Finish your degree, then pursue computer science. Understanding statistics and data is a super power for a software engineer. There are a lot of data-adjacent software engineering jobs. Telemetry, data pipelines, data visualization applications, maps, apply your cs and ds skills together for an awesome combination.
Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
91–100 of 148 posts
Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
#92I think some of the other posts have covered advice regarding the transition to SWE very well. You write you are: > in the process of receving EU passport This threw me off somewhat. Does this mean you're an EU member state citizen currently living in Russia and applied for a passport in your home country? I'm not sure I understand what you mean otherwise. Aquiring citizenship (for a passport) is either very expensiv…
If you can prove that your grandparent was e.g. polish citizen it is relatively straightforward to get a polish passport.
Plenty of people like that live in former USSR
Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
#93I can't speak about the technical side of the equation, but I'm someone who also worked very hard in a field before switching career and I get feeling like your previous efforts were for naught, so I wanted to weigh in. I can only tell you that the work you put in wasn't for nothing, even if it feels like it for now.
You're learned things about yourself (what works for you, what doesn't, and why). You've learned how to apply to job posting and the best ways to do so. You've acquired work experience and human experience which will serve you. Your university and faculty allowed you to learn how to handle high levels of work. You acquired a work ethics and a discipline which will be precious to you. You didn't put all that effort in for nothing: you grew, and you have a life experience which will be precious in your future job interviews (and in your future work!)
My previous experiences couldn't be more different from what I do now, but I still feel how important they've been to me: they shaped my mind, my way of thinking/analysing problems, and my ability to learn. I wish you the best of luck!
Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
#94Few things you learn are ever truly wasted. Especially DS knowledge when you are switching to software engineering. I know data science and machine learning are all the rage right now, I work in a data science unit and assist the really smart phds around me and build the platforms they are working on. Be happy that you found out know and not later. Software engineering is amazing. You can do infinite things and your actually building stuff. Sorry that you don't feel good about it right now but building things is so much fun and so rewarding, you are going to be okay!
Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
#95Don't drop from your path just yet. Try working for another company in a data scientist role, in a different industry. Something is missing but may be found elsewhere.
Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
#96European companies are desperately looking for IT people. Try smaller companies, not just the well-known ones to get started. Some even take on people before/without a graduation if the coding is good. All the best!
Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
#97Lots of good advice given. I echo what many have said about Data Science..it's an overloaded phrase that means anything and everything to everyone. It's important to understand the context in which that the person is applying it.
I did a mid-career change from working decades applying advanced control theory to Data Science. The transition was very natural in that many of the curriculum and principles taught overlapped naturally with Data Science (what it was called at that time). To me, I stress the SCIENCE part of data science that involves designing experiments, developing theory, writing the code/drivers needed to drive the hardware, building the hardware, etc. Unfortunately, my definition has become the outlier. Side note...I have noticed that DS is becoming interchanged more and more as a very advanced BI/BA role, which further dilutes the conversations. Basically, what I'm getting at is that it's never too late to change...just gotta keep asking questions and failing (in a good way).
I'm glad you realized this earlier rather than later. Based on your ideal job description, I think you would make an ideal back-end developer...possibly full-stack?
Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
#98I don't think anyone doing full-time data analysis at a telecom will think "this is what I want to do in life."
It looks like you've done almost all the hard work on something valuable. One boring job shouldn't discourage you from an entire career path. Similar data analysis techniques can give you very interesting results.
It's easy to extrapolate your first job into your career, but that's almost never, ever the case.
Now, to answer your question: how to switch to SWE the fastest way possible: In your current job, and in the time you have left at school, optimize for the next job you want. Do you have any projects in either that could be done with more or less software development? I suggest you try as much software development as you can. Keep doing this at work after you finish school, too. That'll start steering the boat in the direction you want. It won't take much, there's plenty of demand for SWEs, so the more you can show you can do, the more you'll find demand for it.
Your biggest asset for switching to SWE is what you're about to complete, and the work you're already doing. You just have to finish filling in your resume with more SWE work.
Also, keep doing side projects, and if possible, open source them on github and they start becoming a portfolio to show alongside your resume.
Also, data science uses a lot of software. You can start adding to, or writing your own tools to help your day job. Even if it just makes the SQL better. You can generate SQL, or depending on your DBMS, add new functions to the SQL system that you can then use. Again, the reason for that isn't just to do your job better, but to make a better demonstrable SWE skillset. After you get your data back from SQL, can you do some post-query analysis in another environment, like python+pandas or apache spark? That's all software development, and frankly can be easier to do than trying to do some analysis in SQL alone.
Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
#99I think some of the other posts have covered advice regarding the transition to SWE very well. You write you are: > in the process of receving EU passport This threw me off somewhat. Does this mean you're an EU member state citizen currently living in Russia and applied for a passport in your home country? I'm not sure I understand what you mean otherwise. Aquiring citizenship (for a passport) is either very expensiv…
From what I understand: There are countries in Europe that are not a member of the European Union. Eg: UK, Switzerland, Norway. From what the OP said, they are from Russia, and studying in another eastern European country. (Russians (as well as plenty of non-Russians) have a tendency to go to Europe/UK/USA/Canada etc for higher studies I think.) Russia is not a member of EU. The eastern-European country the OP is stu…
All I saw was studying in eastern europe and "lives in Russia". Russia is in eastern Europe although usually not referred to as an eastern european nation.
I am aware of the EU and it's member states, I'm a little confused as to what might have implied I did not. I am from an EU member state.
I was just curious about if and how they planned to aquire citizenship because it's a lengthly process and they mentioned they were in the process while living in Russia. Usually residence permit is the way to go (and years later citizenship). It was rightly pointed out that if you can prove descent from a citizen it might be easier.
Re: Ask HN: I realise data science is not for me and feel depressed
#100Finish your degree, doesn't matter if it's Math and Econ, lots of these majors get into software as a profession.
If you have experience with SQL and are good at it you can find work everywhere with that alone.
If you want to become more full stack learn one of the more popular web app front ends, however I will note that I've used SQL for nearly three decades, the only other tech that I can think of that existed in 1992 and is still fairly mainstream today would be shell scripting and PHP. All the modern web tech, javascript-y stuff is shifting sand and it will change or be replaced as fast as you can become competent at it. It's exciting at first, then frustrating, then demotivating. Or at least that's how it seems to me.