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Data Science, Careers
How Mentoring Helped Me Become a Better Data Scientist
Surprising ways you’ll benefit when you keep giving unconditionally
Beyond my 9–5 job as Senior Data Scientist, I mentor students and enthusiasts to break into and grow in the world of data science. This has been one of the most meaningful works I’ve done in the past year.
If you measured success using the dollars I earned, it’s nothing, but the impact on my mentees would tell a different story.
You don’t need to have a PhD or be a professor to mentor someone; you need to have what they’re looking for. It could be an internship, a job or academic expertise. I firmly believe that helping each other as a data science community is the way to thrive in the industry.
If not for the handful of people whom I call my mentors, I wouldn’t be here. My viewpoint was to be helpful as much as possible without expecting anything in return. But things played out differently.
Read on to learn about some surprising benefits from my mentoring journey and how it made me a better data scientist.
You’ll acquire the ability to explain beyond understanding
I didn’t know it was hard until one of the mentee’s wanted me to explain how a particular algorithm worked. It should be simple for someone who has learned and understood most of the algorithms and worked on them.
No, no, no, not even close.
When you finish explaining, irrelevant to the other person's expression, you know when you could have done a better job.
The ability to explain a concept is much more challenging than understanding the concepts. When you explain, you have to organize your thoughts in a simple manner such that the person listening can grasp the idea instantly.
When I’m not sure of something during my early mentoring days, I request to get back to them later. I often end up creating a mind-map of the concept to explain better, and it remains in my memory for longer. A mind-map makes you grasp an overall idea and related concepts in an organized manner.
