Sharia Rahman graduated with a degree in biology with plans to become a pharmacist. After working as a pharmacy technician, he realized this was not the right career path for him.
“I wasn’t sure where to go next and felt lost. Then my uncle told me I could take a certificate program and learn new skills to transition careers. Despite my initial skepticism, I quickly realized that data analytics might be a good fit since I got to work with data, which was my favorite part of biology.”
While enrolled in the Emory business and data analytics certificate program, Sharia found a new job as a personal banker at a credit union.
“In the meantime, I got a job as a personal banker. This decision motivated me even more, to study hard and pursue a data analytics career because I knew I didn’t want to work there long-term. All my hard work paid off because I am an asset management analyst at Credigy now.”
Sharia also worked with a Pathstream career coach who helped him take ownership of his career path and navigate his career transition.
“Angelica was helpful and personable. She would review my resume, help me clean it up, check in on me, and teach me how to sell myself during interviews. After working with my career coach, I passed the first stage of interviews a lot more. My only regret was not reaching out to the career coaches sooner. Pathstream has a great career support system.”
During his job search, Sharia’s experience in the financial sector helped open the door to his current role.
“Potential employers were more receptive to meeting with me when they saw I had banking experience. But I don’t think that should deter you from applying for different opportunities. The demand for data analyst skills is high in every industry, so whether you’re changing careers or looking for a data analyst position at your organization, you need to focus on picking up the right data skills.”
Sharia even shared a great example of what it means to have strong data analytics skills.
“At work, we use Easymorph to automate the data cleaning process. However, it glitched, and I used the update command in SQL to fix the data so that we didn’t have to re-upload it and restart the process. They were surprised with my skills, which kept us on track to deliver our end-of-month report.”
Sharia also shared his future professional goals with our team:
“I want to become a senior analyst in the future, but in the meantime, I will take advantage of the free upskilling opportunities at my disposal. I plan to pursue a data science master’s in the future. My company currently offers access to an extensive library of courses through LinkedIn Learning. If my organization provided a tuition assistance program, that would also be a valuable benefit.”
His final piece of advice to students:
“Keep yourself healthy. The program requires a lot of your time, and I recommend you commit to a hobby that clears your mind. I spent a lot of time hiking, and it helped me unwind and reset.”
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