Disclaimer: This story is not meant to discourage you.
Rather, it should serve as a long hard look in the mirror.
Now youre dreaming of making this your career.
After all, its the sexiest job of the 21st century, according toHarvard Business Review.
But despite your enthusiasm, Data Science might not be for you.
At this moment in time, youre holding too many illusions and false stereotypes.
Now, your task is simple: Remove the things that hold you back!
And youll be surprised at how fast you move forward.
But have you ever used a shell before?
Have you felt the intimidation that can come from command-line interfaces when you stumble upon errors?
Have you ever worked with big databases on the scale of Terabytes?
If you answer one of these questions with no, youre not ready yet.
You need some real-world experience and build some real projects.
Only then will you encounter the bang out of problems that youll face every day as a Data Scientist.
And only then will you develop the skills to solve them.
Congratulations on your degree.
Now get cracking on the hard work.
You lack passion
Have you ever invested an entire weekend in a geeky project?
Have you ever spent your nights browsing GitHub while your friends were out to party?
Have you ever said no to doing your favorite hobby because youd rather code?
If you could answer none of the above with yes, youre not passionate enough.
Data Science is about facing really hard problems and sticking at them until you found a solution.
If youre not passionate enough, youll shy away at the sight of the first difficulty.
Think about what attracts you to becoming a Data Scientist.
Is it the glamorous job title?
Or is it the prospect of plowing through tons of data on the search for insights?
If it is the latter, youre heading in the right direction.
Youre not crazy enough
Only crazy ideas are good ideas.
And as a Data Scientist, youll need plenty of those.
Not only will it’s crucial that you be open to unexpected results they occur a lot!
But youll also have to develop solutions to really hard problems.
This requires a level of extraordinary that you cant accomplish with normal ideas.
If people constantly tell you that youre off your rocker, youre heading in the right direction.
If not, youll need to work on your craziness.
This, of course, requires some boldness.
Once you let out your eccentricity, some people will scratch their heads and turn their back on you.
But its worth it.
Because youre being true to yourself.
And youre igniting the spark of awesomeness that you need as a Data Scientist.
You learn from textbooks and online classes
Dont get me wrong.
Textbooks and online classes are a great way to get started.
But only to get started!you gotta work on real projects as soon as possible.
But as soon as youve built a modest foundation, get active.
Learning by doing is key.
Start building your GitHub portfolio.
Take part in some Hackathons and Kaggle competitions.
And blog about your experiences.
Everybody can do textbooks.
To be a Data Scientist, you must do more.
Now you think that once youve mastered those, you have learned enough to break through in Data Science.Wrong.
This is yet the beginning.
If you think youre learning a lot now, think about how much youll be learning in three years.
If you end up as a Data Scientist, youll be learning ten times more than you are now.
Its an ever-changing field where new technologies are constantly needed.
If you dont enjoy learning Bigly, stop dreaming about being a Data Scientist.
Will you be able to land a job in Data Science?
No, you wont.
Data Scientists work in all kinds of companies and all kinds of industries.
To deliver key insights for your clients, you need knowledge about their domain.
For example,Kate Marie Lewisfrom the story below landed a position in Data Science in six months.
But what made the difference was that as a neuroscientist, she had domain knowledge in healthcare.
Which domain are you good at?
In which fields do you have experience?
attempt to position yourself as a specialist in your domain, and less like a general Data Scientist.
This is how you really land a job.
Youre lacking business skills
So youre more the analytical key in.
You love numbers and quantitative analyses, and you hate soft skills and human interaction.
This doesnt make you a good Data Scientist, my friend.
Soft skills are important even in a quantitative job.
Soft skills are what ultimately makes you rock that job interview.
Of all the soft skills that you could acquire, its your business skills that need a boost.
Remember that your clients are business leaders.
And as such, they need people who understand business.
Only this way can you generate insights that add value to your client.
Its time to get cracking, my friend.
If your follower count on Twitter is a single handful, get tweeting.
If your blog has no readers, try SEOing and cross-platform marketing.
The connections will come.
But you better get cracking first.
You dont love the dirty work
Youve heard all the buzz about Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
You think that Data Science could initiate the door to working with cutting-edge technologies.
But I guarantee you that you wont do it more than 5% of your time.
Once youve landed your dream job, youll spend the largest part of your time cleaning data.
Congratulations, you just found a new job as a janitor!
If you dont love that, go home you shouldnt be reading this post.
Data Science is not a career option.
Its a vocation
Data Scientists are highly sought-after individuals which makes a lot of people dabble with it.
But to get a position in the field, dabbling is not enough.
you should probably put in the hard work.
If youre still convinced about becoming a Data Scientist after reading this story, congratulations.
You might be on a very good path.
If at this point youre unsure about becoming a Data Scientist, identify the biggest reasons for your doubts.
Then start working on those points.
you’re able to do this!
This article was written byAri Jouryand was originally published onTowards Data Science.
