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Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?

#31

Post by glitchc »

khannate wrote: post #17
glitchc wrote: post #7

Sounds like data science for you. But I'm curious: What is your academic background exactly? Where are you learning machine learning without programming?

Sorry for the confusion - it's not that I'm learning machine learning without programming, but rather that most of the programming I know I learned in the context of machine learning. In particular, I'm only familiar with the small portion of the standard undergrad cs curriculum that's relevant to those things.

Okay then, data science is probably a better fit over generic software engineering.

As you surmised, the latter is more focused on algorithms and data structures as the basis for solving problems. Your gut response is good. Go with your gut.

Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?

#32

Post by estilos »

throwaway713 wrote: post #21

Besides your level of interest in each field, it’s important to note that at the top tech companies, software engineers typically receive 2x the RSUs as data scientists / data engineers for a given level. This is non-negligible and can range from an extra $30k to $100k per year depending on your level (base and bonus are typically the same though). Add in the time opportunity cost of getting a PhD, and a top software…

maybe it's dependant on country but where I am in europe this is drastically untrue, and data scientists are paid (including stock) far more than software engineers.

It's also worth noting that although every position I've applied for has asked for a PhD my one year masters has sufficed in every case.

Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?

#33

Post by triplee »

At this point, get whatever experience you can to determine what you would like, and frankly, the contacts you make will be as helpful as the experience. It's an internship, you have time, and at a small enough future employer, you may have to cover multiple roles.

Yes, software pays more now, and data science (let alone data engineering) is still maturing and figuring itself out, especially at junior levels. Your current background will help with data science, but doing software for an internship won't hurt you in the future if you want to do data science.

Having a programming background helps with data work, some of which is programming directly and indirectly to talk to data engineers/software engineers, and vice versa, a math and data background is super helpful in attacking software problems in many areas.

If you feel like picking the wrong thing now at a young age will scar you forever, you're doing it wrong. In this whole industry, things change constantly, and you will have to reinvent yourself and learn with it. If you don't like it, you can always switch specialties, or even generalize a little more broadly.

Reference: I've been in IT for the better part of 20 years, much of that as a web development generalist, and now I'm doing data engineering. ~75% of the skills overlap.

Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?

#34

Post by anonytrary »

glitchc wrote: post #30
anonytrary wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where are you learning machine learning without programming? A math degree. You're confusing data engineering and data science. There are plenty of people who work on theory and do little to no programming.

Well, given that I made a statement about machine learning and not data science, the point still stands. Machine learning is a CS field. It emerged out of CS. Any claims to the contrary are hokey revisionism. As to what "data science" entails, that's become a super loaded buzzword, so I'm not even sure where to begin. And "data engineering," please don't even. Just fancy terms for statistics and discrete math.

I define data engineering as something like "implementing ML algorithms on servers for real-world use cases", in which case they're mostly just gluing together function calls that other people figured out. "Data science" on the other hand is the stuff that actually requires using statistics and math to figure out what operations are necessary on a data set.

Plus, I could say the same thing about ML. It's just graph theory, linear algebra and calculus with some statistics mixed in. Where's the absolutely necessary programming? There are plenty of opportunities to do ML theory with little programming, if any. There absolutely needs to be a distinction between theorists and engineers, because they aren't the same thing. Most of the programming is the grunt work you pass off to the engineers.

Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?

#35

Post by throwaway713 »

estilos wrote: post #32
throwaway713 wrote: post #21

Besides your level of interest in each field, it’s important to note that at the top tech companies, software engineers typically receive 2x the RSUs as data scientists / data engineers for a given level. This is non-negligible and can range from an extra $30k to $100k per year depending on your level (base and bonus are typically the same though). Add in the time opportunity cost of getting a PhD, and a top software…

maybe it's dependant on country but where I am in europe this is drastically untrue, and data scientists are paid (including stock) far more than software engineers. It's also worth noting that although every position I've applied for has asked for a PhD my one year masters has sufficed in every case.

Really? That's very interesting. I'm at one of F/N/G in the Bay Area. What sort of compensation do these companies in Europe offer?

Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?

#36

Post by lustig »

I started out as a Software Engineer, then switched to Data Scientist. However I have decided to switch back to Software Engineer again now, simply because I enjoy the work more. So I would advise to try get into the nitty gritty work of both, preferably through internships, and then decide which route you prefer.

I would also suggest to apply for a lot of them anyway, there's not enough skilled and experienced people to fill all positions right now, so some of them will recruit more junior people than they might be looking for at first.

Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between software engineering and data science?

#37

Post by estilos »

throwaway713 wrote: post #35
estilos wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe it's dependant on country but where I am in europe this is drastically untrue, and data scientists are paid (including stock) far more than software engineers. It's also worth noting that although every position I've applied for has asked for a PhD my one year masters has sufficed in every case.

Really? That's very interesting. I'm at one of F/N/G in the Bay Area. What sort of compensation do these companies in Europe offer?

depends, but 6 figures seems pretty normal if you're good but not in charge of anything in particular? dev salaries are lower here, maybe? but I started in data on the same salary that my been-devving-6-years girlfriend is on now after 3 raises.
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