This document discusses the author's career goals of becoming a data scientist. It outlines the author's objective to take on a challenging role as a data scientist to help organizations achieve their goals and increase productivity. The author's short term goal is to obtain full time employment in data analysis by January 2016. Intermediate goals include obtaining a Master's degree in data analytics by June 2015. Long term goals are to complete various certifications to become a senior data scientist by January 2018. The document also includes a personal SWOT analysis and overview of the author's skills from an educational background focused on statistics, mathematics and data analysis software.

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Personal Career Exploration
Yaw Johnson Arkaah

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1. Data Science – My Career Path
Data Science Profession
My dream career is to be Data Scientist. Data science is deep knowledge discovery through
data inference and exploration. It basically employs mathematical, statistical and algorithmic
techniques to solve most analytically complex business problems, digging out troves of raw
information to bring to bear hidden insight that lies beneath the data, usually large data. Data
science borders aroundevidence-based analytical rigor and building robust decision capabilities. In
the end, data science is important as it enables businesses and organizations to operate and
strategize more intelligently. Data science is all about adding immeasurable business value by
learning from data.
Industry Demand
Data science is big deal across so many industries. In recent past few years, data science
has seen an incredible rise to relevance, as businesses and organizations invest to be smarter in
how they do business by becoming more data-driven. This trend has enabled the job market for
data science expertise to grow at an exponential pace. Major players in this career path include
biotechnology, energy, banking and finance, gaming and hospitality, government, healthcare,
insurance, Internet, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, retail, telecommunication, travel and
transportation, utilities, marketing research, just to mention a few. Basically, everyone and anyone
is looking for a data scientists. In short, no matter which area one picks, fact is that data science is
in its infancy, and its outlook seems exceptionally bright as data become further entrenched.
2. Goals and Objectives
Objective
To take a challenging role Data Scientist and to provide an efficient and effective solution that will
help the organization to achieve its objectives, provide the best solution in data and information
related issues, and ultimately increase its productivity and profitability in this modern competitive
business arena.

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Short-Term Goals
 To be a full time-employee in the field of data and information warehousing, retrieval,
analysis and reporting by January 1, 2016.
 To continue to learn and develop my skills in the field of data science by staying on as a
Data Analyst at Johnson and Johnson Company, not relenting in finding new job
opportunities both internal and external.
Intermediate Goals
 To obtain an M.S. degree in Data Analytics from University of Maryland University College
by June 1, 2015. With a total of 30 credits required to complete this degree, I will put in all
the energy I have in me to help me achieve this goal.
Long-Term Goals
 To complete both M.S. Data Analytics degree and other certification courses, namely, SQL,
Hive, R, Certified Analytics Professional and Certified Business Intelligence Professional to
ensure that I have almost all the necessary credentials that will propel me to become a
Senior Data Scientist in a quickest possible time.
 To regularly attend seminars and conferences in the field of data science and statistical
data analysis to help me stay abreast with the changes in the data science arena.
 To earn a top management position within the field of data and information science by
January 1, 2018.
Personal SWOT Analysis
The following SWOT analysis (Table 1) is presented with the view to sharing the
competitiveness of the environment for the career path as data scientist as well as my strengths
and weaknesses (my internal environment) and opportunities and threats (my external
environment).

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Table 1: Personal SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS
 Vast work experience as data analyst and statistician
 Education
 Paying attention details
 Technical skills and knowledge (e.g., SAS, SQL, Matlab
coding skills)
 Personal characteristics (e.g., excellent work ethics,
self-discipline, fine working under pressure, creativity)
WEAKNESSES
 Lack of work experience in this area
 Impatient
 Perfectionist
 Rush in some presentations
OPPORTUNITIES
 Potential employment
 Having the relevant foundation by being a statistics,
econometrics, and mathematics major
 Area needs my set of skills
 Opportunities for advancement in your field
THREATS
 Competition from college graduates with your
same degree
 Competitors with superior skills, experience or
knowledge
 Competitors with better job-hunting skills than me
 Competitors who went to schools with better
reputations.
Strengths
I have been working as a data analyst and statistician for over twelve years. This means I
have rich experience in data capturing, warehousing, analysis and reporting. To ensure that I
prepared myself for corporate work, I have earned various academic degrees including B.S. in
Mathematics, B.Com in Statistics, and M.S. in Mathematical Statistics. I have that gift of paying
attention to detail. I have developed this strength since I started in charge – be it as class captain
while in primary school, class representative while in high school, entertainment chairman while in
college, and at work. Each of these responsibilities has taught me to take time to ensure tasks are
well and smoothly executed at every stage of execution. My technological skills are also my
biggest strengths. As an advanced SAS programmer and intermediate Matlab programmer, I have
used these technological skills at all facets of my working career. In addition, I have great
expertise in Microsoft Office, especially in Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
I used these software packages daily for reporting, presentations and analysis. For most
data sets, I have used Excel for data capturing and SAS for data analysis, graphing, and querying.
Lastly, I have developed my communication and writing skills through report writing and

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presentation in front of audiences, large and small, as well as writing business memos, e-mails,
and engaging in business conversations with co-workers.
Weaknesses
My weaknesses include being impatience, being somehow a perfectionist, and rushing
during some presentations. An example of be being impatient is when, at I was first appoint
Tourism Research Officer, and as the only statistician on the team I found my team to be too slow
to work with me at the pace I wanted so a s ensure speedy completion of research projects. It was
very difficult for me but after putting a little bit of pressure on them worked out eventually.
I know I am a bit of a perfectionist. I like to do thing right the first time so as avoid delaying
getting it done. This allows me to move onto my next task within the shortest possible
time. However, in some few other instances, I find myself spending too much time trying to
perfect some tasks which may not necessarily require a high priority as some other tasks. My
communication skills, although excellent, I tend to rush in some presentations, although not
many. This is something I need to improve on. I believe I can overcome this by practicing and
making more presentations.
Opportunities
My opportunities include the market demand, networking, ability to incorporate social
media, and having the requisite coursework to support. My biggest opportunity is the fact that
data science is relatively new and that almost all businesses, large and medium, are rushing to
employ trained data scientists. My next biggest opportunity is the links I have managed to
establish with my classmates, professors, family friends and co-workers. I have used these links to
create a network that I think will eventually pay off in terms of landing on a good-paying job.
Networking through social media has also allowed me to expand my chances of being called for
interviews. From the twelve companies I have since sent my resume to, eight have offered me an
interview. Of these eight, four were offered through social networking, three of which I have
already completed. I will continue to use and expand my network with the view to increase my
chances of landing a well-paid data analytics position. I fully believe incorporating social media in
my job search is a great opportunity and that its arrival could not been better timed. My network
could lead to job opportunities in the future. I also believe having the relevant university
coursework for this career path is indeed an opportunity for me.

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Threats
My main competitors include competition from college graduates with your same degree,
competitors with superior skills, experience or knowledge, competitors with better job-hunting
skills than me, and competitors who went to schools with better reputations. Threats as they may
seem, I am more than prepared to turn them into opportunities for my dream career as a Data
Scientist.
3. My Skills, My Competitive Edge
Educational Career
Over the course of my educational career, I have developed a wide variety of skills that will
ensure my success as a Data Scientist. A huge asset that I am able to bring to bear in any
organization is my self-taught statistical software programming and data analytic skills. During my
time at the University of Science and Technology in Ghana, University of North West in South
Africa and University of Pretoria in South Africa, I took upon myself to learn statistical data
analysis software packages, including SAS, Stata, R, Matlab and S-plus along with my core
statistics courses. The main courses include mathematics, regression analysis, econometrics,
multivariate analysis, actuarial statistics and business decision theory. In addition to classwork, I
have passed a computer proficiency examination testing my knowledge in Microsoft Office, Excel,
and Word. Together these disciplines have given me the knowledge to complete many tasks in
every organization I have worked for.
In what follows below, I present more information regarding these skills. By having them, I
can add value to any organization. These skills include my knowledge in computer technology, the
ability to effectively communicate, the ability effectively work within a team, and my ability to lead
a team. Although these skills are well developed, I am continuously working to further improve
upon them as supported by the fact I have even enrolled with the University of Maryland
University College to learn more and to enrich my skills.
Communication
In the corporate world, it is important and essential that one is able to effectively
communicate to managers, co-workers, and customers. I pride myself in being able to do exactly
that, both orally and in writing. During my time at the North West Parks and Tourism Board in
South Africa as Tourism Market Research Officer and as Tourism Research Manager, I interacted

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with Board Members, Executive Members and key players in tourism industry on a daily basis to
ensure they are well-informed about the trends in the industry. During this time I have developed
a skill to be able to clearly communicate during unscheduled meetings and busy schedules when
distractions are abound.
While working at the North West Parks and Tourism Board in South Africa, communication
was one of my responsibilities as all research output ought to be presented to the Provincial
Tourism Development Committee, the Board, and the Executive Management. Finally, as a
Teaching Assistant at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, I regularly have had to
communicate to the classes I was tutoring. On a daily basis I had to meet with the Head of
Department and the Dean by e-mail or phone. These interactions have helped me develop my skill
to ensure everyone that I talk to gets exactly what I talk about and exactly what I need. Besides
job related experience, I have also have developed my communication at the University of
Pretoria by taking courses in public speaking and writing.
Leadership and Teamwork
Another important skill that I have and strongly believe will add value to any organization is
my ability to lead and work as a team. Throughout my working career, I have worked with
research teams either as the leader of the team or a team member. In both cases, my tasks had
been to ensure that all research projects are completed on time. It was my duty to ensure that
these research projects were properly designed, well-implemented, and results presented. The
tasks of assigning duties, setting up meetings, including deadlines, and providing direction to
other members of the team in the course of the project execution were responsibility. I single-
handedly ensured research projects were successfully executed with high quality standards.
Although I see myself a good leader, I still fit in easily when working as a regular team
member. As a leader, I feel very much fulfilled when I find myself as a regular member working
with the team to get a job done. As a leader working in a team environment, I also am able to
provide constructive criticism and do not bear a grudge receiving criticism from my team
members.
Technological Knowledge
My greatest asset, besides my education, is my technological knowledge. I am an advanced
programmer in SAS, Stata, Matlab and intermediate programmer in R. I have excellent grip on the

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three important components of Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I use Microsoft
Word on a daily basis for report write-ups and Microsoft Excel for charting and basic statistical
data analysis. I also have rich experience in writing professional memos and reports using
Microsoft Word. Using PowerPoint, I have created numerous presentations including narrated
PowerPoint presents.