Coach Me If You Can - Ranajoy Banerji
💖 The purpose of The Allyance is to help both companies and candidates: companies wanting to reach excellence in hiring and candidates wanting to find the perfect companies.
🤩 Last July, Ranajoy Banerji reached out to The Allyance. He was looking for a new position in France. As soon as he interacted with Caroline Chavier, they joined forces and succeeded to find a top-notch role for him!
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🔗 COACH ME IF YOU CAN N°3 - Ranajoy Banerji
Let’s meet Ranajoy and understand how he landed a job at Decathlon thanks to The Allyance!
Who are you? Tell us everything!
💻 My name is Ranajoy, but you can call me Joy. I am a 30-year-old astrophysicist from India. Since January 2021, I have been working as a data scientist at Decathlon in Lille.
I grew up in a quiet and laid back neighbourhood of Calcutta. There, I discovered the pleasure of biking, which makes even more sense now that I work at Decathlon! Until I was 20 years old, I thought I would become a pianist, but then realised that it was not going to work out… It is still my hobby though. The first thing I bought when I arrived in Lille was a piano (laughs) 🎹 At the end of my masters’ degree in physics, I decided to look for a research position in France and ended up in Paris. It was my first time outside India on my own!
Last summer, after these amazing 3 years working in Norway, I decided to come back to France because I really love this country.
What was your goal when you reached out to The Allyance?
😀 First, it is important to know that I made the decision to move from academia to the corporate sector. As I did not have any landscape of it, I was truly an outsider. During interviews, I realised I was not talking about the right things to the recruiters, mainly because of my academia background. I needed to get a context of the different companies that had positions, and well, LinkeIn was not enough. So yes, I wanted to find a position as an outsider and make my voice louder and clearer. Without a helping hand, it would have been difficult to make this move.
How did Caroline help you find your current job?
👉 We had a few introductory sessions, aimed to understand what I was looking for: a 30-minute chat to get to know me, then a 1-hour discussion about my plans. We did several interview simulations, which I found quite interesting because it taught me a lot about what recruiters want to hear.
🎯 She then provided me a list of positions she would recommend me for. We had 2 sessions and chats in between in order to follow up. After that, hiring managers and group leaders started to contact me, and I decided that this position at Decathlon would be the best for me. With them, it worked from the very beginning, almost instantly. And now I really like it there!
What made the coaching sessions with Caroline Chavier unique according to you?
🎀 Caroline being the only coach I had sessions with, I cannot compare. What I really liked about her coaching though, is that she was clear about what recruiters were looking for: she was concise, straight to the point. Her personal and friendly outlook is quite refreshing, and made me feel a personal connection during every session. It felt like we were sitting in a café, which during these dark times is much needed!
Why do you like being a Data Scientist?
📊 First, in my opinion, there is no better way to understand the world around us than knowing data and looking through them. It gives a window to the unseen side of things. Since I was at school, even before physics, I was passionate about coding: so yes, solving fun problems has been the essence of my life since I was 14! Later, I discovered physics and how well they work together with coding!
You came from academia and are working in a company today. What would you advise those wanting to follow your steps?
🌠 For those who have similar profiles, I would say that it depends on their motivations: do they enjoy working with data and understand the world? Then it is fantastic, they are going to love that switch. My switch from astrophysics to data science made me realise that they are not so different from each other: astrophysics gives you an understanding of the Universe’s deepest secrets, and data science provides the same enjoyment.
If people have the same mindset, they should look for such a move, obviously knowing that it will not be an easy ride. Indeed, people who do not have a lot of background in coding and data should make their mind and self-teach, absorb knowledge and practice progressively in order to get a comfortable position before jumping to the corporate sector. It is essential to be aware of the fact that from academia to the corporate sector, the way of doing a job, and even of speaking, is different. It is necessary to adjust, and in my view, not impossible at all.
But I would like to stress out that being flexible and patient is the key: all of these realisations come at different moments, so do not rush anything.
How is your new life in Lille?
I arrived in Lille during a very restrained period of history. I would have expected to be going to cafes, jazz clubs, or even biking 🚲 but well... it is not possible right now! I would say that socialization has been close to zero, notably because most of my friends live in Paris.
Office life is mostly remote. We hardly see each other’s faces… Right now, though most of my job is in English, I am making efforts to speak French, which is a good thing! Hopefully, I have my piano at home, so it keeps me busy outside working hours (laughs).
What are your favorite Indian and French dishes?
My favorite Indian dish is biryani. Not the one from all over India, the one from Calcutta only! My favorite thing in France is obviously pâtisseries and viennoiseries: I admit that I spend a lot of my money in pains au chocolat… (laughs) 🥐
Name a well-known person you admire. Tell us why you admire that person!
🎼 Most of the people I admire are either dead and/or musicians (laughs). It is hard to choose, but I would say Beethoven. He is one of my biggest heroes because even in challenging times, he made music even when he was deaf, and generally was really good at overcoming obstacles. Oh, and… he was a pianist, just like me!
How do you know Caroline? The Allyance?
I got introduced to her by my cousin who lives in the United States. She knew Caroline through WIMLDS and recommended her to me as I was looking for a position in France.
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A few words from Caroline, The Allyance CEO:
“When I first chatted with Ranajoy, it instantly clicked! He had a Kandinsky behind him when we did our visio 💓 I loved his energy and the way he spoke about his job. Having studied Asian cultures and feeling connected to India after my TEDx, I was sure I could find a job to an Indian data scientist living in Norway!
I introduced Ranajoy to Alban Martineau (a fellow recruiter) and the magic happened 🎇 It makes me happy to know I connected an amazing data scientist with a great company.
✔️ Want more?
➡️ If you are interested in knowing more about The Allyance Coaching Offer and the prices, feel free to read this complete piece on the matter! You can also get in touch with The Allyance / Caroline Chavier and book a free conversation here, at the bottom of the page: https://www.theallyance.one/
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
✒️ Léa C, The Allyance Contributor: “I joined The Allyance 1,5 year after Caroline and I met at a ionnalee’s concert! I am a freelance translator and content writer (French, English, Spanish and German). I also work as an administrative employee in the health and data science sector. So, I am not far from Caroline’s core topic! I am very active as a volunteer in social and environmental NGOs, where I always try to put intersectionality at the center of actions because I am convinced that every cause is linked to one another. It is readily apparent that Caroline and I share a lot of common interests, which is why we as friends decided to work together!”