meaning that the more information you have, the better you can know your customers. Data is a valuable resource that can be developed into new products better satisfying customer needs.

Organizing the world's enormous databases by analyzing and building accurate predictive models is a signature of the data scientist profession. It is a job that requires expertise in many fields, including mathematics, statistics, probability, programming, and an understanding of business. It's no wonder that data analytics-related careers are the hottest jobs in today’s global job market.

Today, Career SCB would like to introduce you to a new member of the SCB Data Analytics team, Professional Data Scientist, Parinda “Parn” Wongbenjarat, who is a key driving force behind SCB’s business tools for effective business decisions.

What did you go through before joining SCB’s Data Scientist team?

Parn: I had to pass a test to apply coding to math problems and undergo four rounds of tests specific to Data Scientists. After that, I had another two rounds of tough one-on-one interviews. Some of the questions made me nervous.

I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Osaka University in Japan and a master's degree in the same field from Brown University. I had to prepare myself, doing homework and passing several rigorous tests before becoming a part of SCB’s Data Analytics team.

What attracted you to work as a Data Scientist at SCB?

Parn: Endless challenges and learning. In response to customer demands, the Bank needs to constantly develop and upgrade its systems and solutions. I discuss progress with my team and develop plans for further work so that my team can present interesting models to the business department. In dealing with business challenges, we must sharpen our skills all the time. This is the reason why I like this position, because it allows you to develop yourself even further.

Currently, I’m working on the Lead X project as part of the SCB Easy Invest application, including projects for SSME loans and insurance. This Lead X project will help SCB expand the number of product users by shooting ads to target audiences who are more likely to buy bank products. We adopt raw data from the retail department and use algorithms and models to calculate percentages for predicting the probability that a particular group of people will buy a bank product.

Being able to predict the purchasing demands of target groups in advance will help us reach more customers and clearly see the impact from increased conversion rates. It also helps reduce the cost of randomly distributing ads to many groups.

What challenges do new Data Scientists face when working at SCB?

Parn: The Lead X project requires constant R&D, business case study, and experimenting with new patterns before expanding models to cover as many target groups as possible. This will help develop product offerings meeting the needs of target customers.

Apart from endless research to enable writing the most perfect code for my project, there are challenges in terms of dealing with other business functions. It is equally important to present your models so that users can understand them. Therefore, both hard and soft skills are necessary for the success of projects.

What would you like to tell others after joining SCB?

Parn: Before joining SCB, I had heard that the bank was undergoing a transformation process to modernize the way it does business. Although I expected that SCB’s working process would be new and allow me to experiment and learn with a lot of challenges to discover, I was concerned that as a bank SCB would have to follow many rules and regulations, slowing the work process. So, I was surprised to find that the working atmosphere exceeded my expectations. The environment is very dynamic and accommodative.

The Data Analytics team works very quickly and is very flexible and alert. All team members are very friendly, and we don’t rely on seniority. I feel comfortable seeking advice about my job even though I have joined SCB only recently.

In addition, we focus on teamwork, with daily brainstorming sessions to exchange ideas. This differs from my previous job in Japan, where everyone worked separately and there was a strong sense of individualism. Working as a team makes me very happy because I can consult with my colleagues and get new ideas from them every day.

Finally, I would like to tell those wanting to be a part of SCB Data Analytics team that if you really want to thrive and enjoy your passion for learning and experimenting, becoming a Data Scientist at SCB is definitely a good choice.

Let’s become a part of SCB to create a data-driven organization together!!