Samrudha's Story: Path to Becoming an Amazon Data Scientist

Meet Samrudha who joined Preplaced after getting tired of stumbling upon generic resources over and over again for his target role. 

Samrudha has been working as a Data Scientist for a few years and was a Lead Data Scientist at a tier 2 organisation. His initial track record was good enough but he felt that something was missing.

He wanted to challenge himself and aim for something even better. His goal was to get placed in MAANG as a Data Scientist.

Challenges: Lack of strategy and guidance 🚨

Statistics show that only 4% of the applicants get hired at MAANG so the competition is high and only the best get the chance.

To secure a position, one would definitely need a proper interview strategy and consistency to follow it through to the end.

“There was no specific information about the interview process,” says Samrudha.

In the beginning, Samrudha thought of creating a self-study plan and sticking to it. 

He created an interview preparation plan and even started with it but constantly kept coming back to point zero. 

His primary pain points were:

👉 No interview preparation strategy

👉 Lack of resources

If he got stuck on a problem, searching for the solution was a hassle. 

Samrudha says, “Too much noise and irrelevant information present on the internet in multiple blogs, and YouTube videos wasted a lot of my time.”

He had no strategy, no idea about the learning resources and was demotivated. 

But Samrudha stuck to his goal and didn't give up. He started exploring and that’s how he stumbled upon Preplaced’s interview preparation program. 

Solution: 1:1 Personalised Mentorship for 2 months 🎯

Samrudha says, "I liked the offering where the mentors are from MAANG employees themselves.” 

To elaborate on this, Preplaced gives the users the option to select a mentor from their target domain and company. The mentees can also select the number of years of experience of their desired mentor.

Samrudha selected Snehansu Sekhar Sahu, an Applied Data Scientist II at Amazon.

Snehansu has an experience of more than 11 years and has helped over several candidates prepare for Data Scientist and AI/ML roles.

Samrudha first took a trial session with Snehansu to understand if they could be compatible and the results were positive.

He says that he was impressed with Snehansu's knowledge and experience and went ahead with the 1:1 long-term mentorship.

The program kicked off with Snehansu evaluating the current preparation level of Samrudha by asking specific questions on relevant topics.

They both got clarity on what needed to be done to make Samrudha interview ready. 

He needed a, 

✅ Personalised interview plan

✅ Resources to study

✅ Mock interviews and assessments to improve his hard and soft skills

✅ A solid portfolio to stand out

Once Samrudha’s initial evaluation was done, they jumped off right into the preparation. His mentor created a personalised plan and suggested a timeline of 2 months for preparation.

The early stages included working on assessments and improving his technical skills.

They would discuss data structures, algorithms and other important data science concepts in the sync-up sessions.

After that, through regular mock interviews, Samrudha was able to improve his interview skills and learnt how to articulate his thoughts. This was a major motivation and confidence booster as he was able to see his progress throughout the program duration.

He got continuous feedback and guidance from his mentor who even encouraged him to clarify his doubts at every stage.

Samrudha says that preparing with Snehansu was not only rigorous but also a great learning experience and he fell in love with the process.

There was no scope to slack as Snehansu was equally dedicated from his end.

Results: Got placed in Amazon as a Data Scientist 🏆

Adding mentorship to his preparation strategy became a game changer for Samrudha as he bagged his dream role at one of the tech giants.

With Snehansu's guidance, he applied for the position of Data Scientist II at Amazon and got selected.

Snehansu not only helped him with the skills but also helped Samrudha create a solid portfolio and get familiar with Amazon’s detailed interview process.

“It definitely met my expectations,” Samrudha says. “I am thankful to Snehansu for helping me with specific inputs on my preparation. His guidance on my skills helped me improve my interview performance. This resulted in a successful outcome.”

Advice to fellow preppies 💪

Mentorship has played an important role to help get Samrudha from tier 2 to tier 1. He is now working among some of the best data scientists in the industry.

Samrudha says, "To fully utilise the mentorship, ask your doubts and dedicate your energy in the right direction.”

He also believes that his initial mistake was to think that he can do this all alone. Having a mentor by your side can make all the difference in one’s career.

Another important piece of advice from Samrudha’s end is not to follow online content blindly. Mentors can share the right resources with you so that you can focus on topics that are required and not get lost in the sea of generic information.

Finally, be patient and don’t settle for less. He says that if he can do it, then you can too. 🚀

Get yourself a mentor!