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Some Reflections on Being Turned Down for a Lot of Data Science Jobs

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Re: Some Reflections on Being Turned Down for a Lot of Data Science Jobs

#61

Post by chronicx0 »

kafkaesq wrote: post #47

So you're at least occasionally getting actual feedback from some of these discussions. That's quite something, actually. BTW, as to some of that "feedback": Honestly, I think the way you communicated your thought process and results was confusing for some people in the room. "Okay, pal - let's put your people up in a room full of strangers (some of whom show through their body language and/or constant phone-checking…

> And you don't need to feel bad about being "rejected" by people like that.

Yes you do need to feel bad. What, you keep using this excuse for every company you were rejected from? At the end of the day, without a job, who is going to pay for rent?

HN and the greater tech community needs to stop encouraging clearly subpar individuals. No, not everyone deserves to work in tech just because you went to college or paid for a bootcamp. This is the harsh truth that college students and new grads fail to realize.

Re: Some Reflections on Being Turned Down for a Lot of Data Science Jobs

#62

Post by emplynx »

anotheryou wrote: post #56

While I find it reasonable, I would still not ask about vecation policies in the interview, but rather when they decided they want me and we go through the details. Why would you ask before? (honest question)

I actually had an offer in hand, and it was rescinded after I asked about PTO.

Re: Some Reflections on Being Turned Down for a Lot of Data Science Jobs

#65

Post by chronicx0 »

minimaxir wrote: post #22

Many recommend setting up an online portfolio for these types of positions. But I've applied to a number of Data Analyst/Scientist jobs recently and I am immediately rejected almost every time despite highlighting my blog/portfolio ( http://minimaxir.com ) and my GitHub with open-source code/Notebooks for each and every post ( https://github.com/minimaxir ), both of which have topped HN on occasion. Internal recruite…

Because there are thousands of people like myself with blog posts, GitHub repos, HN submissions, AND software engineering and/or data science experience already who are being selected over yourself.

Re: Some Reflections on Being Turned Down for a Lot of Data Science Jobs

#66

Post by 102142592235ad »

CalChris wrote: post #8

Companies often use interviews as a time to figure out what they're really looking for. For startups, this transcends data science. It might be the one time that week they focus on that need. Networking is still king. Exactly and this also argues against wanting to get hired to work remotely.

>Exactly and this also argues against wanting to get hired to work remotely.

True, though not unheard of. I worked at a startup that hired remote devs via networking of that nature. It seemed to work well for them. Eventually the entire team migrated to the same area but things operated smoothly remote for the time being.

Re: Some Reflections on Being Turned Down for a Lot of Data Science Jobs

#67

Post by dbecker »

donovanm wrote: post #25

Is there a typical path for getting into Data Science? Posts like this make it seem like it's the wild west

I've had a few DS jobs. And I've been a hiring manager at two of those jobs. I can confirm that it's roughly the wild west still.

Re: Some Reflections on Being Turned Down for a Lot of Data Science Jobs

#68

Post by yttrium »

santaclaus wrote: post #54
yttrium wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience. My first job out of college was for a Developer Role (building testing frameworks, maintaining and building browser extensions) but the job was titled 'QA Developer' so I had a hell of a time the first time I tried to find a new job. Never mind that I wrote thousands and thousands of lines of application code, lots of recruiters would deny me on the basis that my background didn't fit.

Did you try dropping the exact title from your resume for a more general description of the role?

Yes, but it was hard to entirely obfuscate the fact that I designed/coded testing frameworks. Part of my job was running and analyzing big batches of regression scripts, so it would have been disingenuous to pretend like it didn't happen.

Re: Some Reflections on Being Turned Down for a Lot of Data Science Jobs

#69

Post by olivierva »

dwpdwpdwpdwpdwp wrote: post #20
yummyfajitas wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've probably interviewed about 70-100 such people in the past year and a half. Exactly 1 such person was qualified (I hired him). The issue in my view is the following: people who know both statistics and computer science are extremely rare. People who actually understand statistics are rare. I can probably weed out 1/3 to 1/2 of candidates simply by asking what a p-value is, or what precision/recall are (this inclu…

I'm surprised people bother spending so much energy looking for someone who is both a statistician and a computer scientist knowing they are so rare. There are so many more statisticians who can at least communicate and work effectively with developers and vice versa. Why not just compose a team? I feel like just like other professionals have assistants, statisticians should have them too, and they'd be focused on th…

I couldn't agree more. I just got hired to 'productionize' some proof of concept developed by data scientists in jupyter notebooks. The first thing I did was hiring a Python developer (no data science experience) to start cleaning up the code and a devops to put the infrastructure in place. Second step: I went to the data science department and sat down with them and I taught them how to program properly: test driven development, version control, code reviews (git pull requests) and continuous integration. They all have PhD's so it's not that they would have any trouble learning anything new. They thought it was great. Result: all their new code now directly goes (via code review and CI unit/end2end testing) into pre-production and after sign off from the product owners into production (quite often the same day). I just do not understand why instead of trying to find the perfect person for the job people don't just hire someone to teach them how to do the programming part of their job properly. Good teams are cross functional, diverse and have a strong focus on transferring knowledge.

Re: Some Reflections on Being Turned Down for a Lot of Data Science Jobs

#70

Post by anotheryou »

maxxxxx wrote: post #63
anotheryou wrote: post #56

While I find it reasonable, I would still not ask about vecation policies in the interview, but rather when they decided they want me and we go through the details. Why would you ask before? (honest question)

Why not?

Not to give them any reason to doubt my working moral.
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