Q&A with Alfred Amihere: Aspiring Data Analyst and Blossom Academy Fellow
- Tell us about your background and experience with data.
I hold a bachelor’s degree in accounting and 5+ years worth of work experience in audit and finance. Being a part of the livelihood cohort has been a phenomenal experience. It has always been exciting to experiment with various programming languages.
- How has DataCamp helped you in your journey?
DataCamp is one of the most impactful platforms any learner in the data space can be on. The content is well curated and amazingly easy for anyone to understand.
- What new skills have you acquired through DataCamp?
DataCamp has really helped me to master data analysis using spreadsheet and SQL.
- What unique challenges does learning data science present?
Learning data science presents a huge challenge due to its multidisciplinary nature. It derives expertise from statistics, mathematics, computer science and domain-specific knowledge. Mastering all these areas can be challenging especially for newbies.
- What problem are you most interested in solving, and why?
Having worked in finance for the past few years, I have observed a disconnection between the finance function and other departments, with the finance function focusing on financial reporting, budgeting, and compliance. This approach I believe results in missed business opportunities and inefficient decision making. My interest is to bridge the gap between finance and other departments of the organisation.
- How can you leverage data to solve this problem?
Data skills play a crucial role in solving this problem as I will be able to identify trends between financial data and operational data. This will provide insight into business performance helping to identify areas of strength and weakness and inform decision making thereby deriving business strategy.
- Where do you see the African data landscape three years from now, and what role do talent development companies, such as Blossom Academy, play in it?
The data landscape in Africa will experience growth if data talents are dedicated to solving the problems of Africa. Talent development organisations will play a critical role for this growth to happen by developing industry relevant data content for learners to develop their talent.
Kickstart your career in analytics by joining the next Blossom Academy Fellowship program. Express interest at www.blossom.africa or email us at [email protected].
