Five exciting, instructive, entertaining, and unforgettable months in Data at First Circle
By: Michelle Michalowski
Tags: Internships, Data Science, Fintech

June 12, 2020 — Independence Day in the Philippines and at the same time the last day of my internship at First Circle. The last five months passed by far too fast, and it feels like only yesterday when I wrote my blog post about the first four weeks in my team. So it is time for a small retrospect and reflection on what I have learned in the last weeks, and what I would like to take with me for the future.

You learn faster than you think, but it takes time to develop a data product that really adds value to the business — stay patient!

Since I was assigned my own project from the beginning, it was relatively clear what I would be working on most of my internship: My task was to design a dashboard that would reflect the current state of our loan book portfolio. It didn’t sound too difficult at first, but it soon turned out that I was missing some knowledge and that I would despair quite a number of times. But first, let’s go back to the beginning.

As an intern, I was very happy that I was given so much responsibility and that I didn’t have to do any small tasks but could develop something myself. First of all, I had to generate a dataset which serves as the basis for my dashboard, and we soon found that there was no comparable dataset in our warehouse and that’s why we made my work accessible to other people in the business, especially to members of the risk team. Of course, this was a small success for me; I have only worked at First Circle for some weeks and I was already able to create value for the business! I was also surprised how fast I got better in SQL by doing this one task, especially considering that my knowledge of SQL at the beginning was close to zero.

Thanks Evan for designing this picture for my farewell (he joined about the same time and had a similar experience).

So far so good, but then the real work began. With the use of Shiny, a web application framework for R, I started to develop my dashboard and soon realized that I really had a lot to learn and would often get stuck with things for hours. Being a super impatient person, this was a real challenge for me. I also had to accept that a first draft is far away from what can really be used within the business. Regular meetings with my team members as well as collaboration with the risk team helped me to steadily improve my work. Even though my dashboard needs further development (thanks to Evan taking over that work :D!) I feel confident that I created something that adds value to the business!

Besides my dashboard, I also worked on a model that should identify the factors for good or bad repayment behavior. Since I had already learned a couple of things in the field of modeling at university, I thought I could easily do this work.

After a few meetings with my buddy, I quickly realized that I had to change my approach. I learned three things here: (1) my analysis must be reproducible, (2) it should be interpretable in a clear way, and (3) I should always keep in mind what exactly I want to find out.

Team spirit and collaboration has once again proven to be the greatest resource for success for me, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic

In the days leading up to quarantine in the Philippines, it became clear that I had to fly home and that my whole team would be working from home as well. Our manager announced that from now on, we would be in a video chat room during core hours as we work from home. When we first tried this in the office, I thought it was a joke, but apparently it was not. However, in retrospect, I have to admit that it was definitely the best approach for the corona time. We were still able to exchange and collaborate a lot, and there was always someone you could ask questions from. This good cooperation both in-office and remotely helped me to learn more and more and never be hindered by communication problems. Furthermore, it helped me to stay motivated and to be focused on finishing my project together. However, it has not only helped a lot with work-related things but also to continue having fun together. For example, we did a workout together once a week or played different games, and all in all, it didn’t feel like my team was on the other side of the world.

I am sure that I want to pursue my professional career at least for the first few years in the field of data analytics and preferably in an innovative and young company like First Circle.

Before my internship I had no real experience or idea what it is like to work in a data department, nor did I know what it is like in a start-up business. Five months was a good time to get to know myself better and also to find out if this is the right direction for me and I can say — yes it is!

I am sure that I would really like to work in data analytics for at least a few years and continue to develop my technical and analytical skills. What I particularly liked about the analytical work is that you have a direct connection to the business and can work closely with different teams. I also found it an unforgettable experience to work with such young and ambitious people. The atmosphere was always good, and one had the feeling that everyone was working towards the same goal: fast, fair, and flexible financing for SMEs. I found this spirit really great and motivating. Also, the corporate culture has taught me about different ways of working, which I will apply to other things in the future.

I had the best team I could wish for and it was an experience I wouldn’t want to miss!

Finally, I would like to say that my team was unique, and I will never forget the time. Hopefully, I will come back to the Philippines one time and meet them again!