Jacques Diambra Odi is a canny investor. It comes naturally to him — after all, he runs a real estate investing company with his siblings. And so when he started feeling disillusioned with his career, he did the sort of analysis he was familiar with, one he knew could help him make the right decision. At the end, the result was clear: data science was for him.
Here’s how TripleTen helped him pursue a new path in data and earn a true return on his investment in his education.
A thirst for something more than science
Undergrad, Jacques was premed, after which he got a master’s in biology. Following that, he landed a job in a lab as a quality control analyst. Essentially, he ran tests to make sure that materials and chemicals were in line with what the company expected. He and his team had a standard schedule in their industry. But then the pandemic hit.
“With COVID, we needed more lab coverage, so we had a schedule where it was three on, two off, then two on, three off, differing variations of that, so I was working twelve hours. But in a lab setting, you’re not always working for that twelve hours. Sometimes, I would be busy for six or eight hours. Other times, I’d be working for one hour and wasting time watching movies or doing anything else just to pass the time,” he said.
The intermittent schedule gave him a chance to think. Upon reflection, he realized that he wanted more. “I felt unfulfilled, so I started looking for something productive to do during that time.”
According to Jacques, he wanted “a career change, something in tech. Something where I have a higher earning potential and something where I can apply those skills to my entrepreneurial ambitions.”
That led to him fooling around with PythonIs Programming Hard? Make It Easy with Python. He enjoyed it. “I started doing a lot of Python and I realized it wasn’t that difficult, so I figured, ‘Okay, what can I do with Python as a career?’ I found data scienceWhat’s Included in TripleTen’s Data Science Bootcamp?. I did research on different programs where I could learn data science — how long it would take, different programs that would let me do it self-paced. That’s how I got to TripleTen.”
He checked out the bootcamp and liked that it was career-focused, especially because of TripleTen’s focus on externships, which are hands-on work placement opportunities at diverse companies.
The portfolio projects and the externship really drew me to TripleTen. Jacques Diambra Odi, TripleTen grad
Uniting science and data
He found learning the material to be easy at first. But it soon got more demanding. “Overall, studying wasn’t difficult in the beginning. It was just learning the different coding methods and functions. Then when the projects started coming in, that’s when I had more structure to how I studied and did the projects.”
This methodical approach was aided by tips and guidance from TripleTen tutors. “The tutors would give you feedback and resources so you could solve the problem yourself.”
But he quickly realized he could explore on his own. “After a couple of times, I figured, ‘Okay, they’re giving me the resources. The resources are out there, so I’ll skip the step of asking and just go straight to the resources and get the answer solved there.”
This tenacity helped him move through the bootcamp in record time. In fact, when one of his projects would be in reviewTripleTen Code Reviews: Why, Who, How?, he’d already be working on the next one. “I’m the type of person who, if I have a goal, I just want to get it done. Whatever it takes to get it done, I put in the hours.”
Reaping the benefits of his investment in education
As his time at TripleTen was winding down, he joined an externship with Yachay AI. During this hands-on learning experience, he crafted a multiple-entry neural network that sounds alchemical. It took run-of-the-mill tweets and used them to predict geolocation. “The ultimate goal was to build a model that was fairly accurate at predicting where someone was tweeting. It was mostly for disaster relief and other efforts like that.”
This showed him just how much he could do with data science. Now, all combined, this know-how is also feeding back into his real estate project.
The skills at TripleTen help me look at the data. Jacques Diambra Odi, TripleTen grad
“I get my data from different sources, but overall from the Fed. I’m looking at interest rates, I’m looking at housing starts, I’m looking at inventory, I’m looking at how long houses stay on the market.”
The new knowledge is already providing a return on his investment. “Before TripleTen, I had initial presentations that were just Excel. I went back and applied all the skills from the bootcamp to revamp my presentations. I created a website, I had data analyses, I had data science behind it. I connected to the Fed interest rate APIs, and built an interactive website.”
With his skills in data science, he’s now thinking of his next career move in the same way he approaches real estate. “It’s just a matter of having the right opportunity at the right time and pouncing on it.”
Our pitch to you
Want to discover what data science can do for your career and personal projects? Find out more by checking out our Data Science bootcamp.
And to see Jacques tell his story in his own words, check out his video here.
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