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OPINION

A Better Way To Become A Data Scientist Than

Online Courses
How people I know have become data scientists (including mysel )

Chris Follow
May 28 · 4 min read

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

This is an opinion piece. I’d love to hear your counter-arguments below.

Do you want to be a data scientist?

I met 50+ data scientists for coffee and worked with a few more.

Here I’ll explain how these people made the transition into data science.

P.S. It was not with online courses.

. . .

1. Solve A Real Problem With Machine Learning

Pick a real problem, then solve it with machine learning.

This is hard because there is no roadmap. But it provides real experience and a story to
market yourself, regardless if you succeed or fail.

Here are problems you could solve:

Detect fake news

Predict home values in your neighbourhood

Recommend pets to people based on their lifestyle

If your solution works (or even barely works), build a UI that others can use and post it
on Hacker News or Product Hunt.

Add the experience to your resume with your title as “Data Scientist”. If it solves a
problem with machine learning, no one will care that it was a one-person show.

Now you can tell this as a story in an interview, which will carry more weight than an
online certification.

. . .
2. Find A Mentor Who Is An Artificial Intelligence Expert
Build a relationship with someone experienced who can recommend AI-driven solutions
to problems you’re trying to solve.

This is how I broke into data science.

As a software engineer, a startup accelerator loaned my company an AI PhD for a few

hours each week.

Each week, we discussed problems and potential solutions, I worked on the

implementation, then we reviewed and repeated. After 6 months we solved several
important problems and the experience was invaluable.

I followed the below process to find subsequent data science mentors.

Message data scientists in your city on LinkedIn

Invite them for coffee

Have a specific problem in mind, and your own potential solutions to get feedback
on

Follow up with results after implementing a solution

. . .

3. Do A Machine Learning Internship

Take a short-term job where you’ll be paid less but will get your hands on a real projects
implementing AI.

A former ML intern at my startup is now a data engineering intern at Facebook, which

will probably roll into a full time offer.

This path isn’t for everyone and works better if you’re still young or in school. Not
everyone can afford to quit their job and become an intern, but you may be able to find
something part-time or online.
The important part of this is getting AI-related experience on your resume.

. . .

4. Start Doing Data Science In Your Current Job

Figure out how your current company can use AI to solve a problem. Then solve it.

You may not have time between 9 and 5 while you’re at work. But if you’re motivated, do
it at night or on the weekend. Then share what you accomplished.

If your current company is small, no one will argue against you adding more value. If it’s
really valuable, you may be allowed to work on it as one of your day-to-day projects.

Afterwards, put the project on your resume and update your job title, if you can.

. . .

5. Do A Data Science Bootcamp

Attend a paid data science bootcamp.

This costs money and not all bootcamps are equal, but I know at least 10 people who
broke into data science post-bootcamp, and all with large reputable companies.

The best bootcamps only accept PhDs, so it is possible that candidate success relies on
survivorship bias (bootcamps accept students who would be successful anyway).

Bootcamps benefit candidates in several ways.

Candidates do consulting for real companies

Graduates are connected with companies looking to hire

Job preparation is provided

That said, not every graduate will get a job.

 . . .

6. Become A Software Engineer First

I wrote about this here.

As long as data scientists solve problems with code, there will be heavy overlap with
software engineering.

After gaining experience as a software engineer, find a data science job that uses a
similar tech stack to your experience (ie: database, language, framework, packages).

If you can check off most job requirement boxes, you have a good chance of getting an
interview.

There are other benefits of becoming a software engineer first.

Make a decent salary

Work at companies who hire data scientists

Build a generalist technical background

Prove you can do a similar type of work

. . .

7. Do A Technical PhD or Master’s Degree Then Apply For

Jobs
Do you have 2 to 6 years to study? I don’t.

But most of the data scientists I met followed this path.

They have either:

An AI-related masters degree

 A technical PhD (not necessarily AI-related)

I wouldn’t recommend going back to school to break into data science. But if you’re
currently in school, and can transfer to an AI-related degree, do it. Anecdotally, the
highest paying AI salaries require advanced degrees.

While costly and time consuming, traditional degrees carry a level of trust that online
certification don’t.

. . .

What About Online Courses?

There IS a place for online courses. But it’s not for getting a job.

The benefits of courses include learning what you don’t know, and deep diving into
specific techniques.

But on the flip side, courses give the feeling of accomplishment, without making you do
the hardest and most sellable thing, solving a real problem.

I’d say, find a problem to solve, then use online courses to learn to solve it.

. . .

How have you seen people break into data science? I love to hear about it below.

Data Science Software Development Machine Learning Programming Arti cial Intelligence

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