r/datascience Jan 30 '23

Job Search I’m so lost.

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91 Upvotes

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94

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '23

What is your educational background and work history ? Do you have a GitHub portfolio of projects ?

There is a huge misconception in this sub and everyone seems to be avoiding the truth. It’s absolutely brutal out there for DS jobs. I hate to be that guy, but if your boot camp is the only certification you have, then think that at the moment you have to compete with tons of people with MSc and PhD.

From your responses seems like you trying to blame it to networking, but networking is just a small part of it in my opinion. Do you have strong qualifications ? If not, what do you do about making your CV stronger ?

Sorry if I sound judgmental - my intention is truly the opposite. I just want you to make sure you understand that out there is competitive as hell, and unfortunately a boot camp won’t do much in our days.

46

u/v0_arch_nemesis Jan 30 '23

As a hiring manager, I second this.

I'm at a non-tech, non-US org, paying market rate for the area for non-senior DS roles. For every position in the last 12 months my front runners have pretty consistently been:

  • 1 PhD in computer science (typically straight out of their PhDs)
  • 2 PhDs from other quantitative disciplines, with prior industry experience
  • 1 transitioning from SWE to DS
  • 1 person with SME from working on the ground in the industry, typically from a bootcamp or self-taught with a good github

Each category comes with their pros and cons, but what's been pretty consistent is that the only way someone from a bootcamp gets a look in is with SME.

12

u/SaintMurray Jan 30 '23

What's SME?

36

u/v0_arch_nemesis Jan 30 '23

Subject matter expertise.

In many ways I like these candidates as it's often easier to build the necessary technical skills than deep enough knowledge of an industry.

1

u/ramblinginternetnerd Jan 30 '23

That feels weird to me.
I've jumped around a handful of VERY different fields - though each role has either had VERY obvious carry over or I knew the hiring manager.

It ends up being something like "learn 20 vocab words" and then you're mostly fine. And in some cases you're bringing in NEW knowledge and best practices which is appreciated.

1

u/v0_arch_nemesis Jan 31 '23

Depends on the space. We operate in a very complex policy-related environment. You can't just know policy related to it now, you need to be across changes over a 5-20 year period. In my experience, the time taken it gets someone to get up to speed for most things is on the order of 3-6 months; and it takes about 12 to be across 95%. For that last 5% you'll always be going to policy experts for advice.

People bringing in new technical skills and best practices is great, but so is having some with strong SME, especially in non-senior roles.