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
   

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2. Nice to Meet You
   • Data Scientist
   • PhD in Information Retrieval
   • Background in Software Eng
   

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3. Data Science
   vs
   Market Research
   

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4. Data Science
   vs
   Market Research
   Data Science
   for
   Market Research
   

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5. What is Data Science
   Source: http://drewconway.com/zia/2013/3/26/the-data-science-venn-diagram
   

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6. Data Scientist’s Mistakes
   • Not enough software engineering
   • Too much software engineering
   • “Type A” vs “Type B” Data Scientist
   

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7. Do I Need a PhD?
   • Strictly speaking, not really
   • But it helps:
   • Hacking skills, Math&Stats, Substantive expertise
   • Soft skills
   

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8. Moving to Industry
   • Big companies
   • Small companies
   • Going solo (consultant/contractor)
   • Start-up / own business
   

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9. Boost Your Profile
   • How is your on-line presence?
   • Blog, LinkedIn, GitHub, …
   • Meet-ups (networking)
   • Learning never ends
   

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10. Challenges
    • Combining the best of both worlds
    • There is no “average day”
    • Teams with diverse background
    • Academic life is more flexible
    

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11. Thank You
    • @MarcoBonzanini
    • http://marcobonzanini.com
    • marco.bonzanini@gmail.com
    

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