There are plenty of data science problems in agriculture. Big ag, small ah, automated ag. Look for problems people have in your domain that could be solved with data science.
Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
111–120 of 148 posts
Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
#112I 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…
> Depending on your background it might take years of additional studying.
Excellent summary but this one bit is trying to gloss over reality. It will most certainly take multiple years of additional studying when you come in contact with anything related to software engineering, because that's just what it is.
Of course there is no shortage of people who learn one language, one framework, one tool and sit on their ass depending on the people they work with to pick up the slack. If that's you, none of the things being said in this thread matter - just go get your job, make your money and live your life :)
Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
#113I 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…
As a software engineer who has worked intimately with data scientists in Big Tech companies, this comment sums it up exactly. One minor thing to add is that not only is the data science field overflowing with junior/mid candidates, but the entire computer science field as a whole.
What happens in seven years when those candidates become experienced? Will they have dropped out? Will there be a glut of experienced software developers?
Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
#114As someone with a PhD in a different field who's made that switch, I actually have to disagree with most of the advice here. This is a bit too bitter and jaded (I'm not quite this pessimistic), but I think it needs to be said to counter a lot of the rosier advice. Having a PhD in a non-CS field is a _massive_ negative in the eyes of potential employeers. Even if you're looking at moving into a role where your domain…
I'm going to chime in to disagree strongly with this. I've seen and worked with lots of non-CS PhDs in data science who have been terrific. It's pretty common too—there's even the Insight program that trains PhDs to go into data science [1]. I don't think it will be seen as a downside and will instead show that you know how to do research and solve problems.
Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
#115If you are already a PHD do you have chance to do something with big data in the domain? I'm sure there are some big data projects you can do in agriculture. PHD in DNA research tend to have much more relevant experience than those who just go through a few training camp courses as they have to build models for PB level data, which forces them to use CLI and optimize their algos and use advanced tools such as Hadooo, spark etc.
Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
#116If you are already a PHD do you have chance to do something with big data in the domain? I'm sure there are some big data projects you can do in agriculture. PHD in DNA research tend to have much more relevant experience than those who just go through a few training camp courses as they have to build models for PB level data, which forces them to use CLI and optimize their algos and use advanced tools such as Hadooo,…
very valuable advise. DS itself is nothing unless it is implemented in a specific domain.
Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
#117> am looking to pivot into something that gets me out of the lab
Will data science get you out of the "lab"?
Maybe you can become a farmer, and iterate on patentable new agri-tech you will inevitably develop along the way; then sell that.
Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
#118I 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…
>the fundamental skills that you need are mathematics and software engineering So much this. If I have to interview another junior-level DS who has a MNIST project in their github and still somehow can't manage fizzbuzz or a fibonacci function I'm probably going to take up religious asceticism. EDIT: I said junior, but I meant Senior. We're talking people with PhD's who claim to have done extensive software engineeri…
If I have to interview another whose only ML tools are GLMs, random forests and boosted trees (only ever with one hot encoding, of course) I’m going to do the same.
Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
#119Earlier 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.
German here. From my perspective it's hard to find - embedded systems programmers, meaning people who know real-time systems, have good C/C++ knowledge, know their way around the Linux kernel and are also able to do basic things with a scope. - good(!) C++ programmers in general - people who know devops and software development infrastructure C++ might not be sexy, but there's a vast amount of legacy software out the…
But all three are by no means junior.
Re: Ask HN: Am I too late for the “Data Science” wave?
#120I 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…
I slightly disagree about your reasoning on the PhD thing, for some roles. Having a PhD in an experimental science is a (weak) indicator that you’ve learned how to design, conduct, and analyze an experiment on your own.