Another week has gone by and the amount of knowledge we acquire is astounding.

My name is Jorge Zeller, and I have worked in finance for the past 5 to 6 years. I come from a background building complex financial models for a Tourism and Real Estate asset management firm in the Dominican Republic. I then veered into the movie industry for a while, working in the finance department for the company that manages Pinewood Dominican Republic Studios.

I have just finished my International MBA right here at IE, which helped me discover my passion for everything related to Data Science and Business Analytics via their extensive electives offering. This was eye-opening in particular as I entered the MBA with a very clear path in mind: study hard, do well and go into consulting or investment banking. Now I can happily say things changed and I have found a field I have become particularly fond of in the 3 weeks that have gone by. The Data Science Bootcamp has allowed me a great opportunity to learn (and EXTENSIVELY practice) techniques in around 3 months that I thought would have required me to sign up for another master’s degree.

What is the program like? Well, I am happy to say it is intense. Very intense (which is a great thing). We take around 9+ hours of class and it goes by in a blur. I remember Ivan, the academic director of the program, telling us that there would come a point during our capstone projects where we would need to tell our clients: “I don’t know how to do this, but let’s talk in a week.” I can officially confirm that I experienced this feeling for the first time!

I can say that I have gone from what I would call a “coding illiterate” person to consider myself proficient (and fully literate) in Python and R in around 3 weeks. In the following weeks, we start new classes as we phase out of old ones and I am very much looking forward to courses like Data Acquisition in SQL, R, and Python as well as courses in Machine Learning.

Something else that needs to be mentioned is how diverse the group taking the Bootcamp is. This is as much a valuable learning opportunity as the techniques we are learning. Furthermore, this is something I have come to appreciate about IE’s methodology, as the MBA had a similar mindset. I am currently taking classes with people from many different nationalities and professional backgrounds. We have psychologists, people that come from the Defense industry, logistics experts, economists, people with degrees in mathematics, and more.

Every single person brings their own experiences to the class and it has been an incredible learning opportunity seeing how each person tackles the different challenges. Moreover, every single person pushes you to be better while also building a sense of camaraderie.

With the previous said, I must go back to studying for a Python exam, The Bootcamp waits for no one haha! I cannot overstate how crazy it is to see how much things can change in a week. So much so that this has become one of my favorite things about the program, being able to talk to friends and tell them all the new stuff I can do week after week. Now, I continue to look forward to everything that is coming in the next few weeks, especially as we get into the complex stuff!