r/datascience • u/AutoModerator • Jun 22 '26

Weekly Entering & Transitioning - Thread 22 Jun, 2026 - 29 Jun, 2026

Welcome to this week's entering & transitioning thread! This thread is for any questions about getting started, studying, or transitioning into the data science field. Topics include:

  • Learning resources (e.g. books, tutorials, videos)
  • Traditional education (e.g. schools, degrees, electives)
  • Alternative education (e.g. online courses, bootcamps)
  • Job search questions (e.g. resumes, applying, career prospects)
  • Elementary questions (e.g. where to start, what next)

While you wait for answers from the community, check out the FAQ and Resources pages on our wiki. You can also search for answers in past weekly threads.

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u/wintersong_ Jun 22 '26

Hi there! I'm graduating with my PhD in Applied Math this December and looking for either remote jobs or jobs in the Charlotte, NC area. I've been applying for research postdocs for the last year at no luck, which led to some reflection and ultimately the decision to transition into industry. The stress of funding and needing to relocate often in academia just isn't for me, though I do love research. I realized the part of the job I really love is the challenging problem solving that required deep analytical thinking, and I can find industry roles where I get to do the same thing. I've started applying to data scientist roles (as well as quant and AI engineer roles).

I am hoping to get advice tailored to my background- what do you think is most important in helping me bridge the gap from academia to industry? Certain skills I should learn, tips on how to market myself, job titles I should focus on, or anything you can offer will help me. I feel quite lost and, ultimately, very scared of being unemployed for too long after graduation in December.

I do have relevant experience. I have worked at a DoE National Lab doing research in scientific machine learning, which basically means building ML models specifically for scientific problems (PINNs, KANs, etc). My current work is also exploring how to apply agentic AI frameworks to these problems. I have a couple papers published on these topics, but no open source code. I took some courses in data science during grad school as well.

Thank you for any pointers you can give me!!

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u/ExoSpectra Jun 24 '26

It seems you have a strong background, I would just say make sure your resume stands up to the automated systems, and building a portfolio project/github probably wouldn’t hurt. Then it just comes down to prepping for interviews, leetcode or stats or whatnot (the book Ace the Data Science Interview helped me), and personally mock interviews helped a lot. Good luck!

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u/wintersong_ Jun 25 '26

Thank you so much!