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Remote Work Can Make it Hard to Stand Out as a Strong Data Scientist

Don't get overlooked because you are too quiet

Photo by Alex Litvin on Unsplash
Photo by Alex Litvin on Unsplash

Earlier in my career, I was an introvert at work. I stayed to myself, did my job, and left. If 2020 taught me anything, it taught me how to stand out and showcase my work while effectively working remotely. 2020 taught me that I could not stand on the sidelines letting life happen. Instead, I needed to find ways to get noticed. Work can be stressful, and sometimes it can feel like you are not getting recognition for your work. It is much easier to get lost in the background when you do not see people in person every day. The one skill I focused on last year was improving my Communication. To do so, I found three areas that have helped get my work noticed as a remote data scientist while working on effective communication:

  1. Being present in meetings.
  2. Showcasing my work where possible.
  3. Finding a mentor who could provide feedback.

Be Present in Meetings

As I worked to improve my communication skills, it became clear that I would spend a good portion of time in meetings throughout the year, mostly since everything was now remote. Meetings became a great place to work on practical and clear communication.

Meetings are unavoidable, and many days they can stack up, one after another. When I started working remotely, I found myself becoming distracted in meetings. You can shut the camera off, start working on a project, answering messages and emails, or fixing a problem. It became easy to go from meeting to meeting without being noticed.

Don’t multitask during your meetings. Instead, step back from what you are working on and be present in the moment.

Meetings are a perfect opportunity to engage in discussion with your colleagues on the topic being discussed. When I see meetings on my calendar, I prepare questions and discussion points that I want to discuss if the opportunity arises. As I am listening to the meeting, I take notes on the main points and action items, noting what is required of myself or my team. As you look at your calendar, you need to ask yourself what you are taking away from your meetings and why are you in them? If you are not required for that meeting, then ask to be removed from the list. This will allow you to free your calendar up for what is essential.


Showcase Your Work

Another way to get noticed while working remotely is to find opportunities to showcase your work to your colleagues and higher-ups. There are many different ways you can share what you have been working on. Here are just a few common formats I focus on:

  • Sprint Reviews – When I am preparing a demo of work I have done, the first thing that comes to mind is presenting at a sprint review. Sprint Reviews are a perfect place to demo your work’s output, such as a dashboard or showcase a short PPT of an analysis. This meeting will get your work in front of your team and stakeholders for feedback.
  • Feedback Sessions – If I want feedback from a select group of people on a project I am working on, I plan a specific meeting. These tend to be meetings with those who have worked closely on the project with me and others who may not have seen the work but could provide insight. In these types of meetings, it is good to prepare your agenda for what you want to cover and ask for feedback. Do you need these individuals to review some code with you, discuss an analytic idea you have, or look over a dashboard to determine the next steps? Know what you are looking to get from the meeting and share the work you are doing with them.
  • Lunch and Learns – If you are looking to present your work to a broader audience to showcase what you have done, a lunch and learn can be a great forum. Lunch and Learns can bring together different individuals across the organization, giving you a broader audience for your work. These types of meetings can be used to showcase your work, provide an in-depth overview of a topic, or present a tutorial of a new concept. It would be best to tailor the presentation to a broader audience in these events, technical enough with the details but not too much that the average attendee couldn’t follow.

On average, those tend to be the three main forums I use to showcase my work to others: (1) Sprint Reviews, (2) Feedback Sessions, and (3) Lunch and Learns. If one of these doesn’t fit your team’s set up, then find what types of meetings allow you to showcase your work. Find time in those calls and present what you have been working on and your findings. You can’t wait for the opportunity to contribute to fall into your lap. You need to find it.

These are just some of the meetings I showcase my work in, but there are many more. From 1:1’s to meetings with executives, there are tons of opportunities in the workplace where you can share what you and your are doing, the impact you are making, and the learnings that came from it.


Find a Mentor

As I continued to attend different meetings and effectively communicate during them, I sought out a mentor who could help me. I wanted a mentor who was a member of my team that could provide feedback on how I communicated. This mentorship allowed me to ask questions such as:

  • What was unclear during that discussion and could have been clarified?
  • What information was lacking that needed to be shared to drive the point home?
  • What was the value of this work? Was it presented well, or could it have been adjusted to be more clear?
  • Were the metrics I calculated useful in understanding the performance improvements or value add?

The mentor I picked was a principal data scientist from my team who had experience presenting to different business levels. He was able to see how I was presenting my work in various settings and provide feedback based on what he was seeing. This engagement allowed me to have someone with who I could speak before and after any significant presentation. I discussed with him and sought advice on what information should be presented, how to explain it, and what level would be appropriate for different audiences.


Final Thoughts

Three areas that have helped get my work noticed as a remote data scientist has been:

  1. Being present in meetings.
  2. Showcasing my work where possible.
  3. Finding a mentor who can provide feedback.

As you traverse your team, try different methods to get noticed and stick with what is working.

For some, sitting in the background and completing your tasks may work. But for others, you may want to become more active within the team to get your voice heard and become noticed as a key player. If the latter is you, then developing skills in effective communication can help you to get seen. You can work on your communication through actively participating in meetings and finding platforms within your team to showcase the positive impact you have been having on the business and how you got there.

One way that can be key to getting better at effective communication and presenting your work is to have a mentor who can discuss the before, during, and after. Having a mentor or coworker that can provide insight into where you can improve is a valuable way to understand what is going well and what is not. Find someone you can learn from and see what they have to offer.

What have you done to become noticed as a remote data scientist?


If you would like to read more, check out some of my other articles below!

Why Does Reliability and Stability Matter in Data Science?

One Big Lesson on Creating a Software Library

Top 7 Lessons Learned After an Application Outage in Data Science


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