Data science. In that field, your background of statistics and math will be used much more frequently. In SWE, quite honestly, it won't. In SWE, you'll be placed into some field comprising of either: front end/back end/web programming, infrastructure, DevOps, etc. Plus, currently there is less good competition in the field of DataScience. There is a long career runaway, and a few data leaders looking to grow the next batch of careers. The competition is much higher in SWE, as the field is well developed, and often well trodden. SWE is now in the "era of efficiency" where well developed best practices, processes, etc are developing/ in place. Data Science has much less of that already in place, and exciting ares around future of data, privacy, volume of data, etc.
Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
11–20 of 37 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
#12The answer to that question is the same as, what do you like spending much more time on, machine learning and statistics or software engineering. Good career trajectories often start with answering that question. Talk to the hiring manager about your skills and why you want that data science position. It will be difficult but you will find a data science team, which will not make a decision based on the fact whether you have a PhD are not. PhDs are just an extreme oversimplification of data science skills, and there is hardly any other possible degree example that would qualify, CS undergrad is already taken for SWE positions like you are stating. Don't let these oversimplication of role requirements bog you down, it is made for HR people not you.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
#13I personally think that even if you want to be good at data science, you should do at least 2 to 5 years of software engineering first.
So many data science people are basically throttled to death in what they can achieve because of their subpar software skills. Software is a multiplier of your math knowledge.
Source, I have a math masters (statistics, ML).
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
#14Data science. In that field, your background of statistics and math will be used much more frequently. In SWE, quite honestly, it won't. In SWE, you'll be placed into some field comprising of either: front end/back end/web programming, infrastructure, DevOps, etc. Plus, currently there is less good competition in the field of DataScience. There is a long career runaway, and a few data leaders looking to grow the next…
> there is less good competition in the field of DataScience
In my experience, it is probably easier to differentiate yourself and proof your worth by producing great products in software engineering.
Data science is overrun at the moment by everyone chasing the hype. So it is kind of hard to proof your worth by producing great data science, you just will not be heard among all the shouting of people, sub-orgs and consultants trying to sell their latest deep learning model for a data-set that would fit on a floppy disk (okay, that was exagerated, a zip drive).
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
#15Sounds like data science for you. But I'm curious: What is your academic background exactly? Where are you learning machine learning without programming?
> Where are you learning machine learning without programming?
A math degree. You're confusing data engineering and data science. There are plenty of people who work on theory and do little to no programming.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
#16Rather than thinking of Data Science and SWE as two different fields, think of Data Science on a spectrum, with "Advanced Data Analyst" on one side and "SWE/Machine Learning Algorithm Engineer" at the other.
Data Science is a weird field. A lot of the jobs descriptions have similar keywords, but there is just a huge amount of variance in what the job requires. There are definitely a large number of Data Science roles where solving a business problem requires you to write a good amount of code for integrating with other systems, data ET(maybe L), building UIs, etc that really is about making the core algorithm consumable by business owners.
When you interview ask what the day to day of somebody in that role is doing. You'll be able to figure out fairly quickly where they fall on this spectrum. Find the one that fits what you want.
IME, at smaller companies they don't have enough people to have 4 people (a Data Scientist, a Data Engineer, a SWE, and a Business Expert) just to get a data science project from conception to production. That's all done by one person with help from a business expert.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
#17Sounds like data science for you. But I'm curious: What is your academic background exactly? Where are you learning machine learning without programming?
Sorry for the confusion - it's not that I'm learning machine learning without programming, but rather that most of the programming I know I learned in the context of machine learning. In particular, I'm only familiar with the small portion of the standard undergrad cs curriculum that's relevant to those things.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
#18> but they expect knowledge of data structures/algorithms and programming languages that I don't have (I'm not a CS major) What about not being a CS major prevents you from picking up Sedgewick or a programming language reference?
Nothing. What does prevent me is the timeline on which I'm applying and other things I have to do in that same stretch. I'm hoping to do exactly this sometime in the next two or three years, but I don't think it'll be an option for this application cycle.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
#19As someone that did my internship in Data Science, if I were to go back and do it again, I would choose Software Engineering instead.
Don't get me wrong, I really liked my position and my team, and loved what I did everyday. Career-wise though, I would consider Software Engineering better, unless you plan on doing a Masters/PHD right after undergrad.
Data Science is a much younger field than Software Engineering. While there is a ton of room to grow, it also means there aren't good hiring practices in place. Companies are way more conservative about hiring Data Scientists than Software Engineers. There usually aren't the same kinds of "coding challenges" as for engineers. While that sounds like a good thing, it means that companies have to filter out candidates some other way. In most cases, (good) companies filter out candidates by looking only at applicants with a graduate degree or with >3 years of experience. This makes it a very tough field to break into without already having experience.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?
#20As someone that did my internship in Data Science, if I were to go back and do it again, I would choose Software Engineering instead. Don't get me wrong, I really liked my position and my team, and loved what I did everyday. Career-wise though, I would consider Software Engineering better, unless you plan on doing a Masters/PHD right after undergrad. Data Science is a much younger field than Software Engineering. Whi…
I am actually planning on doing a PhD right after my undergrad. My issue is with what to do before then.