We’re always excited to have great new people join the Emcien team, so now that Carmen, the newest member of our Data Science Services team, is wrapping up his training we figured we would check in with him and see how things are going:
So Carmen, tell us a little bit about where you were before Emcien.
My former position was doing analytical consulting. We would arrive onsite to a client’s headquarters, discuss the problems facing their company, and then be given a data dump- with the intentions of solving their high value problems using analytics.
What kind of work does a project like that entail?
To ingest an entire organization’s database is no small task. Determining what each column contains, how the values are distributed, and whether or not the information contained is valuable to our investigation would routinely take the majority of our time.
So would you say the “data janitor” moniker feels pretty accurate?
It does feel accurate. There is still very much a hands-on approach to data analysis going on- and that is something I don’t think will go away in the near future. But with Scan so much of it is mitigated, seeing what is already strongly related to your outcome, and what is not- whether that means you throw out that information or try to convert it into to something useful is huge.
What has been the most interesting thing you’ve noticed in your first few weeks?
After working in analytical consulting for several years, I would have loved to use EmcienScan. Quickly distilling an unknown database into the key pieces of information would have saved a tremendous amount of time. Anyone who deals with a large volume of data on a regular basis would get so much value out of seeing all that information.
You’re really getting into the nuts and bolts of both Scan and Patterns lately. Have any upcoming project ideas?
I’m very excited to throw some data sets at Patterns. I’ve got one relating whether or not you can convince internet strangers to give you free pizza with text analytics in EmcienPatterns.
That sounds awesome. If you unlock the secret to free pizza you’ll have to come back and share with us.
Definitely!