My Journey in Data Science...
Over the past few months, I have given multiple talks and participated in forums discussing my professional trajectory and my experience as a data scientist. In this post I will try to compile my path and give a few tips into how I think one may break into data science and analytics. This is not a novel guide, nor a comprehensive path to break into data science, but I think I’ve been exposed to enough to share my story.
From physics to Data Science
When I started my undergraduate degree in physics, I knew I always wanted to do hands-on problem solving. I was undecided on which branch of engineering I should choose to fulfill my career expectations. I thought physics would give enough technical abilities and a broad exposure to science and math to eventually drift towards a more clear path into problem solving in the real world. I was surprised and wrong with how things turned out..
During my third and last year of college, I was already fantasizing going into grad school to pursue a PhD in some wacky quantum-focused specialty and problem. This process led me to a lot of frustration: exam preparations, applications, finding schools and potential advisors, you name it. I started to get the feeling this pathway was not very natural to my abilities and my aspirations, I felt like forcing me to do something I was not and that brought me a lot of pain as I felt increasingly under pressure.
Luckily, after a few rejections I stopped to rethink my decisions, and I thought that maybe finding a job would be a more fulfilling approach to start growing and learning new skills. I started contacting my professors, applying to jobs, and connecting with people. To my surprise, just after a few weeks after graduating, I already had multiple interviews in different sectors. This process slowly but surely presented me with opportunities and potential paths to follow in my career as a problem solver. Over the multiple interviews, I heard words like Big Data, Data Science, Machine Learning, etc. I was thrilled. I thought this was an interesting opening worth diving into and it was then in 2014 when I managed to ‘break into data science’.
