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How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

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Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#31

Post by brenden2 »

peteradio wrote: post #27
syndacks wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does this community (HN) have such a proclivity for these types of bitter responses? This comment makes wild assumptions, doesn't assume best intentions, and really just makes `brenden2` sound like a nasty person. Yet here it is, top comment on the front page. Nice work OP! You are flexing a very unique set of muscles (technical + leadership + communication + ambition) that very few people have. You will go far i…

You seem to be reading a bitterness into the comment that is not there. Apart from that your comment is also very true. The op will go very far! Big picture, networking, and management are far more valued than someone with raw technical ability who misses the above.

Indeed. If your goal is to become a VP at a successful startup, you're better off working on your networking/blogging/social/managerial skills than studying anything technical.

Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#32

Post by allenskd »

pirate_dev wrote: post #14
brenden2 wrote: post #12

Getting to VP level at a "top startup" has little to do with data science, and everything to do with your ability to play the networking game. Depending on the size of the company, VP level jobs are more about management skills than technical proficiency.

This exactly. I can't begin to list off all the rich dumbasses who had all sorts of titles in startups because they went to the same school, knew the founders, etc. I've had such people have no idea what model they even use for large chunks of their pipeline. Obviously they hire the actual talent and these guys get the credit.

How is this different from any other company though? It happens a lot where I live. You either know the higher ups through some sort of connection(school, event, family, etc) became friends and that's it you landed on a nice position.

I'd love to say it's only prone in startups but it's been plaguing companies forever, especially small-medium sized ones where it's easier because the owner is probably hoping to find able hands, perhaps the huge ones have slightly better processes to counter this type of scenario.

Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#33

Post by mrits »

euix wrote: post #23

Its often the case that less technically minded people move into management.

I moved into management 5 years in at my startup. At the time I had ~50% of all code commits. I wanted to run a team because there was so much I wanted to create that I couldn't without the help of others. After a few years of VP of Engineering and then CTO I'm back to writing small apps in Rust for free. So while it was enjoyable it didn't scratch the same itch.

Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#34

Post by martingoodson »

dominotw wrote: post #15
brenden2 wrote: post #12

Getting to VP level at a "top startup" has little to do with data science, and everything to do with your ability to play the networking game. Depending on the size of the company, VP level jobs are more about management skills than technical proficiency.

> VP level jobs are more about management skills than technical proficiency. I would say this is true for all mid-management and up. Tech proficiency is largely irrelevant once you go into management.

Strange comment. How could you be a good data science leader if you are not a good data scientist? Could you equally be a good CFO if you didn't have technical skills in finance?

Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#35

Post by allenskd »

ahuth wrote: post #3

Curious how the author got better at communication. What are good resources or books for doing so?

Well.... I imagine it comes with the author's field? I've always been vocal about how much I suck at communication in both my personal life and work.

I think I would have landed a super nice position if I wasn't a socially inept person. Bitterness and "reality" or "truths" won't help us, so these days I'm just leaning on being reasonable and as human as possible because nobody likes a person who's constantly pointing out flaws and telling people they are horrible. (thankfully I've never in my life told anyone they are bad at something, at the end of the day this field you can keep improving yourself. I imagine in a field of medicine if you mess up too much that's it for you)

Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#36

Post by michaelbuckbee »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #9
dx87 wrote: post #5

When I was doing a cyber training exercise in the military, we had an Air Force general tell us that the best technical officers they had started out with non-technical degrees. They said that officers with undergrad degrees in things like IT, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, weren't very good at thinking outside of the box because everything they did was fairly low level and had a provably correct solutio…

As a technical person, I find it interesting that so many technical people are that way. I start to get into a motivational rut if all I'm doing is working on a list of technical things to complete. Engineering disciplines are some of the few degrees that provide you the ability to both directly solve other people's problems and have close customer contact - that was a major reason why software engineering attracted…

I think I'm similar (wanting a mix of technical and business problem solving) but I feel like this is the minority of jobs - though I don't have a good way to identify this.

Especially at larger organizations, I've found that the dev role is very much of an "implementer", that your job is to take the design, spec, architecture and put it into place as close to the above as possible.

You're much less likely to be actually sorting out the why/how of the system.

Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#37

Post by lostinroutine »

azizsaya wrote: post #22

Fabulous post but this caught my attention: "The learning curve was steep. Pushed me 2x beyond my existing abilities. Exhilarating." What is meant by “steep learning curve”? https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6209/what-is-mea... I don't mean to be rude, just that it is interesting.

Considering that he says it "pushed him", I'd guess he means that there was a lot to learn and it didn't come easy.

Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#38

Post by aogl »

martingoodson wrote: post #34
dominotw wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> VP level jobs are more about management skills than technical proficiency. I would say this is true for all mid-management and up. Tech proficiency is largely irrelevant once you go into management.

Strange comment. How could you be a good data science leader if you are not a good data scientist? Could you equally be a good CFO if you didn't have technical skills in finance?

Im afraid that while this seems logical, it's not how the real world actually is. I've known of many heads of departments with rather grand titles and only a very small percentage of them even know the slightest of what goes on below them or why. Heads of IT, software departments and even CIOs that cant even login. In fact, they often move to similar roles in other companies because the new companies believe they must be good to be in that seniority of the current company. When in fact the current company just can't wait for them to go. After a couple of these moves, they have a whole career of senior positions in immpressive companies. I can think of about 10 examples within ftse10 and fortune25 companies right now that I've had the "pleasure" to work with.

Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#39

Post by viklove »

allenskd wrote: post #32
pirate_dev wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This exactly. I can't begin to list off all the rich dumbasses who had all sorts of titles in startups because they went to the same school, knew the founders, etc. I've had such people have no idea what model they even use for large chunks of their pipeline. Obviously they hire the actual talent and these guys get the credit.

How is this different from any other company though? It happens a lot where I live. You either know the higher ups through some sort of connection(school, event, family, etc) became friends and that's it you landed on a nice position. I'd love to say it's only prone in startups but it's been plaguing companies forever, especially small-medium sized ones where it's easier because the owner is probably hoping to find a…

It's not different, all companies are like this. That doesn't make it any better though...

Success is mostly based upon who you know and being at the right place at the right time. That's why it's disingenuous to suggest you can "teach" how to be successful with blog posts like this -- you can't teach someone how to be born into the right family so they can attend the right school and meet the right people.

Re: How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

#40

Post by marcinzm »

martingoodson wrote: post #34
dominotw wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> VP level jobs are more about management skills than technical proficiency. I would say this is true for all mid-management and up. Tech proficiency is largely irrelevant once you go into management.

Strange comment. How could you be a good data science leader if you are not a good data scientist? Could you equally be a good CFO if you didn't have technical skills in finance?

>How could you be a good data science leader if you are not a good data scientist?

The job of a Data Science leader at a growing company is 50% recruiting and 50% sitting in planning meetings. Even if you started with good IC knowledge after a few years your skills will be rusty as hell. So assuming you know nothing and trusting your team and delegating is going to work infinitely better than trusting your own out of date skills.

edit: And yes, this is from personal knowledge, I've held such titles before and I've had a lot of offers for other such titles.

edit2: As a corollary, promoting someone to management just because they're a good IC is a really bad idea. You want your top ICs to stay ICs if possible. You want your managers to be people who actually can manage and want to manage.

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