Many people have been asking how I made this transition, so here's my story. Background: 4 years as an accountant at a medium-sized firm in Nairobi. Problem: Felt underutilized, salaries plateaued, automation fear. Step 1: Started with free resources — Kaggle, DataCamp free tier, YouTube Step 2: Built 3 portfolio projects (analyzed M-Pesa transaction patterns, housing prices Nairobi, unemployment data) Step 3: Got certified in Python for Data Science (6 months) Step 4: Networked heavily on LinkedIn, joined Kenya Data Science community Step 5: First DS role came from a LinkedIn connection — 40% salary increase! Happy to answer questions!