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2 Years of Blogging, 1 Year of Working as a Data Scientist, and a Different Me

A journey started from desperately trying to get an interview to being reached out by recruiters

Photo by O'car Johann Campos on Unsplash
Photo by O’car Johann Campos on Unsplash

"One of my master students trained a model using the song lyrics of a popular singer. Then, the model generated a song which was not bad at all".

These are the words that got me into data science.

I was listening to a talk given by a professor about data science and Artificial Intelligence. When he mentioned the project of his student, I made up my mind and decided to become a data scientist.

This article is a summary of my journey that started from desperately trying to get an interview to being reached out by recruiters.

I already had a full-time job and kind of a tight schedule. It would not be an easy task for me to learn Data Science while keeping my current job but I wanted to give it a try.

I did not have a well-designed plan at first so I thought about the different options I had for learning. Then, I decided to start with a MOOC course, IBM Data Science Professional Certificate, to be exact.

I did not just go over the lessons in this certification. I knew that I had to practice more and make use of other resources as well. That is when I learned about Medium.

I came across highly valuable data science content on Medium. There was an article about almost anything I looked for. Some were on specific topics such as "how to do X with Y". There was also great content about data science in general.

One of the nice things about the articles on Medium is that people from the industry share their experiences and learning journeys as well.

One of the best things I did while learning data science was to start writing on Medium.

I wrote my first article on January 5, 2020. At first, my goal was to obtain a comprehensive understanding of a topic by writing about it. If I’m able to explain it to another person, then I can say I have learned it.

After writing several articles, it felt good to see the number of views and reads increasing. It further motivated me to learn new topics.


Motivation

I would like to emphasize the importance of motivation for aspiring data scientists. It is a long and time-consuming task to learn data science. It takes time, effort, energy, and most importantly motivation.

Data science is an interdisciplinary field so there are several topics to learn. On top of that, we need to get familiar with some software tools and packages.

What makes the process even more difficult is the competitive job market. If you do not have prior job experience, it becomes a challenge to show your skills and to even get an interview.

Believe me, if you do not have prior job experience in data science, what you need the most to reach your goal is long-lasting motivation. You always need to keep your spirits high.

Writing on Medium helped me to keep going for months without even getting an interview. Besides, it started to become a considerable side income after some time.


It is a great experience to have an active data science blog but you need more. Completing MOOC courses and collecting certificates are helpful but not enough to get you a job.

After you learn the basics and take your first step into the field, I suggest doing projects. It gives you much more credibility than having a few certificates at your hand.

I kept learning, practicing, and writing on Medium. I also did a few projects that demonstrated my skills and what I had learned.

I did not have many interviews but I did pretty well in the ones I had. It felt good not to fail an interview. It made me feel like I was on the right track.

It took me almost two years to land my first job as a data scientist. Although it had been a difficult journey to learn data science, I’m glad I decided to make a career change.


After getting the job

I have been working as a data scientist for about a year now. Lots of things changed except for one which is learning.

Data science is still an evolving field and new developments are being announced constantly. On the software side, new tools and packages are being introduced to the data science community.

In order to stay competitive, it is important to keep up with the new developments and keep learning.

Working with real-life datasets and in the production environment has its own challenges. This process requires learning new technologies. It is very different than studying on your own. I consider this as an opportunity to improve my skills.

Another change was the collaborative work environment. You are most likely to work on a product as a team. Thus, communication skills are highly important.

Each member of a team might have great skills in a particular subject. However, the end result is destined to fail without establishing healthy communication between the team members.


Why I wrote this article

After I got a data scientist job, I did not quit writing on Medium. In fact, I had more materials to write about.

I have almost 500 articles on Medium. I write about a wide range of topics:

  • How to use a particular tool
  • My learning experience
  • Tips and tricks for aspiring data scientists
  • Statistics
  • Machine Learning
  • And so on…

What made me want to write this one happened in the past month. I was reached out by two recruiters for data scientist positions.

It took me back to the beginning of my data science journey. I remembered the days I was trying very hard to even get an interview. From that point, I was able to move to a place where I’m considered a good candidate for data scientist positions.

As always, the hard work paid off. I’m happy to see that the long nights and weekends turned into self-improvement. I’m now able to do something I enjoy doing.

If you plan to become a data scientist or are in the middle of your learning journey, don’t let the unresponded applications break your motivation.

Keep your spirits high. If you put in enough time, effort, and dedication, you will eventually reach your goal.


You can become a Medium member to unlock full access to my writing, plus the rest of Medium. If you do so using the following link, I will receive a portion of your membership fee at no additional cost to you.

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Thank you for reading. Please let me know if you have any feedback.


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