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Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

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Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

#61

Post by cinntaile »

sarusso wrote: post #53
marcus_holmes wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the opposite experience, almost. I've hired and trained lots of people with CS degrees who think they know everything and barely know the basics. I massively prefer people who flunked university and just got a job writing code because they could. University no longer trains people to think, instead it's about jumping through hoops and dealing with pointless administrative bullshit [0]. source: I have a Master'…

Wow. Pretty strong opinions here. Completing a degree means you can commit and deliver, IMO. Instead, leaving for writing code just because you can tells me that you took the short path, and that your missing basics (the real ones, which teaches you University) will knock at your door some day. My 2 cents.

> Completing a degree means you can commit and deliver, IMO.

Not completing a degree doesn't mean you can't so this statement doesn't tell us all that much.

Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

#62

Post by SteveMorin »

1) Finish your degree 2) Get a entry level role in SWE or internship (your degree is very compatible with that) 3) Program something you can demonstrate in the mean time (will help get you in the door and build skills) 4) keep building and applying 5) realize you might not like SWE either, that’s okay you can switch again.

Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

#63

Post by lvl100 »

Here’s my advice. If you still like working with data then you should look into consulting where you get to work on different projects across different domains. You have to build up your toolkits even within data science. Mastering something like GIS takes awhile and same goes for time-series/finance. And only way to do this is through consulting gigs.

Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

#65

Post by notjustanymike »

saalweachter wrote: post #8

Firstly, finish your degree. For most employers, just checking off the degree is more important than exactly what it is. This is especially true for software engineering. You will have many, many coworkers who have degrees in physics or bioinformatics or mathematics and work as SWEs. Most of their stories will be exactly the same as yours, although "...but there weren't any good paying jobs so..." will be in the runn…

The CTO of my last company has a degree in anthropology, so this tracks.

Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

#66

Post by goodpoint »

vkk8 wrote: post #30

Data science is an oversold profession. When studying it, you learn really cool things; Bayesian models, reinforcement learning, AI, all the trendy stuff. In reality, most of the data scientists end up spending almost all of their time interacting with horribly designed, decade(s) old databases and the analysis part of their job is mostly just plotting the mean as a function of time and doing logistic regression over…

Spot on. "Data science" and "Machine learning" are indeed hyped up terms.

Most of the work is basics statistics, some SQL and poking at a ML library until you get the output you wanted.

Unsurprisingly, the day to day work can be very underwhelming.

Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

#67

Post by cyberlad24 »

My heart says ML/DS, but when I start learning my brain says stop it :) If you do not enjoy it, give a pause and relax. ICT is huge and spans across different industries/domains, with many different roles and responsibilities. Start as a SWE of anything you are familiar/comfortable with, after gaining noticeably experience, change to the role/domain/technology of your choice. Always remember today’s greatest technology might turn to a legacy/irrelevant after 5 years. Your foremost goal is to finish your degree, unless you have a quest to start your own business. Then get a decent SWE job to gain industry experience.

Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

#68

Post by spacec0wb0y »

With Data Science experience interested in SWE, my first thought is that you could focus on a related specialty area, for example Data Visualisation. Your data science background will mean you have strong foundations to build upon. Datavis expertise in increasingly sought after.

Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

#69

Post by ninesnines »

hello!

finish your degree as other people said!

most of my friends pivoted HARD after graduating to something completely different: think geology--> marketing, neuroscience--> UX, etc.

find the components of the job you like, and try to dig into those. You now have a really lovely skillset that will be useful in all areas.

you can also always go back to school for a masters, phd, etc.

Good luck! I pivoted last year from medicine to neuroscience through going to a phd program, and it was a very tough transition, but I am so so much happier now. You are still young, you've got this.

Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed

#70

Post by blablabla123 »

My background is actually in Physics where DS seems an obvious choice. Although I didn't like experimental Physics much where people do lots of statistics. So I tried to shift focus on DS but I never really got off the ground, usually when I had the chance to work on something DS related it wasn't fun at all. (Also as you mention, model building seems not to be too popular) So I worked for years as Full stack engineer but shifted towards Backend. That I find most rewarding, sounds like Backend is also interesting for you. So I recommend applying there, I think the hiring stage is still competitive for people starting but far less then DS
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