you overcome them?

One of the hardest truths I had to learn as soon as I started focusing in Data Science is that you can’t guarantee a successful outcome for every Data Science experiment that you will work on. I think of it as starting to assemble a 3D puzzle with 3000 pieces without a picture or even without knowing beforehand if you have all the pieces (and yes, the very first thing I do is to count the pieces, or in this case, analyse the Data).

With time and experience I came to realise that, just because a ML model doesn’t solve some particular problem, it doesn’t mean that the knowledge that I got from the experimentation is totally useless. On the contrary, this knowledge of what doesn’t work is what will guide me to think outside the box and look at the problem with creativity and ingenuity.

What’s the best professional advice that you ever received?

“Be so good they can’t ignore you”.
It’s actually the title of a book by Cal Newport, where the author states that it is better to focus on sharpening your own skills in several adjacent areas early on in your career (being considered a generalist) and finding out what you’re really good at by experimentation. And since knowledge doesn’t really disappear, when you find what you really are good at doing, you also have a toolbelt full of complementary knowledge that will help you stand out because it broadens your mind.

Your job in 1 sentence?

Math is fun!
All jokes aside, I really believe that we can create really incredible things with math and logical thinking. And it’s quite humbling to think that behind all the modern technology that we hold in our hands are zeroes and ones!

What is your greatest moment as a G Clouder?

If I had to pinpoint one particular moment, it would be the first-year anniversary of GCloud in Portugal last December. I joined the team right at the beginning of 2021 when we were a measly five, and since then we grew to an incredible 50+ people team.

The first word that immediately pops into my head when I think about my team is “Tenacious”. Every day I’m amazed by the resilience, creativity, and strength of my peers! Quitting is never an option, we always try to find the best solution to our tasks, while at the same time making sure that every single one of us is fulfilled and proud of the work that we are doing.

I can say, with absolute certainty, that this team is one of the most remarkable groups I ever had the privilege of working with, and I only get to be my best because I’m surrounded by the best!

How would you describe the G Cloud Team?

We are a collective of very bright and driven individuals. Tech is constantly changing and evolving, and we are always keeping up. Even when we don’t know something, there is always someone in the group who does and is happy to lend a helping hand. And we have a lot of fun doing so!

How do you set the pace?

I’m constantly learning new things. Be it by studying, be it by experimentation, be it by learning from my peers or be it by failing, I make it a priority to never become too comfortable or complacent. The AI universe is changing and growing at an incredible rate, and I make sure that I’m keeping up.