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Recruiter here. Data Science is one of ~3 roles I generally don't recruit for. Not because Data Scientists are super hard to find, but more because companies seem to all want data scientists and all want them to do completely different things and none of them really understand those things. Makes for a pretty lame hiring experience unfortunately. :(
I recently quit a gig and spent a few months looking for a data science/machine learning gig. I was surprised just how gatekeeped these positions were. Everyone wanted a PhD or a masters degree. I have 15 years of experience in software. I’ve done everything to low level game programming and graphics programming to web development, to AI (but not as a specific position title). The gatekeeping in this field surprised…
Of the skills necessary to succeed in data science, the ability to program is actually the least important. Perhaps you were over-emphasising your software skills at the expense of really demonstrating proper understanding of the science of data analysis. A data science position is not going to require your experience in low-level game programming, for example. In fact, being able to program at all is secondary, sinc…
The days of a researcher producing a model to be re-implemented for production by a programmer are over, or very nearly so. A working data scientist now is expected to produce something that can run in production. That’s something a PhD doesn’t teach and that many PhDs find an uphill struggle.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Data science is like security: it's very easy to come up with something that looks really good but is horribly broken in subtle ways that you won't find until it's too late. I think there's a lot of value in having lots of people be literate at it, but part of that literacy is understanding that it's a hard problem and that it does need attention from dedicated specialists.
I would certainly agree with you, but I don't think someone with a master's degree is necessarily an expert. What's important, IMO, is having practical experience in data science, which may or may not come with a graduate degree.
I have a love / hate relationship with bucketing a whole lot of formerly separate disciplines into the data science label. In my case, I'm a reasonably solid R / Python programmer (who occasionally dabbles in racket, clojure, and others). I've got the sort of applied statistical training of someone who took a quant-heavy course load in a PhD program. I've even (by title) been a data scientist a couple times now. Havi…
As a "junior" applying to data science positions, I have a 50/50 mix of "no way I'm qualified for that", and "that sounds like a really fun problem."
You don't sound like the Dunning-Kruger sort, so I'd chase the fun sounding problems in organizations where you can use more senior people that you respect as sounding boards / mentors.
Good luck (to us all)!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of the skills necessary to succeed in data science, the ability to program is actually the least important. Perhaps you were over-emphasising your software skills at the expense of really demonstrating proper understanding of the science of data analysis. A data science position is not going to require your experience in low-level game programming, for example. In fact, being able to program at all is secondary, sinc…
the ability to program is actually the least important The days of a researcher producing a model to be re-implemented for production by a programmer are over, or very nearly so. A working data scientist now is expected to produce something that can run in production. That’s something a PhD doesn’t teach and that many PhDs find an uphill struggle.
I have a love / hate relationship with bucketing a whole lot of formerly separate disciplines into the data science label. In my case, I'm a reasonably solid R / Python programmer (who occasionally dabbles in racket, clojure, and others). I've got the sort of applied statistical training of someone who took a quant-heavy course load in a PhD program. I've even (by title) been a data scientist a couple times now. Havi…
I recently quit a gig and spent a few months looking for a data science/machine learning gig. I was surprised just how gatekeeped these positions were. Everyone wanted a PhD or a masters degree. I have 15 years of experience in software. I’ve done everything to low level game programming and graphics programming to web development, to AI (but not as a specific position title). The gatekeeping in this field surprised…
Of the skills necessary to succeed in data science, the ability to program is actually the least important. Perhaps you were over-emphasising your software skills at the expense of really demonstrating proper understanding of the science of data analysis. A data science position is not going to require your experience in low-level game programming, for example. In fact, being able to program at all is secondary, sinc…
Is Data Science really fundamentally different? Or is this PHD who barely programs going to either do tasks like cleanup terrabytes of data or risk that a coder with no idea will introduce a bias in the data during that process?
I find the whole emergence of the field fascinating, but I kind of feel like it is just techs recreating actuaries with what is actually a less specific education.
+ (And a worse academic style career path of going through an education you may never get to use instead of going up from apprentice to master)
Recently I wrote a tweetstorm of my not-so-great experience hunting for a data science job last summer: https://twitter.com/minimaxir/status/951117788835278848 Despite data science being a hot job, the sheer, growing number of MOOCs available will cause the high amount gatekeeping from many prospective employers to get even worse. I am very happy as a data scientist now, and yes, it's more complicated than doing Exce…
This article makes it sound like you can just walk into a DS position. No. Expect a months-long job search if you don't have a PhD.
I recently quit a gig and spent a few months looking for a data science/machine learning gig. I was surprised just how gatekeeped these positions were. Everyone wanted a PhD or a masters degree. I have 15 years of experience in software. I’ve done everything to low level game programming and graphics programming to web development, to AI (but not as a specific position title). The gatekeeping in this field surprised…
Of the skills necessary to succeed in data science, the ability to program is actually the least important. Perhaps you were over-emphasising your software skills at the expense of really demonstrating proper understanding of the science of data analysis. A data science position is not going to require your experience in low-level game programming, for example. In fact, being able to program at all is secondary, sinc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of the skills necessary to succeed in data science, the ability to program is actually the least important. Perhaps you were over-emphasising your software skills at the expense of really demonstrating proper understanding of the science of data analysis. A data science position is not going to require your experience in low-level game programming, for example. In fact, being able to program at all is secondary, sinc…
This right here is a perfect example of why this position is gatekeeped so much. Having a PhD doesn’t automatically mean you think like a scientist of a mathematician, and having a bachelor’s degree and 15 years of experience writing code and then putting in the effort to read Elements of Statistical Learning, compeleting several online courses in machine learning and data science, studying probability, combinatorics…