Interview with CEO of Round Table Apps

MJ Mirzazadeh

What does Round Table Apps do?

Round Table Apps is a software development and technology consultancy company and has been operating in the technology industry since 2011. We’ve been helping startups, small to medium size businesses and corporates in SynTech, Food and Beverage, Fashion-Tech, and Logistics to build and grow successful tech-based products. Our services are primary product development for startups, digital transformation for corporates and infrastructure management, which relates to Cloud and managing infrastructure to constantly build products for clients.

I understand you hired a Data Scientist with the Data Science Industry Certification. How did you find and recruit this professional?

Well, knowing that finding great talent in the data industry was a difficult thing, I approached Peter – CEO of the Institute of Data and asked him to send his most talented recruits my way. We wanted to hire someone with a Data Science Level 1 Certification as opposed to someone that was fully experienced in the industry because we wanted the opportunity to train and mould them.

How did the professional perform on your project?

Our new recruit performed extremely well on the two projects that he worked on and even though he had limited experience within the industry, he was able to attend client and internal project meetings with confidence, and was able to interact and understand the client’s requirements and provide recommendations and solutions that actually met the client’s needs. He was creative and proactive in his approach and didn’t just expect to be told what to do, which is exactly the kind of person we needed and we were lucky enough to find through the institute of data

What was the project about briefly?

The projects were based in Fashion-Tech and Beauty-Tech. We were really impressed with the work of our new recruit, so he’ll definitely be working on more projects with us. The E-commerce Fashion-Tech project helped women pick which outfit they should purchase based on their answers to a series of fashion related questions. The second project utilised Ebay’s smart mirror to give users ‘inner-beauty tips’ while helping them find the best hair care products and hairstyles based on their face shape, hair colour, age, etc.

What technologies were you using?

We used many different technologies for these projects. To manage our databases, we used PostgreSQL and NoSQL, we used Python as our main programming language, PHP and Ruby on Rails for backend development, and a variety of tech products offered by IBM.

What stood out the most about this professional in the workplace?

The professional fit into the team and company culture with ease. He was well presented, very proactive in terms of giving advice and making sure that we were providing the client with the best possible solution, but the thing I valued the most – was that he was really keen to learn and work hard, which is rare – you don’t find these qualities in everyone.

Would you hire another Data Scientist with a Data Science Industry Certification?

Yes, definitely. It was a great experience for us. The data industry is full of Data Scientists with different levels of experience but for us, based on our diverse range of projects, we need people with different skills and skill levels but we also really value people that are eager to learn and work hard to grow every day. We found these qualities in a Data Scientist with a Data Science Industry Certification, so we would definitely hire the same again.

What would be your advice and tips to other companies who are looking to hire a Data Analyst or Data Scientist?

Obviously, experience is a really important factor when hiring new talent, but when you are looking to hire, I would recommend searching for professionals that have the required level of data science knowledge but also have the desire to value-add and understand the problem that you’re trying to solve. Aim to find someone that will go above and beyond their job description, someone hungry to learn that wants to add value to your company.

As a consultancy operating in the market, how are you finding the demand for Data Science and AI work right now compared to 2 years ago?

These days, organisations and companies have realised that the data they captured over the years actually holds a lot of insight about their customers and their operational process. They’ve been using this data to understand and create more value for their clients and ultimately, using this data to differentiate their business and gain a competitive edge on the market. Compared to two years ago, we’ve been substantially creating projects that require people with more specific skills such as, Data Analysts, Data Scientists and Data Engineers. Two years ago these kinds of projects primarily only needed Software Engineers, Project Managers and Business Analysts. Now, every data driven project needs to be funded to hire a diverse data driven team.

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