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Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#111

Post by [deleted] »

rcpt wrote: post #109
wakkaflokka wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm coming from a PhD in STEM where I did a lot of application of basic ML to my (neuroscience) research, and it took me a good while to get a data science position. But once I got the job, I have been inundated with interview requests, both from recruiters and from specific companies, as in multiple a week (granted most are blast-em-all style recruiters, that I'm sure anybody with any tech skills get). Maybe it's be…

> a couple lines of code using SciKit Learn and all the default parameters is enough Except for when it's not - those are the cases you're hired for.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#112

Post by fnbr »

stared wrote: post #101
fnbr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you find contracts? I'm interested in doing contract data science work, but I don't know how to start finding interested potential clients.

In the last ~1.5 years it is solely people contacting me. (But I give a lot of talks, workshops, and the chain of recommendations is going.) One day I want to write how I get started, but I am not sure which steps were essential, which - irrelevant. And many things are not ones one can replicate.

Ah, fair enough. I'd be interested in reading it, but I think that (unfortunately) you're correct that it's mostly non-replicable, at least based on my experience.

Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#113

Post by apohn »

rcpt wrote: post #109
wakkaflokka wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm coming from a PhD in STEM where I did a lot of application of basic ML to my (neuroscience) research, and it took me a good while to get a data science position. But once I got the job, I have been inundated with interview requests, both from recruiters and from specific companies, as in multiple a week (granted most are blast-em-all style recruiters, that I'm sure anybody with any tech skills get). Maybe it's be…

> a couple lines of code using SciKit Learn and all the default parameters is enough Except for when it's not - those are the cases you're hired for.

There are also no shortage of "Data Science" projects that are basically just showing off (e.g. somebody in a large org trying to get recognition for being advanced) or using an algorithm to justify a decision that somebody had already decided to make. In this case, it's okay to solve the problems with a few lines of code and a nice presentation.

But if you have an important data driven decision that is going to cost you a lot of resources (money, people, time, etc), you want the analyst to be able to speak to what the data and/or model is telling you and why. When you have this type of problem and it's "solved" by a few lines of SciKit Learn, you should be prepared to have a really bad day at some point in the future. This is the type of Data Scientist that draws the ire of people who do analysis with more depth.

Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#114

Post by DrNuke »

apohn wrote: post #113
rcpt wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a couple lines of code using SciKit Learn and all the default parameters is enough Except for when it's not - those are the cases you're hired for.

There are also no shortage of "Data Science" projects that are basically just showing off (e.g. somebody in a large org trying to get recognition for being advanced) or using an algorithm to justify a decision that somebody had already decided to make. In this case, it's okay to solve the problems with a few lines of code and a nice presentation. But if you have an important data driven decision that is going to cost…

Let's be blunt: firms needing real data science know where to go and find real data scientists. Anything less real, on both sides, is matter of opinion and here it comes free market.

Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#115

Post by datascientist »

rm999 wrote: post #23

Speaking for NYC, but I imagine silicon valley is similar. The supply-demand dynamics have changed a lot in the last couple years. I'd roughly break it out into two groups: people with work experience + strong software development skills, and those without. The first group is in higher demand than ever, and tend to add a lot of value to companies that really need it. The second group has gotten extremely crowded, esp…

A few months ago Mikio Braun wrote a great post on this topic (the need for data scientists with strong software development skills) https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/what-is-hardcore-data-science-...

Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#116

Post by dnautics »

Eridrus wrote: post #67
dnautics wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that must be qualified because there are a lot of ML applications that have basically been adopted in the mainstream, like voice recognition (which is pretty good, probably in the 80-90% accuracy range and better for specialized contextual tasks). I remember driving for lyft and being able to input destination addresses by voice (2 years ago; had a Moto X where this was cutting edge) was a godsend and improved my cus…

> voice recognition ... probably in the 80-90% accuracy range State of the art systems are far better than this. Microsoft recently published a paper with a 5.9% word error rate for conversational speech. Speech directed at computers/assistants is already in the high 90s, though I don't have a figure off the top of my head.

I gauged it off of my personal gut feeling, which includes a coefficient for "well I don't have a strong enough internet connection so I get google's spinner instead - and then it fails."

Occasionally, android gets the words right (as demonstrated by the onscreen text) and then flubs passing the correct intent because of "loss of connection", which is just about the most frustrating ML fail.

No doubt android's voice recognition is spectacular. I can prompt it in three different relatively orthogonal-sounding languages (English, French, Japanese), and it can figure out which language I'm using and usually get the transcription correct. Notably, I can't activate the italian/japanese pair and get useful results - which makes sense if you know both languages.

Google voice is horrible, however, at transcribing voicemail.

Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#117

Post by freyr »

taway_1212 wrote: post #102
freyr wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I have a statistics/data science background, but personally I find programming much more satisfying. Programming is a tool to create and synthesize. It leads to new products, companies, and solutions. Data science is analysis, not synthesis. You collect data, you interpret it, you move on to other data. Nothing gets created, which for me, is a deal breaker for job satisfaction.

The premise is often that, as a programmer, you are a part of tightly controlled agile/SCRUM team, while DS get much more independence in their jobs.

> as a programmer, you are a part of tightly controlled agile/SCRUM team

I see. I'm currently in a research lab, and programming is my main day-to-day activity. I have a high degree of autonomy, but have recently considered moving to a product division so I can work on something that actually gets shipped. But it doesn't sound so great, as you describe it. Maybe it's a case of the grass always looking greener on the other side.

Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#118

Post by simonhughes22 »

jczhang wrote: post #93
simonhughes22 wrote: post #65

I am the Chief Data Scientist of Dice.com. If you are interested in working as a junior Data Scientist, and are smart and hard working, please apply here: http://careeropportunities.dhigroupinc.com/ . The position is a telecommute role. We will absolutely consider people with no data science experience, so long as they demonstrate an aptitude for data science \ machine learning and can code.

Just tried applying, but the page for the data scientist remote position doesn't load correctly.

Please send me your resume directly to simon.hughes@dice.com. Apologies for the issues with the link. I've notified our HR department, hopefully they will address it.

Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#119

Post by simonhughes22 »

simonhughes22 wrote: post #65

I am the Chief Data Scientist of Dice.com. If you are interested in working as a junior Data Scientist, and are smart and hard working, please apply here: http://careeropportunities.dhigroupinc.com/ . The position is a telecommute role. We will absolutely consider people with no data science experience, so long as they demonstrate an aptitude for data science \ machine learning and can code.

For those with difficulties accessing the link, I apologize. I have notified HR, who maintain that aspect of the site. In the meantime, please email me your resumes to simon.hughes@dice.com

Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?

#120

Post by user5994461 »

nomnomnomnom wrote: post #86
user5994461 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need a friend at GooMAzonSoft to refer you. It's always been and will always be the easiest way in. Then traditional uninteresting phone call and uninspired 6 hours on site with people who probably didn't read your resume. Maybe if you have a good profile and you get lucky, you'll go interview straight for one group who's interested in you, but I wouldn't bet on that.

Did you know that your use of that term uniquely fingerprints you? (Google it)

An interesting remark indeed.

Assuming the other people who used that word are me.

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