Starting Your Career in Data Science

Slides of my talk as part of the event "Beyond Academia: Working in social and market research" organised by UCL for research students and post-docs.

Transcript

1. Starting Your Career in Data Science Marco Bonzanini ! May 2016 @ UCL
2. Nice to Meet You • Data Scientist • PhD in Information Retrieval • Background in Software Eng
3. Data Science vs Market Research
4. Data Science vs Market Research Data Science for Market Research
5. What is Data Science Source: http://drewconway.com/zia/2013/3/26/the-data-science-venn-diagram
6. Data Scientist’s Mistakes • Not enough software engineering • Too much software engineering • “Type A” vs “Type B” Data Scientist
7. Do I Need a PhD? • Strictly speaking, not really • But it helps: • Hacking skills, Math&Stats, Substantive expertise • Soft skills
8. Moving to Industry • Big companies • Small companies • Going solo (consultant/contractor) • Start-up / own business
9. Boost Your Profile • How is your on-line presence? • Blog, LinkedIn, GitHub, … • Meet-ups (networking) • Learning never ends
10. Challenges • Combining the best of both worlds • There is no “average day” • Teams with diverse background • Academic life is more flexible
11. Thank You • @MarcoBonzanini • http://marcobonzanini.com • marco.bonzanini@gmail.com