Hello everyone,

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Olivia and I’m from Madrid. I recently received my degree in Business Administration from IE Business School. After graduation, I had the incredible opportunity to spend the summer working at an investment bank. My time there has made me realize that what I would love to find a job that blends social impact with data science.

Over the past year, I’ve discovered how important data science is in today’s world—there is so much data out there, and so much to be done with it. In my opinion, understanding data science and knowing how to leverage it is absolutely essential.

On the first day of the course, Ivan Martín, the program’s academic director, told us something that really stuck with me. He said that studying data science is like what studying English was 20 years ago. Not everyone did it back then, but now, the vast majority of industries around the world require this skill. The future will be the same in terms of data science, and that’s why we are very lucky to have been given the opportunity to enroll in this IE Bootcamp.

So, what are we up to now?

We are entering our third week and have already felt the intensity of this Bootcamp—we haven’t even started the Saturday Data Labs yet! We have class all day, and then go home to study more. But we all knew what we were signing up for, so we can’t complain.

So far, we have had classes on R, Python, Statistics and Resilience. Our teachers are experts and it’s clear that they love what they do—we have so much to learn from them. They are all very helpful and the fact that there are only 17 students in class really allows them to focus on our individual progress. 

Some of our peers have previous experience with R and Python, whereas for others like myself, it’s the first time we have been exposed to this new world. For that reason, the first few weeks have definitely been challenging. Exams have been a bit of a shock, but they are a great way for us to practice. I’m sure that our results will only continue to improve since we’re all so excited about this program. We are working very hard to be able to make the most of the experience!

These 11 weeks are definitely going to be a challenge for us, but that’s what makes it so exciting!

I’m sure my peers will keep you updated on our progress!

Thanks for reading,

Olivia