In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Russian Chapter of Women in Big Data (WiBD) hosted its annual Spring Data Meetup, blending technical insights, career development, and well-being strategies. Designed to cater to diverse interests, the event highlighted both the community’s flagship initiatives and new opportunities for professional growth. 

Opening Keynote: WiBD Programs and Innovations

The meetup kicked off with a presentation by Tatiana Cherepanova, Head of WiBD Russia, who showcased the community’s ongoing initiatives, including the Mentor in Tech program and Find Your Comfort Zone at Work workshops. She also unveiled exciting new collaborations, such as the partnership with DataCamp, offering members exclusive access to cutting-edge educational resources. 

Mastering Technical Skills for Big Data Careers

Next, Natalia Kovalchuk delivered a session on Hard Skills in Big Data, guiding attendees through the process of aligning their skillsets with industry demands. She shared actionable tips for analyzing job descriptions, identifying key technical competencies, and leveraging online platforms and communities for upskilling. A curated list of resources from her talk, now available at the end of this article and in the community channel. 

Features of AI Projects and Roles in AI Teams

Anastasia Kiseleva took the stage to break down the intricacies of AI project teams in her talk, Roles and Responsibilities in AI Development. She highlighted the unique contributions of roles like NLP Engineers, Data Labeling Specialists, and AI Ethics Advisors, emphasizing collaboration in tech environments. Attendees were invited to join a free 4-week AI bootcamp to gain hands-on experience in NLP and data annotation—perfect for those looking to pivot into AI careers. 

Work-Life Balance: Real Stories, Practical Solutions

The event concluded with an inspiring roundtable discussion where professionals from various fields shared their journeys toward achieving work-life harmony. Panelists blended personal anecdotes with actionable strategies, such as time-blocking techniques and mindful prioritization, empowering attendees to redefine balance on their own terms.

Huge thanks to all organizers and speakers of the event! We’re excited to share a recording of the meetup and a list of resources to develop your hard skills.

A heartfelt thank you to all organizers and speakers for making the Spring Meetup a resounding success: Polina Kolesnikova, Natalia Kovalchuk, Anastasia Kiseleva, Aksinia Chumachenko, Elena Duyun, Irina Karpunina, Angelina Pavlova, Aleksandra Zhirkova.

If you missed the event catch the full recording here and dive into the resources shared by speakers to fuel your tech journey.  

Stay tuned for more opportunities to learn, connect, and grow with WiBD Russia chapter on Telegram and VK groups! 

Technical skills growth resources

Data Science and Data Analytics Schools:

• School of Data Analysis (Yandex) (here materials from courses are collected)
• Avito Analytics Academy
• School 21 (Sberbank)
• Analytics School (MTS)

Educational platforms where companies share their courses and tutorials for different topics:

• VK Education
• Technoschool Wildberries
• Yandex Education

Roadmaps:

• Roadmap for Data Scientist
• Roadmap for Data Analyst
• Roadmap for Python Developer
• Roadmap for A/B testing
• Roadmap for SQL

Machine Learning

• AI Start от DLS
• Good, good AI. Part 1. Machine Learning (Sergei Balakirev)

Deep Learning

• Introduction to Deep Learning от MIT
• Deep Leaning School (1 semester – CV, 2 semester – NLP, course starts each fall and spring on Stepik educational platform)

Statistics

• Basics of statistics (Bioinformatics Institute)
• Probability theory (CSC)
• Applied statistics (Avito)

Advanced mathematics

• Mathematical analysis: part 1, part 2 (CSC)
• Linear algebra (CSC)

SQL

• Simulator SQL

Data Engineering

• Course Data Engineer from scratch to junior

Algorithms

• Python Generation (Timur Guev)
• Code patterns and writing practices (Avito): season 1, season 2

ML System Design

• ML System Design from Dmitriy Kolodezev
• MLOps и production подход к ML исследованиям from Pavel Kikin

Training platforms

• kaggle
• leetcode
• deep-ml

Trainings

• ML trainings from Yandex
• Hackathons (can be found here, here or in thematic communities

Communities

• Open Data Science
• Telegram channel with Data Science courses
• Communities from Open Data Science in different cities (data-breakfasts, data-brunches, data-dinners and just good companies)

Papers

• Habr
• Papers with code