Thank you for sharing, it's so inspiring!

Artefact

<p><i><strong>Machine Learning Engineer Amale El&nbsp;Hamri is Lead Data Scientist at Artefact. To 50inTech, she talks of being a natural with Data and how her journey at Artefact taught her that no goal is too ambitious!</strong></i></p><h2>A Scientific Mind: Just a Family Affair</h2><p>I grew up in Morocco where I was schooled in French. Right after I graduated, I moved to Marseille. After the usual two years preparatory classes, I got admitted to Telecom Paris, a renowned campus for digital, mathematics and computer science. That’s when I discovered Machine Learning.</p><h3>What You’re Good at, You’ll Learn to Love</h3><p>I can’t say that science was a calling. Put simply, I was good at it and my mentors, through my whole academic curriculum, always advised me to embrace a scientific path. Both my parents are teachers – Physics for Mum and Maths for Dad – and that most certainly helped. I preferred Maths over Physics, so I proceeded more by elimination than anything else.&nbsp;I never dreamed of&nbsp;Machine Learning, it happened along the way, but once I immersed myself in the field, I discovered that it was my thing.&nbsp;</p><h3>First Steps at Artefact</h3><p>After a couple internships, I joined Artefact right away. I instantly fit in well there. I love the realness of the job field and that you get to develop exciting projects. Like when we collaborated with a global cosmetics and beauty brand. The goal was to build a program that would help them decide which products were worth investing in, by predicting trends in beauty: it was so concrete and impactful for people immediately! In school, we’re so sunk into algorithms, so technical. Once you start working, you realize that it’s not the key part of your day: of course it’s important, but what counts is to design solutions that work, not the most academic, or the sexiest. When you’re facing a client, nothing is by the book! And in computer fields, resourcefulness is your most useful skill. You must be adaptive and move along with the flow!&nbsp;</p><h2>Teach the Machine, Learn to Lead</h2><p>What’s great at Artefact are the numerous opportunities of expanding yourself and your expertise. You’re confronted with a myriad of tasks, and because there are so many people, you’ll always find somebody to talk to and to get guidance from. Being part of such a crowd of talented and smart human beings, who can and will help you, and teach you what you don’t know is fulfilling. When I started, I was the one seeking advice. Now, four years in, I’m in a whole new position and on the other side of the receiving end: it’s extremely rewarding to see that you’re making a difference in someone’s journey, giving them a small push when necessary!</p><h3>A Day in the Life of a Lead Machine Learning Engineer</h3><p>Officially, my position is Lead Data scientist. A typical day will vary, depending on the assignment, but we usually gather in the morning to discuss wide-ranging topics and operations we’re working on at the moment: we share our concerns daily as it reinforces the squad spirit. If I don’t lunch with my clients, I’ll often eat with my crew. We also meet with other teams in Artefact regularly. I work remotely twice a week, sometimes more; the enterprise is extremely flexible and has great trust in its employees.</p><p>As a Lead, my missions are many:</p><ul><li>I supervise clients’ projects, watching that they’re delivered on time.</li><li>I mentor and coach junior profiles.</li><li>I lead job interviews for applicants to my teams.</li><li>I represent Artefact outside the company, attending various conferences; I also intervene in meetups in schools.</li></ul><h3>Climbing the Proverbial Ladder</h3><p>I gained so much confidence because Artefact believed in my ability to be successful in a lead position! They keep supporting me, helping me climb the hierarchy ladder, promoting me. They push me if needed, like when they sent me off to Toronto as a speaker at a huge summit. On my own, there’s no way I would have dared to articulate my mind in English in front of an audience: because they believed I could do it, I did it!</p><h2>Women in Tech: Be Focused</h2><p>I may not be the best to speak on the subject of equality in the work field, as it never felt problematic to me. No matter your gender, you’ll need to master a set of hard and soft skills. Two things that worked for me:</p><ol><li>Be empathetic. Realize that most people don’t understand what you’re talking about when you utilize highly specialized and scientific expressions, lots of English wording, etc. Use simple terms to describe complex architecture, methodologies and so on.</li><li>Stay curious and always on a tech watch to stimulate your creativity.</li></ol><p>Specifically to a girl, I’d advise not to obey her lack of self-esteem. Gender is irrelevant. Either you’re skilled or you’re not. All the rest is just noise: don’t listen to the noises around. Be focused!&nbsp;</p><p>Get used to the fact that we’re very few girls in fields crowded with boys and men. I did, to a point where I normalized the situation: as I was going through the steps there were fewer and fewer women, until we were infinitesimal at Telecom! Be pragmatic and don’t self-censor! That’s the only way we’ll change what is.</p><h3>Five Years From Now</h3><p>I haven’t set a clean-cut calendar yet, however, I long to start my own business at some point. Not that I fantasize about being a CEO: I want to be a founder, to invent and launch an innovative product. I don’t know what it will be, only that I see entrepreneurship in my future. Don’t get me wrong: I love being a part of Artefact, I greatly appreciate my team, but one day I will build something that is mine. Artefact taught me to dream big dreams. And to make them a reality.</p>

Teach, Learn, Lead and Adapt: Amale El Hamri’s Manager’s Role at Artefact

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