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Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?

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Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?

#31

Post by mettamage »

jimbob45 wrote: post #29
st1x7 wrote: post #24

I work as a data scientist and have some perspective on this. There's no boat to miss, you'll probably be fine. Just keep a couple of things in mind - The fundamental skills that you need are mathematics and software engineering. Depending on your background it might take years of additional studying. - There is a big oversupply of people for the junior-mid level data science jobs. There are more people who want to g…

> There is a big oversupply of people for the junior-mid level data science jobs. Honest question is there any field where that isn’t true right now? Seems like there are no junior jobs in any sector.

I live in Amsterdam. What I'm seeing here is that the security field is lagging behind the data science / web dev field. It's not easy to find junior jobs, but a lot easier than data science / web dev.

The most fun example that I currently have is that my LinkedIn profile is super wide. I market myself as a generalist software dev, because that's what I am. I'm not a specialist and I've dabbled in almost everything.

Naturally, no recruiter contacts me because of that. But you know who does? A European company looking for a reverse engineer.

I found it quite surprising that they were capable of reading that I have some IDA Pro experience, because it's in the fine print of my profile and not at all readable when you skim it.

Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?

#32

Post by petepete »

bvcvbuiy wrote: post #6

If I may give you an advice : Python, R and deep learning are sexy but the most important skill to start in data science is SQL. It will help you get your first data role and will be your main tool to solve 97% of the problems you will ever face. Bonus point it is very easy to learn.

I'd agree with this. I'm not a data scientist but work closely with a few and the jump from the academic world to business/govt seems to have been jarring.

I think previously they'd been used to consuming data from exports and CSVs, scraping websites and plugging into APIs directly. Having to navigate (often messy) database schemas wasn't what they imagined they'd be doing!

Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?

#33

Post by kranner »

mettamage wrote: post #31
jimbob45 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a big oversupply of people for the junior-mid level data science jobs. Honest question is there any field where that isn’t true right now? Seems like there are no junior jobs in any sector.

I live in Amsterdam. What I'm seeing here is that the security field is lagging behind the data science / web dev field. It's not easy to find junior jobs, but a lot easier than data science / web dev. The most fun example that I currently have is that my LinkedIn profile is super wide. I market myself as a generalist software dev, because that's what I am. I'm not a specialist and I've dabbled in almost everything.…

> I found it quite surprising that they were capable of reading that I have some IDA Pro experience, because it's in the fine print of my profile and not at all readable when you skim it.

Wouldn't searching profiles for "IDA Pro" find it?

Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?

#36

Post by mettamage »

kranner wrote: post #33
mettamage wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Amsterdam. What I'm seeing here is that the security field is lagging behind the data science / web dev field. It's not easy to find junior jobs, but a lot easier than data science / web dev. The most fun example that I currently have is that my LinkedIn profile is super wide. I market myself as a generalist software dev, because that's what I am. I'm not a specialist and I've dabbled in almost everything.…

> I found it quite surprising that they were capable of reading that I have some IDA Pro experience, because it's in the fine print of my profile and not at all readable when you skim it. Wouldn't searching profiles for "IDA Pro" find it?

I guess, but I wouldn't be on the top of the list as I am mentioning it once and there's also a lot more mobile and web buzz words on my profile.

Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?

#37

Post by iamgopal »

enriquto wrote: post #35

I do not understand the concept of "being too late". If you are too late, what about the future generations? You can only be too late if the subject is already dead and not used anymore.

Being too late means, like in the field of agriculture, all fruits of innovation are already taken, rest is just hard mundane work.

Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?

#38

Post by goatinaboat »

bvcvbuiy wrote: post #6

If I may give you an advice : Python, R and deep learning are sexy but the most important skill to start in data science is SQL. It will help you get your first data role and will be your main tool to solve 97% of the problems you will ever face. Bonus point it is very easy to learn.

If I may give you an advice : Python, R and deep learning are sexy but the most important skill to start in data science is SQL. It will help you get your first data role and will be your main tool to solve 97% of the problems you will ever face.

That's a bit of an exaggeration but I will say: most of data science is not the fun stuff. Everyone goes into the field thinking it's all about doing machine learning to uncover astounding insights that will fundamentally transform the business.

In reality about 5% of most data scientists time is spent doing that. Maybe less. The bulk of the work is getting the data and cleaning it up, doing a tiny bit of the sexy stuff, then writing it up into a report or a presentation to give to people who will either not believe it or scoff because they already knew it.

Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?

#39

Post by fs111 »

iamgopal wrote: post #37
enriquto wrote: post #35

I do not understand the concept of "being too late". If you are too late, what about the future generations? You can only be too late if the subject is already dead and not used anymore.

Being too late means, like in the field of agriculture, all fruits of innovation are already taken, rest is just hard mundane work.

umm, there is a ton of innovation in that field too. That makes no sense.

Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?

#40

Post by jlokier »

mettamage wrote: post #36
kranner wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I found it quite surprising that they were capable of reading that I have some IDA Pro experience, because it's in the fine print of my profile and not at all readable when you skim it. Wouldn't searching profiles for "IDA Pro" find it?

I guess, but I wouldn't be on the top of the list as I am mentioning it once and there's also a lot more mobile and web buzz words on my profile.

They don't read your profile at first. Sometimes they don't even read it at all before contacting you.

They search for keywords, and rely on the search algorithm prioritisation and a good looking one-line summary of your profile to pick you out of pages of search results.

They'll find your "IDA Pro" if that's in the list of terms they are looking for, no matter how deeply it's buried in the description of your past jobs. If they don't read your profile they might not even know that it's buried.

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