Sanja Stanchevska is an excellent example of how the Data Masters Academy contributes to building a career in Data Science and it serves as an excellent base for elevating people’s knowledge inside the company. After completing training in Data analysis and visualization with the programming language Python and a Data Science Academy, Sanja was offered a job position as a Data Analyst, and as of now, she is part of our team for about three months.

We took this mini milestone as an occasion to sit with her and talk about her experience with the Academy, the adjusting process at Data Masters, and her plans for the future.

We inevitably start with a question about the Academy. As a professional who has completed training and a Data Science Academy can you please tell us how both of them helped you in finding a career path?

The training for Data analysis and visualization with the programming language Python was my first contact with the world of data, which managed to grab and hold my attention. After I finished the training, I decided to focus and learn more about the Data Science field. The previous positive experience guided me toward the Data Masters’ Academy. Both the training and the academy were experiences that helped me gain many practical skills I now apply while working in the company.

Your final project at the Data Science Academy was related to the retail field. Tell us in detail more about the process of creating the project, the different phases, and the collaboration with the team.

The final academy project was related to the retail sector, and the data were in the form of time series. When working on a three-people team, which was mentored by our colleague Oliver Tanevski, there are a lot of advantages. It was easy to organize, work together, and even become friends. Every team member was involved in every part of the project – from data loading to writing documentation.

You have been part of our team for three months now. What are your impressions of working at Data Masters so far?

So far everything has been great, I have only positive impressions from working at Data Masters. I like that the company has a great working atmosphere and every colleague is open to collaborating and sharing knowledge. Data Masters offers the possibility of employment through the Academy to those who don’t have a lot of experience but have great potential and desire to work and be successful, which I especially appreciate.

What was the adaptation and integration process like at Data Masters?

The process of adaption was effortless. Right from the start, I felt the enthusiasm of every colleague that works at Data Masters. Many of my colleagues I already know because we studied together at the University. Also, a couple of them were my teachers at the Academy, while others were studying in parallel with me.

You say that you are a creative person who needs challenges and diversity. How does your current position at Data Masters enable you to feed that creativity?

Data Masters is a company that works on various projects in different domains and uses a variety of tools and programming languages. All of this offers different types of challenges that require creativity in coming up with solutions. A healthy work environment is one of the many benefits that the company provides, and the proof of that is the trust the managers have in the employees, as well as the possibility of a hybrid way of work. This approach encourages the employees to take more risks and share their ideas, enabling constant professional growth.

You are currently working on multiple projects for different clients. What is your biggest challenge related to the work you do at the moment?

Every client is a fresh type of challenge in a good way. Meeting the client’s expectations and making sure both sides are happy with the result for me is the biggest challenge and also the greatest satisfaction. Considering the fact that I’ve worked with multiple clients from different business domains, it’s important to understand their business logic, what kind of data they have, and what types of data processing can be done to get conclusions. It goes without saying that an important factor is the visualization of the data.

Your responsibilities include constant communication with clients to find the best solutions for their requirements. What do you think is the most important thing when communicating with a client?

In my opinion, the most important things when communicating with a client are transparency, trust, and mutual understanding. My tendency is to always be transparent with the client. During the regular meetings, the client gets to know the work process and progress on the project, but also the possible issues that might come up. That is the only way to increase mutual trust and understanding.

As a professional who likes to upgrade their knowledge and learn new things, what type of projects would you like to work on in the future?

I would like to be a part of more Business Intelligence projects, but as a person who can easily adapt to any situation, I’m open to learning new skills depending on the company’s needs. Currently, I work on a project in the retail field that is truly interesting and applicable in everyday life. I would like to have the opportunity to work on more projects like this and thus gain more experience in this field.