How I structured my Activity and Time to become a Data Scientist
How I structured my Activity and Time to become a Data Scientist
Strategize your busy times to achieve the data dream
Strategize your busy times to achieve the data dream
As data enthusiasts, we all trying to learn all the data science material as fast as possible to achieve the data scientist position. You then realize that time might not be on your side because you might be a professional who juggles many work assignments, students who finish up the thesis, or aspirants with many job applications to send.
I have been in that position before, finding the right time to learn data science amidst my future uncertainty after education time and looking for a job. I did not instantly become a Data Scientist when I graduate. Instead, I build up myself for the employment I want.
In this article, I want to share how I was breaking my time to become a Data Scientist at each stage of my life.
Never doubt that you could become a Data Scientist, it takes abundant preparation and chances you carve by yourself.
Activity and Time structure as a Student
My passion for data shown up during my time as a master's student in Biology. Whether it is the right choice or not for my future, I did not know at that time. I know that this field is piqued my interest, and I am certainly want to know more about Data Science.
Although, just like any other student out there. We have many lessons to attend, many homework to turn in, and many thesis research to analyze. In my case, this is what I did:
At least twice a week at night, when I did not have much study workload, I would research Data Science and what I need to become a Data Scientist.
When I have my lesson and homework, I will try to relate them to Data Science. e. G. I have homework to review biology journals; then, I would use a Data Science approach to do my homework by looking at the data.
My university has a programming lesson (In-class and out-class). I would take both of these lessons to hone my programming skills. To refine it, at least an hour or two in the weekend, I would take an online programming course.
When I have my thesis, I will create a portfolio of my thesis research as a Data Science research project. This is because what I did is analyzing data, which is a valid Data Science project. If you want to know more about the concept of my research project that I made as a Data Science portfolio, you could read it in my other article.
Breaking down the agglomerative clustering process
Detailed step-by-step how to apply agglomerative clustering on your datatowardsdatascience.com
Juggling Data Science passion and life as a student is not easy, and what is more challenging is that there are no guidelines on how we could become a Data Science when your major is not what modern data science expects you to be.
It is even harder after you are graduate—many of my classmates and friends going for a Ph.D. or straight into employment. For me, it is a different case; I was rejected by both the Ph.D. program and employment, whether it is for a Data Science job or not.
I have a lot of doubt in myself, and I am almost not following up to become a Data Scientist. Although what I did next when I was unemployed is the key to becoming the Data Science I am right now.
Activity and Time structure as an Unemployment
This is the time when uncertainty creeping in, and you would doubt everything you have learned. I did not have a lot of confidence at that time and always thinking; “Is Data Science really are the way?”, “Am I doing the right thing?” “What if I only keep burdening my parent?” and so on.
Amidst that, I still keep holding on to that “Data Dream” where I strategize my time and activity in my unemployment time to upgrade my knowledge. This is what I did and structured to become the Data Scientist during my unemployment time:
At least three times a week, I would go to a calm place to studying Data Science online courses and reading the upcoming data science article. My go-to place is the library close to my apartment, but any quiet and distraction-free is good.
Every day I would look at the online job board to know what the company wants and adjust my skill set to what the company wants in Data Scientist. At first, I focused on the Biology specific company, but I made broader my search as the requirement is too high over time. Whether I apply for the job is a different matter, but I know what the company looks for.
Periodically trying to solve data science problem whether on Kaggle or just training dataset that exists. I am set a target that I could “solve” the problem that might arise in the real world each month—for example, fraud detection or credit scoring.
Attending Offline Data Science Bootcamp. I would proudly say that I am a Data Scientist that is previously attending the Bootcamp. What makes me different from the other student is that I already prepare myself before joining this Bootcamp. My reason for joining the Bootcamp is to accelerate my programming skill and not the Data Science skill. I believe my student time and previous employment time have given me that experience. You could even read my article here about how my study time prepares me as a Data Scientist and my opinion regarding the Bootcamp itself.
How my Non-IT Education Shape me as a Data Scientist
IT is not the only way to become a Data Scientist.towardsdatascience.com
Data Scientist Must Know: Business x Statistics
Why integration between business and statistic is essential for Data Scientisttowardsdatascience.com
From Amateur to Data Scientist — 3 Months, is it enough?
Story from Data Science Trainer Perspectivetowardsdatascience.com
I was offered the job of Data Science trainer at the Bootcamp I was attending previously. As unemployment, I think it would become my next steps to achieve the “Data Dream.”
Isn’t Data Science Trainer is basically working as a Data Scientist? Yes and No; I would say yes because I learn a lot on-site what an ideal Data Scientist should be and no because the job did not necessarily do what Data Scientist does in the real world.
This is why I prepare myself even more on my non-” Data Science ” employment to become Data Scientist.
Activity and Time structure as an Employed Person
This section would benefit both employed in the job function that is close to the data field and not.
I am employed as a Data Science Trainer, but I still want to pave my way into the proper Data Scientist I want. The time-constrained is even more real during employment as I have an immense responsibility and limited time for myself (My previous workplace work-life balance is not that good).
That is why I need to be more creative in strategizing my activity to become a Data Scientist. This is what I did to achieve that:
Applying Data Science in any project within my work. I am teaching Data Science, but it doesn’t mean that I cannot use what I teach in my job; for example, I scourge the course data to find the best way to create the teaching curriculum.
Enhancing connection with people. In my line of work, I met many kinds of people from many lines of works. In this case, I try to establish a good relationship with everybody. Whether it would be useful to get the data job or not is not essential; what is important is that every connection you find would prove useful in some time. Although, in my case, it would be.
At least three times a week, I would try learning a new Data Science concept. This is to keep my head refresh as the Data Science field is always evolving. Even in my current employment, I am still using this tactic as I need a different approach to solving business problems.
Once a month, I would create a new Data Science portfolio and updating my CV. I do this if any of the employment I want is open, and I did not miss the chance to become a Data Scientist.
Creating the connection you never had before by attending the seminar, conference, or joining the club. Life is full of random occurrences; just like the normal distribution, even if the chances something happens are close to the mean, it doesn’t mean that the outlier would never happen. My preparation to become a Data Scientist is coming fruitful because of the connection I made in a place that I never thought of. I get the Data Scientist job by a referral made from another Data Scientist in the same organization as me (spoiler: It is not a Data-related organization).
This is what I did to prepare myself to get the Data Science job. It takes a lot of preparation and many twists, but preparing yourself in a good position would undoubtedly improve your chance to become a Data Scientist.
Never doubt that you could become a Data Scientist; it takes much preparation and chances you carve by yourself. Strategize your activity and time right, and you certainly would achieve that data dream.
Conclusion
Achieving the Data Dream is not an easy matter for some people; it would take a lot of preparation and determination to get the Data Scientist job. It would be best if you believed that you could get the job and set yourself up the best way you can. Strategize your activity and time in each stage of your life, and you might end up as a Data Scientist in the end.
Although you did not believe the Data Job is not for you, you might want to read my other article about it.
Data Job is Not For Me — What to Do Next?
What to do when you realize that a Data job is not for you.towardsdatascience.com
I hope it helps!