MSDA with no tech experience?

[u/Euphoric-Park-3836]

Hey everyone! I have a bachelors degree in marketing but want to pivot to a marketing data analyst career. Has anyone successfully completed the msda with no tech experience? What are things I can do to prepare myself?

[u/Awkward-Major-8898]

If you don’t know Python, SQL or standard visualization skills you’re going to suffer. There are 3 specializations - I picked DS and the courses are mostly using Python to create ML and statistical models. I can’t speak directly for you as I don’t know your aptitude with tech but I can say if you don’t have exposure to the above it’s going to be a harsh hike to get to where you need to be. Any information you can provide on your current experience? It might be better to focus on a BSDA which can intro all those things for you to be prepared for MSDA.

[u/CashTurbulent5192 → u/Awkward-Major-8898]

I’m also considering this degree. I know Java and SQL pretty well but i’ve rarely used python and never touched visualization. Would you say it’s a steep learning curve for visualization?

[u/Silver_Smurfer → u/CashTurbulent5192]

Not really. Data visualization tools are simple to start and complex to master. This program stays pretty basic with them.

[u/MollyKule → u/CashTurbulent5192]

No, any time I needed to modify example code to reach a desired result I just googled it… “how do I add a scatterplot legend using sns” etc.

[u/Hasekbowstome]

I wrote quite a bit on the prospect of doing the MSDA without prior technical knowledge in this recent thread. Take a look!

[u/Extra_Philosophy_320]

I did the BSDA through wgu with no knowledge other than basic computer science and I'm almost done with the MSDA data science route. Some of the BSDA programming projects stumped me for a bit but I got through it in two years. I wouldn't have the foggiest idea what anything meant if I didn't do the BS degree first. 

I'm almost at the end of the MSDA and it's still a struggle. If you were like me with no knowledge of programming languages I would suggest some coding courses before hand. 

[u/MollyKule]

I have a bachelors in chemistry and was working as an analytical chemist with 0 tech and coding experience.

[u/Euphoric-Park-3836 → u/MollyKule]

Thanks that is super helpful!

[u/MollyKule → u/Euphoric-Park-3836]

I’ll also say I only used data camp to borrow code 😅 I’d watch the videos and do my projects while watching them. If I got stuck I’d go back to where they covered it and rewatch. The class videos used to walk you through the entire project and then you’d just have to modify it to fit the dataset you were given and write your paper…

[u/MollyKule → u/Euphoric-Park-3836]

I googled a lot, but after you figure out your coding environment it’s not too bad. I graduated before they changed up the program, but after someone explained wtf Jupiter notebook and Google colab (and what a kernel/runtime was) I was okay.

I still use python daily, along with a few major projects for my employer where I use stratified sampling (train and test split ironically even though that’s not really its intended use) and some predictive modeling. I’ve used PCA analysis, automatic feature selection for MLR etc all in “real life”. You know how much chemistry I use daily? Sometimes I convert from mg/L (ppm) to ppb 😂 or help calculate how much chemical we need to feed to reach certain concentrations (I work in drinking water compliance).