SOP Sample for MS in Data Science in the US - Early Career

Statement of Purpose

*"Pursue what catches your heart, not what catches your eyes..."* – Roy Bennett

This quote correctly explains what drives me here, and the reasons for choosing Computer Engineering for my undergraduate course. Despite having commerce profession as my family background, I opted for Engineering because it caught my heart although my eyes could catch commerce. Before joining the college, I was uptight about being able to cope up with the new adventure. However, I strongly believe that hard work and perseverance can beat any obstacle. I started my journey of Engineering with this thought and eventually at the end of first year was awarded with the scholarship for standing first in the class.

I started enjoying and playing around the subjects. I was as amazed as a child to see my first software code running. Over the period, I understood the wide range of applications and decided to contribute this knowledge to transform society. I participated in an event which was conducted by State government to overcome prevalent problems. Being quite aware of the difficulties faced by the students in rural area, I along with my team decided to come up with a solution to overcome this problem using technology. This event taught me leadership skills as I led my team. We proposed an idea of developing a portal where NGOs could register their interest to contribute and the portal would allot the schedule wherein the volunteers could actually visit rural schools or teach students online. I was on cloud nine to see my team name in top 10 list and we were awarded by State Chief Minister. Moreover, I myself joined the NGO "[ORGANIZATION_NAME]" and would visit municipal corporation schools weekly to teach underprivileged students and continued to serve for about two years under this NGO.

Due to keen interest in Computer Science and management oriented activities, I wanted to host seminars, events, and project exhibitions based on recent inventions and research which would help students to understand the opportunities. With this motto, I decided to stand for election for the Computer Society of India group at my institute. I was privileged for being elected as a panel member and hosting project exhibitions, seminars and for motivating and enlightening many other students alike.

Along with these extra-curricular activities, I was also aware about the fact that it is the deep knowledge that would create demand for me in the technical world. I continued to study and understand the concepts and applications alongside. For my final year project, with couple of technical rounds and selection process, I got an opportunity to work on [COMPANY_NAME] sponsored project "[PROJECT_NAME]" under the guidance of industry experts from [COMPANY_NAME]. This project aimed to generate alerts when the infrastructure like database capacity, CPU utilization, etc. would reach a threshold. This feature ensured availability of an application and reduction in down time drastically. It was developed using AWS and [COMPANY_NAME] software services. Working on this project gave me an exposure to the real time industry projects.

It was June 2018 when the placements started. [COMPANY_NAME] was the first company to visit our institute for campus placement and thus my first ever interview. I was bit nervous and excited for the new experience. I was honored to receive this job offer exactly a year before I had even completed my under graduation degree. After joining [COMPANY_NAME], I was more than happy to see and work on topics which I had read about during Engineering studies. During July 2019–June 2020, I got into training and R&D. I was working on Hive, Sqoop, HDFS, Hibernate, Shell scripting, Spring framework, and Java. I was trying to analyze the pros and cons of implementing the system in a particular language and infrastructure. Additionally, I also worked on process improvement project which dealt with Risk calculation using Monte Carlo Simulation. I got to learn the importance of integration and how to accommodate the changes without affecting upstream and downstream application. Technology wise, I got an exposure to Java, Oracle, Spring framework and version control system.

After completing first year, it was the time for business unit rotation and I was selected at [COMPANY_NAME]'s Commodities Business unit. This team was into Data Engineering and Analytics. Here, I created some powerful insights to the data using Power BI wherein, handling and mapping relationship between the data tables and developing logic over it to visualize data in meaningful manner. Also, I was involved in an application called Wash Trade reporting system, which would fetch data, process data and generate alerts if a suspicious Trade is encountered. It was developed using Spark and Oracle. Later, I got started working on API management tool from [COMPANY_NAME]. I got to learn various authentication and authorization techniques and the security aspect of it. To explore the front end technology, I started to work on Angular and got an opportunity to develop a Portal which represents the face of [COMPANY_NAME]'s Commodities Business unit. The portal is the hub of the reports, APIs and analytics tool which can be accessed by authorized business users. I got to learn Angular and design the portal which would be user friendly. This particular project followed agile methodology. I understood the concepts of release cycles, CI/CD, deployment, bug fixes, and version management system like Bitbucket. Then my journey headed towards Python. I started working on complex process where I dealt with managing an engine to calculate Portfolio's Value at Risk, PnL for Commodities business under a data analytics platform. It involved job scheduling, Python scripting, batch management, and querying MS-SQL database. [COMPANY_NAME] in true sense has brought about the necessary transformation from a fresher to a confident professional.

I firmly believe that with this work experience from such a renowned MNC along with my undergrad degree in the same domain, has already equipped me with the suitable confidence and belief that this field is my taste. To enhance my knowledge and opportunities more, I am convinced that the MS degree from your esteemed university will open plethora of opportunities to acquire and excel specific and focused skills in the domain of my interest namely data science, big data and Artificial Intelligence.

My immediate goal is to add on to the existing knowledge in my field of interest which will help me to achieve my ultimate objectives. I believe that America would give me a platform to learn and contribute back to this field effectively. I am aware that the graduate studies need hard work, sincerity and determination. And that is one of the motives behind opting American standard of education so as to achieve that excellence level in my field of interest.

I can say that ultimately I want to contribute largely to this field by understanding the unexplored areas and studying about the upcoming concepts and technologies. I will continue to stay diligent and strive for the best. I am all well prepared to start this new journey. I will be extremely grateful if you consider my candidature for graduate studies at your reputed institute. I look forward for an extended relationship with your university that would bring mutual success.