Being a PHP developer with six years experience, I knew it was time to move to something bigger, such Big Data, Machine Learning, AI, Mobile Apps Development, Data Analysis. But, as with many newbies in the tech industry, choosing the right career path is never easy.
For me, it was even worse, as I had done C,C++, and Java in 2011 and completely left it. I have been working as a PHP developer for six years.
In university, you are taught a bit of everything and you have to connect the dots and continue with the language you are proficient in or the language that you first have a job in. In my case, I was recruited as a PHP developer.
Within six years, I had three jobs, all working as a PHP developer. I was not adding value to my life and I was far away from my dreams.
In June 2017, I decided to get married, and that time, my life and my career changed. I knew it was time to change a lot in my life, so for the first time, I decided to learn a new skill.
I decided to take classes on YouTube on Big Data Hadoop, Data Science with Excel, Python, SAS, and R. As I continued my quest for a change in career, I fell in love with Python and Data Analysis. Little did I know, I was entering into a world of unending resource and materials to read.
I started coding the basics and today, I have learned a lot of new skills in Python and machine learning.
I set a timeline of four months to study Python and Data Analysis, and today I have been building models.
Machine learning is a Big Deal and in Africa, very few countries have ML projects and very little government and institutions even understand you when you mention Machine Learning.
Now, I am building a team of Data Scientists and I believe in four to six years, my country, Cameroun, will have a great deal of data scientists and we will power the CEMAC region in Central Africa.