By Vaishali Lambe, Data ScientistThere are lots of job profiles which are in demand in the market – data analyst / data analytics / data visualization / machine learning / deep learning / data scientist / software engineering in data analysis / data science / machine learning, big data engineer and many more..Titles may keep changing depending on your expertise in skills and work experience.So, as lots of people are ready to dive their career into it, I am going to provide very interesting and useful tips through this blog series which will help students to kick start their career in Data. Be an Explorer [In Academics] – Never limit your area when you are exploring & learning things..Once you start exploring, you will get to know more and more about it and start getting to know your areas of interest too.Talking specifically for data – take / audit maximum courses provided in your universities related to data analysis, data mining, machine learning, deep learning, data science, cognitive, data visualization, programming [ R, python, Scala etc.], big data, business intelligence, probability, statistics, and many more..It’s not that due to these things you get into a job, but its understanding importance of each facility that university provides to you..It’s up to you how you utilize those.As we are looking for being an explorer, along with that it’s important to take an advantage of facilities that university provides to you..University programs doesn’t restrict you to particular subject, lots of these facilities are for you to explore and learn more.Couple of you might not enjoy studying and learning all the time [ it’s hard for everyone to be monotonous all the time], so there are couple more facilities which universities provide for your entertainment too like -Make use of those too along with studies, but you are enough grown up to understand how much time you would like to spend on those..You are a student, and it’s your job to take right advantage of any facility that university provides to you.Talking specifically to Data field, learn and explore maximum tools and software you are getting in university..Participate in competitions, it’s easy to form a group in university as you will find lots of people having common interest in your class..Take an advantage and be wise to utilize the facilities provided by University. Seek, Network and Showcase – Seek for groups/people, connect with people [University and beyond], showcase your talent/interestAnother very important aspect of getting into field that you are interested in is “Seek for same passionate people, network and showcase your talent/interest”..It’s hard but long and continuous process, needs to happen parallel with your education.One aspect of networking within university we already talked about, but I will elaborate on that part a bit in this blog.As universities hold and organize lots of technical events it’s important to connect with people participating in the event..Not required to connect with everyone but important to initiate communication and showcase your passion.Lots of employers visit the university campus to present their case studies, kind of work they are doing in their industry, it’s important to meet and greet them, ask questions if you find something interesting to your area, and discuss your thoughts on it.Sometimes universities short list the profiles and take some students to show work culture of couple of employers, there too it’s important to show courage, present yourself with confidence and build relation.Apart from University activities there are other ways to do networking and connect with people..Like you can join technical meet ups in data [ there are lots of available in every area], show up there, interact with people, ask them what they are working on, and show what you can do contribute..There are couple meetups run specifically to collaborate and work on Kaggle competitions, it’s a great way to form group and work.If, sometimes you don’t want to go for technical meetups, you can go for non-technical meets ups as well like gaming, hiking, movie clubs, Sunday brunches, those connections can turn into good and gives you more knowledge about area you are trying to build your career in.Apart from meet ups, there are conference like Open Data Science, Machine Learning, Robotics and AI, Other university events – like MIT, Harvard etc.. More details