So I'm really excited to be here. Uh My name is Pavia and you can just call me Bobo. Um I am going to tell you about my transition into technology. Um Let me just start with a little introduction about myself.I used to be a fashion stylist, a costume designer and a wardrobe consultant. And I used to work in work in the Indian film industry for about 8 to 10 years. And um being in the creative field, I realized that I was always interested in technology in one way or the other. And uh it was actually my passion towards technology that I thought that maybe I wanna actually do this. Um However, I always thought that, you know, I'm more of a creative person, so I, I may not be um well cut out for technology. I had my own doubts and stuff like that, but I did um cross um I did overcome them and um I actually pursued technology once I started my journey, journey into technology, I realized that I was actually pretty good at it. I kind of uh excelled at all the courses that I uh was taking in at my university, I actually taught my university uh which is great uh you know, passed with perfect uh 4.0 GPA. And then I thought, OK, I can do this.

And uh I thought OK, data science is something that I was always interested in because I was always working with data. Even when I was working in the Indian film industry, we were always working with data. We were always like doing a research for the previous costumes or the kind of um fashion that was um being uh you know, followed in some era of the world and in some era, some period period in time, and we always had to kind of research that and we had to design our present um characters according to what we were searching back then.

So after doing all of that, we realized that if I, I realized that I was doing this even back then, I just didn't realize that that was called data science. And then I decided to pursue my data science journey. And I came to the States. I actually shifted to States, like in the middle of the pandemic, I shifted to States. Um I clearly remember I shifted to States on the fifth of September last year. And uh I completed my course in the second semester and I did it with like I, I really excelled at everything that I was doing, which was really great to be honest. And um the university that I'm studying at. It's actually in my experience I have studied and I've been to so many places, but this is actually one of the very good universities I study at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. And it is actually one of the, one of the best universities I have been to. Not because it, it's not because of anything else, but because the professors that are just really nice now that I've given you a little bit about myself, I am going to tell you um about how is it that you can find yourself in technology. Every time that you start a new journey, you, you're always going to have your own doubts, you're always going to feel like this is something that you may or you may not want to pursue and it's OK to have those sounds because it's a completely new thing today.

The entire world is connected via technology, everybody is on the internet, everybody is exploring, everybody's doing something and every single day, there are like hundreds of new applications, software applications, new platforms that are being introduced into the world. And uh from this, you really understand that what is the kind of, you know, scope that technology has in the world. Um And even in future for that matter of fact, and for this reason, it is always important to keep yourself ahead of the curve of the people of the trend um of what's happening. And I'm actually gonna tell you and teach you uh a couple of methods that I actually used to excel at everything that I am doing right now. This will, if you take these, I'm not saying that these will work for you. But I'm saying that if you use these methodologies, they, it will definitely help you achieve some success and move ahead of a lot of people. Um But first before I actually get into this, there's one thing that a friend of mine had told me just a couple of days ago and I really want to start with that. I wanna tell you something.

You cannot, you just cannot enter a field or anything new with the thought process. Uh with any kind of negative thought process, you cannot think to yourself that, you know, I may not succeed at this or I may not be able to do this and then then get involved in it. You always have to start something or get involved in something with a positive mindset. You always have to remember that you will be able to do it, you will be able to succeed and you will be able to overcome any challenges that come your way. This is something that you have to have to have to remember before you do anything else. Anything else at all? This is very important. There are many things that you will come across when you start a new subject, it's always going to be difficult for you to cope up. It's always going to be a little challenging for you because it's completely new. Every time you do something new, it's going to be a little difficult.

But you have to tell yourself that no matter what you're safe, no matter what you're going to figure this out and no, no matter what you're going to succeed, you're going to move ahead the moment you have that mindset and you get involved in something and you jump into something with that mindset.

You are going to go ahead and live, you are going to be successful. It may not be the way that you want, you want to be successful, but it's going to be something which is going to be really fruitful for you. It is going to push you towards your goals directly, indirectly in any other way. It doesn't matter, but it is going to help you. Um The next thing I wanna talk about is about finding your path in technology. I want to talk about how, what ideas are, I want to talk about the kind of um vision that you may have and how is it that you can align your vision or your ideas, your talent with money making. Ultimately, you want to get into technology or you want to do anything to earn money. So that is going to be one of the important factors that I'll be talking about. The one thing I wanna talk about is uh I want you to identify what your passion is. Technology in today's work can be used in different areas. Technology is used in Medicare. It's used in software engine, like really um not software engineering but like in finance, it's used in real estate. It's used in space. It's used in so many different areas. So first and foremost, I need you to figure what is it that you're more inclined towards? Are you interested in finance? Are you interested in the healthcare sector? Are you interested in uh banking sector or any other sector? Which sector it is that keeps you interested?

Are you just interested in technology in coding or fronting in the designing? Um Something, are you, do you have a creative streak in you that you want to design stuff, you want to, you know, make things look pretty? Is that what you wanna do? So that's one thing that I want you to figure. What is your talent? Where is it that you, your core, your essence lie? Are you happy coding? Are you happy designing me as a person? I'm an artist. So I've always liked to, you know, paint and create stuff. However, uh when I started coding and when I started creating creating stuff and I thought, you know what I'm gonna make this look pretty. I realized that my creative streak does not really work well in technology. So this is where my talent or my creative um streak did not really align with what it is that I was actually talented at. So this is something that you will only understand and you will only realize with trial and error. Once you understand that you, this is where your creativity lies. You wanna go into that, you wanna just go and head on and you wanna start applying everything that you think um that you know, or everything that you think that you wanna learn and you wanna start applying to your coding, your everyday learning, your uh the podcast that you listen to the books that you read and uh the people that you listen to on youtube or the articles that you read or anything else.

For that matter of fact, the professors or the people that you network with, it's very important to network. It's a, it's one of the most important things I can talk of and I cannot stress that stress is enough, but you have to have to network all the time, even when you're studying, even if you're just listening to somebody uh online, keep networking with everybody. The second thing I want to talk about is what is your idea as soon as you uh think that this is what I wanna do. This uh My creativity lies in coding or my creativity lies in front end designing or my creativity lies in algorithms I want to talk about. I want you to think about the idea that you have in your head. So for example, when I decided that I want to get into data science, data science also is used in several places. It's used in healthcare sector or finance in different places. But the company that I work with data just learn. I am currently actually uh doing machine learning modeling there. I'm learning machine learning modeling there.

So using algorithms and learning how to code and learning the ETL process uh that is something that attracted me that that is something that I thought that my idea or that's the place where my creativity or I would flourish. So you need to figure what is it, what your idea is? What is your idea of your creativity? Where do you think? Can you apply your idea and your creativity to hone your talent? I want you also to try and find out how is it that you going to combine your talent and your ideas? For example, if you're a front end developer, front end developer is obviously somebody who designs and something that you see on screen, that's fun. And how is it that that on screen? Like the website, the application, how is it that it's designed the color combination? What happens when you click somewhere? All of that is front end? So um the front end development. So for example, if you're somebody who's an artist who likes color combination, who likes to create stuff like create stuff in the sense design stuff. Um And your idea is you would want to apply this talent in finance or banking. So do you want to combine your talent, which is the front and development with your idea, which is banking? And that's where you know that, OK, this is where I can earn when you combine these two things, that's when you'll know.

OK, this is the sector I want to get into, this is the job profile I wanna get into and this is how I want to actually earn. Uh Once you have these things, it's always important to keep taking notes. You know, if you really look at my books and my desk, you will realize that my entire desk, the space that I work with. I have this vision board and I have these notes. I'm always taking notes, you know, I'm always taking notes down. I'm always making um I'm always writing stuff and I, I cannot stress this enough. It is so important to write everything down. I want you to write. What is your talent? What is your idea? How is it that you're gonna combine the talent and the ideas and how are you going to learn from it? And who, who are the people that you're going to um approach? Who are the people you want to network with? What are the books that you're going to learn? Uh sorry, study or what are the youtube channels that you're going to follow and study? From everything, write it down every time that you're studying something, even if it's just a small video somewhere, write it down. It is actually a well known fact that the more you write stuff down, the more you recall and you remember and every time that you want to revise, every time you go back to your notes, you're going to remember everything that you write even faster, easier and you're going to apply everything that you wrote, you've written down faster and easier.

So make a note. It's very, very, very important. Uh The next thing is I want you to start living like, oh, I want you to start living that life. I want you to just think about it. I wanted to talk about it. I want you to start living it in the sense when you're interested in movies, you will watch the movies that you're interested in, you will Google those movies, you will start looking or watching the advertisement, advertisements related to that, those movies or the particular actors or something that you're interested in.

Similarly, when you want to excel in technology or in a chosen field, it is very important that you think talk behave in that way because if you're not doing that, you're not going to kind of um how do I say it? Like you have to start feeling it. It's very important to feel successful. And if you do not feel successful, you're not going to build your self esteem or your confidence and, and the way you're going to build it is when you think about it, when you talk about it, what's going to happen if you say something, no, uh, some, sorry, say something wrong, what is going to happen?

Nothing's going to happen. It's just that you'll be corrected and you'll learn something more about the topic that you were probably wrong about. Right. So, don't be afraid to talk about it. Don't be afraid to, of not knowing something. It's actually a good thing when you don't know something. A lot of people think that, oh my God, I don't know this. It's not good. I'm gonna look like a fool. No, you're not when you don't know about something and you're ready to ask questions about that thing or that topic, it shows how willing you are to learn. This is actually a good thing. You will not believe me. But I'm gonna tell. But when I say this, that every time that I've actually achieved success in technology or when I, or back when I was in my, in the creative field, when I was working in the Indian film industry, it was always because I asked for help. I did not know something and I went and I asked for help. So if you need help, go ask for it, it doesn't matter if there are five people who say no, there's always going to be 123 people who will say yes, who will be more than willing to help you out. So don't be afraid to move ahead like that.

Don't be afraid to ask. The next thing I want to talk about is how to hone your skills now that you know what your idea is, what your talent is. How is that, how is it that you want to move ahead? Uh You, you have your plans ready? What are the kind of people that you want to network with and stuff like that? You have your entire plan ready? Now comes the real thing which is to learn, right? You cannot just simply network with somebody. What if they give you a job? But you don't know how to do the job? That's not nice. So how is it that you're gonna learn stuff now today, this is the world of internet. If you're somebody who's not connected to internet, you need to get a connection simple as that. But obviously you're watching me. So you are connected to internet. Um There are so many open um courseware or source resources that are readily available online and you can, all you have to do is just go there and access them Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The best university in the world offers its courses for free on their website on youtube for you to learn. There is absolutely no way that anybody can come up to me today in this world in this age and tell me that, you know what, I didn't get the resources. That's just an excuse. And that's not, that is not what you want. Think.

You always wanna think that it is available to you because it is available to you. These are a couple of websites that I've just um noted. So you have the internet archive of resources. If you don't know, where is it that you want to search for something, just go to this archive. Uh go to this website which is archive.org and you wanna go and type in something. Once you type in something, let it be machine learning or just front end development, you're gonna see a list of all the resources that are available all over the internet, like in a legal fashion obviously. And uh you'll be seeing all the links that you can probably just click on and get the information that you want. You'll also see the open um free books that are readily available that authors have uh the talks that authors have given or even talks on the same topics from companies like Tesla or Apple or Microsoft or Google or any of the other com good companies that you may be interested in.

You will easily be able to access all of these things. If you just go to this one website, this is my one stop shop for any kind of technical resource or any other kind of resource that I want online So I would, I think that if you, if you don't get your resource anywhere else, if you cannot find a topic somewhere else, just go to this website.

The first one that I have listed here and you'll be able to get it. Uh Then we have mits uh uh open Courseware and Stanford and UMass. And then there is uh Open Courseware Consortium. So the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th, yeah, the fifth link that I have mentioned here, this link actually is completely open. You will be able to see courses from not just technology but like any other field, there are open courses. There are so many open courses that there is no way that you're going to think that this resources are not available to you because they have so many courses there. Uh the material that you can learn and the um exercises that you can perform and some and in some of the courses they actually give you certifications as well. So which is, which is, you know, great because now you have the proof that you've studied something and uh you have Yale and you have University of Michigan. You have John Hopkins, Bloom Bloomberg School of Public Health. And you have Carnegie Mellon's free courses in Se and you have University of Notre Dame. Uh You have so many universities and so many resources that you can utilize to actually gain traction and to learn stuff.

Um um You can actually click uh take a screenshot of this page if you want and I am going to give you five seconds and then I'm going to shift to the next page. Ok. I'm going to just shift now. I'm going to just change the page now. Right? So these are a couple of resources um that you can use to if you do not, if you're not somebody who learns from websites, you wanna just learn from youtube, you like video content, then these are a couple of um channels on youtube that I follow and I learn from and data to slur is the company that I work, work at right now.

Uh I think the people there are just so sweet and so nice. They're the coolest people ever and I've learned so much from them. They have this detail uh platform that they have created and you'll be able to see how to access their platform. And what, what is it that you can do? You wanna learn SQL? You wanna practice SQL, you wanna learn, you wanna practice uh data extraction or transformation or loading or anything like that? You can just go to data disl.com and you will be able to access and you will be able to practice your skills. Very important. Keep practicing. And you can also, I actually told you about the MIT Courseware mit also releases their videos, their uh education videos or the course videos on youtube and the second link that I've mentioned is their channel to access those links. So if you want, you can just go to youtube and you can just see all their um courses that they offer for free and there are like different fields. So if you just want to study statistics or you want to study only algorithms or you wanna study programming or the basics of hardware or anything like that, you, you can just go there and start studying from there like immediately. Uh there's Code Academy as well.

So Code Code Academy is yet another platform that I think is a very smart uh platform. They have very well organized videos that you can watch from and you can learn from. You have one blue, one brown, you have 365 Data science.com. You have David Langer uh at on youtube. He is very smart, very intelligent. You can definitely definitely use his resources as well and watch his videos and learn a lot from him. You have Ed Erika. So if you're somebody who, who just wants like one video of 12 hours and learn Python at one shot in one shot, then you can do that visit Ed Erika on youtube and you'll be able to watch all their videos, all their courses, like they have really long videos. It's like 12 hour videos and it teaches you everything of about that subject in those hours. Um Yeah, this is on youtube. The next thing I wanna talk about is how is it that you can actually unleash your inner genius. Once you've studied all of these things, you have to plan and then you studied everything and now comes your entry into the Real World. When you study things, it's easy. It's always easy till you, you're just studying, it becomes a little challenging when you actually enter the real World. And one of the things that I will talk about is how it's very important to take care of your mental health.

When you're, when you're dealing with real world work um issues or you're dealing with the challenges in the real world. And how is it that you're going to take care of your mental health? And there, these are a couple of practices that I follow and if you don't do them, I am telling you they will help you. They will definitely help you. Uh My mentor at the Distler, uh his name is Darren and he recently spoke to me about something called the Power Hour. So he told me that every morning he has a power hour in that hour. He does not use technology. He doesn't look at his phone or laptop, he doesn't check his emails or anything like that. All he does is focuses on, on himself. He thinks about the most critical tasks and how is it that he's going to complete them? He makes a plan of action and then he starts going, then he talks, uh, starts talking, thinking about his to do list for the day and then he goes by the end of that one hour, then he starts his day. So, uh, that's one thing that I will tell you, please have a power hour. I started it like just two days ago and it's really helping me out. It will help you out as well.

There is another thing that I want to talk about is always ask the right questions. Whenever there's a challenge that presents itself in front of you, please don't stand there or ask the wrong questions. Don't ask questions like why is it happening to me or you know what, why is this person mean to me or what it, what wrong did I do? No, don't, don't ask those questions. Don't get, don't uh bring yourself down asking those ne negative questions. It's always important to ask the right questions and trust me, you know, the answers, the answers are always available. But if you have to ask the right questions, don't sit there and ask questions like why is this bad thing happening to me? Ask questions? Like what can I do to overcome this? Why is it that I'm I'm so successful at what I do. I mean, I'm so good at what I do. The answer is very simple because you practice right. Every time you have a challenge, always ask the right questions. Even when you're dealing with real like people in the real world, like when you go to office or something, always ask the right questions. Please forget, please. Uh You know, a lot of people say the only stupid question that not asked. Uh sorry, the only stupid question is the one not asked. I, I do believe that it's true. It's always good to ask questions, but always remember that everything that you're asking, make sure that it's not something that the information is already given, it's wrong.

If it's something that it's already told to you once and you keep asking the same question, it kind of, you kind of lose your credibility there. So make sure that even when you're working, you ask the right questions, do your homework be well prepared and then you go and ask the questions uh that are valid that add credibility to you. I want to uh there's another thing that I can talk about, which is learning breathing techniques. Every time that I even today I get in, I, I go, I'm speaking right now, but every time I go into public and I'm doing something, sometimes these nerves, my nerves just get to me. I get very nervous. And that is when I, I've learned a couple of breathing techniques and uh from like experts in the industry and they have really helped me, they have really helped me. So there's one of the things that I really do to just calm myself, which is like breathing for like four seconds. I hold my breath for seven seconds and then I breathe out slowly for like eight seconds. I do this like just twice thrice maybe.

And it really calms me down. This is just one of the techniques. There are like a lot of other techniques. If you wanna, if you want to increase your focus, then there is another square technique which is like four seconds of breath and four seconds of stop, uh stop your breath and then four seconds breathe out. And again, it's called a square method. So you can use that method to like increase your focus or if you're feeling drowsy or sleepy, you can just become alert in like a second. Uh These are a couple of names that I've given, I've given Greg Braden, Marissa Pure, Tony Robbins, Bob Proctor. There are so many more people online. You, I would suggest that you always follow and listen to them when you're not really doing anything. If you're not doing something, you're just traveling somewhere, you wanna listen to a podcast or something like that, follow people who give you the right information who bring you up, don't listen to stuff that get you depressing, depressed or something. Just don't do that to yourself.

Be happy because it will reflect in your, in the way that you conduct yourself. It will reflect it in the way that you talk to somebody. Right. And, um, right. That's about just keeping yourself engaged with content that makes you happy and make sure that you succeed in life. Another point that I would like to stress on is to have a to do list, always have a two rule list. My work becomes so so much easier when I have a to do list. When I know these are the steps that I have to take. This is the task that I have to finish. This is what I have to do for that. This is the person that I have to contact for this. When I have those tasks written down in proper steps and like in a proper order, my time of thinking of, of figuring out how to do something or, or facing a challenge when it appears that that time, that mental energy, that waste of time and mental energy, all of that just disappears.

Why? Just because I had clarity on. What is it that I had to do? When is it that I had to do it? So please please please have a tutor list always ready with you. What I usually do is I keep, make a tutor list before I sleep. So I have a tutor list in the night and in the morning when I wake up, I do my power hour and then I know exactly what it is that I have to start my day with. What is it that I have to do next and so forth and um, how is it that I have to finish my day? Um Yeah, thanks to these tutor list. So please have a tutor list with you all the time. Um When you're doing everything, it's very common to feel nervous. It's always, it's very common to feel a little overwhelmed with stuff and to feel a little unsafe. That is when you start getting nervous, that is when you start just lab, bring stuff, you know, that is when you start uh messing things up. Always remember that you're safe no matter what you're safe. Ok? If you're coding and you wrote the wrong code, what is gonna happen? Nothing. It's just not gonna compile and you're gonna go back and make it. Right. Right. I mean, it's not that big a deal. Don't make it a big deal in your head.

It's always in your head, you know, so always remember that you're safe, you are safe no matter what. Even if you mess up, you're safe, even if somebody comes and scolds you, you're safe, even if something doesn't work out, you are safe when you start your work or your day from that space of being safe or feeling safe and nice. Um You're going to actually accomplish much, much, much more than when you're nervous or when you're scared. So, always remember that you are safe no matter what and uh everything that I've said so far, I would suggest that you just repeat it, keep repeating everything that I've said.

Um, I hope that you've taken the screenshots to everything that I've, uh to everything that I presented and you have these things written down. If it was me, I would write it down, you know, me, I'm always writing. So, yeah, just repeat everything that I've just said, do the things again and again, again and again, till the time they don't become second nature to you. It is very important that you if you want to achieve success in any field or in anything, keep repeating the habits that make you successful, anything that you repeat is going to become second nature for you. So always remember to repeat stuff that repeat habits or repeat the books or repeat the channels or podcasts or anything for that matter, matter of fact, that makes you successful, repeat to perfection. Keep repeating till you become perfect and you can always become better, right?

Um Yeah, and you keep going, do not feel uh scared, do not be nervous. Do not think anything wrong. OK. You've got this, you can uh if I can make it, you can make it too. I had I did an entire transition from creativity that had nothing to do with computers and I am a data scientist today. So please keep going. Do not do not feel like you cannot accomplish something. You can always accomplish everything that you set your mind to. So keep going. And that's my linkedin uh profile link so we can get connected on linkedin as well. Thank you so much. This was such a great time.