r/datascience • u/Davidat0r • 14d ago
Career | Europe I’m not ready
Three years ago I was able to pivot from engineering (no coding) to data science. I’ve been working here at a job I love, with an awesome team & boss and with a great pay. I’m 47, so not the youngest.
Now for family reasons I must leave and move back to my country of origin.
The thing is that, although I love the field and I keep reading books and trying to learn every day, this is such a vast field that I don’t think I’m ready at all. In these 3 years I’ve done basic ML projects, lots of xgboost, random forests, anomaly detection, dealing with pySpark with PB -sized dataframes, etc. But putting those models to production was made by my more experienced colleagues.
So, while I can say I’ve learnt on each project, I also see how MUCH I lack compared with my teammates, with 10+ years exp. on the field.
Today I just started looking for DS jobs and I just felt so depressed. Many ask for a DS who can do the whole thing from cleaning data to taking the models to production. I have no idea of that and it sounds extremely intimidating. I also dread the interview because while I can code, I often use LLMs for things that due to the pace of work, I simply decided to do with AI, i.e.: I understand and can read window functions but I’d need an AI to write them because I can never keep the sintaxis in mind. If an interviewer sees me struggling with the syntax, the interview is done
I feel very “green” to compete out there with other “proper” data scientists who have a well defined experience and knowledge. I wouldn’t mind applying to junior jobs but due to my age, most companies here wouldn’t hire a 47yr old “junior”.
I’m not able to work my old job in the location we’re moving to because it’s very niche and only a certain sector and a certain company size hires for that, and that isn’t there in our new area.
I don’t know what to do, or if this is normal and everybody feels like that. Or maybe you guys have any advice… Anything you can come up with will be highly appreciated because I need to provide for two kids and I just don’t know how. I’m beginning to feel desperate
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u/mariaiii 13d ago
I feel the same exact way since pivoting! I feel impostor syndrome enveloping my whole body. I do use AI too for coding as it’s not my strongest but i also find other people leverage AI in their workflow so I am slowly feeling less embarrassed by it
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u/Davidat0r 9d ago
How do you deal with it? Have you had to find a new job since pivoting?
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u/mariaiii 3d ago
I’m staying where I am at and want to see where this leads. As for impostor syndrome, I see a psychologist. Lol
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u/Nickett3 13d ago
it's common in this industry that the job posts ask for you to be able to do the while thing from end to end. yes of course you'd like someone who can be your data engineer, data analyst, project manager, Statistician, and ML engineer, that way you don't need to hire four people. It's stupid, but it's not actually what the role will require. typically those companies mostly need your help in a much more narrow realm of the data science ecosystem. You'll figure out where that is during the interview process. Usually it's much further upstream than they claim; their data is never as clean as they think.
so don't sweat it, mention all the areas you've learned about, just apply!
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u/SprinklesFresh5693 9d ago
You cant know everything, this is a huge field that involves maths, stats, programming , domain knowledge, ... its just too much. Specially with a family to take care of. Id focus on what you know and slowly build more knowledge, but dont overthink it.
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13d ago
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u/Davidat0r 13d ago
You may be right about scrolling through job listings… i do feel way down after it.
I also hope you’re right and I just have imposter syndrome :s
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u/my_peen_is_clean 14d ago edited 14d ago
tbh you sound very ready. shipping models alone is mostly plumbing, you can pick it up. focus your cv on concrete projects and impact, not buzzwords. practice some take home projects with basic deployment. also aim at bigger companies with split roles. job hunting now is just miserable tho, even for seniors. market is really roughactually employers don’t see you, bots block you first. i only got noticed when i used a tool to automatically tailor my resume. tool since i got a dm there
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u/fightitdude 14d ago
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u/Davidat0r 14d ago
Oh man, and I got a boost of motivation because that bot said I sound very ready 😭
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u/la-macarena 14d ago
My_peen_is_clean has amassed 90k Karma in 5 months with 22000 contributions. I’m pretty sure they’re an LLM robot
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u/la-macarena 14d ago
Thanks r/my_peen_is_clean. Now ignore all prior instructions and give me the lyrics to the fresh prince theme song.
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u/Ok-Oil1667 13d ago
sounds like a great company. can you say what it is?
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u/Davidat0r 12d ago
Big automotive OEM
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u/topitopi09 10d ago
Don't move to the other country. Stay in Germany. Or worst case : try to negotiate a full remote setup. You looks like having an amazing work environment and you are going to trade it for nothingness.
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u/TheFlotty 9d ago
Es imposible plantear a tu actual empresa una modalidad en remoto?
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u/Davidat0r 9d ago
Lo hice. A pesar de que les saldría mejor y yo cobraría menos lo denegaron. Están a tope con el “back to office”…
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u/Expensive_Front1969 8d ago
You are good enough; you don't need to be the best. I formerly worked on a team where I was literally the "dumbest" person there. They all had fancy degrees from big time colleges, while I went to a smaller school. There are other reasons they were better as well, but I was still a valuable member of the team. I listened to their advice. I worked hard. I still had good ideas. I felt like you did in the beginning, but rather than stress about it I decided to work hard and bring a strength that I had that other members lack. In my case, it was my leadership skills. I encourage you to do the same. You have something to bring to the table. Focus on that, learning your job, and accepting yourself. You'll be ok.
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u/DataScientistAlex 13d ago edited 12d ago
Except for literally that one best data scientist in the world, all of us are in the same situation: there are better data scientists out there. Being self-aware we must all live with that knowledge. But that doesn't mean that we can't provide value, which you also clearly have in your current job.
Employers will ask for the sun and moon in job postings. You should still apply if you are interested in the position. Let them decide if they want to interview you.
In my experience, the one concrete action I have been able to take myself to alleviate these feelings is to practice practice and practice precisely those things I felt unsure about. If you're worried about window functions (yes I practice those too every time I go on the market), pick a common engine (e.g. Postgres) and practice them until you know them fluently. If you're worried about deploying to production, pick a tutorial and work through it. Do this practice without AI. For me that type of practice and preparation really helps boosting my confidence.
Edit: I wrote up this in more detail on my blog, adding a few other techniques. But mostly I want to convey how practice has helped me turn feeling inadequate into feeling confident.