Data science is a huge industry and is growing incredibly fast. One has to keep up with the latest trends and skills to stay relevant. Additionally you need to market yourself to companies and recruiters to leverage your skills for the best return. Here we are going to through 10 ways to boost your data science career. If data science isn’t your thing, maybe you could learn one of top skills for 2019.
10. Get on Github
If you aren’t already on Github you are missing out on a huge opportunity to show off some of your skills. You can use your Github profile to show any coding or projects you have done for fun which show competency in building programs/applications. It can also show your contributions to open source projects if you get involved. Having these contributions shows you can work in a remote team environment to develop a project.
9. Build a Portfolio Website
It is great idea to create a portfolio website to collate all your projects that showcase your skills. The portfolio site in itself show some skills in hosting and maintaining a web site. If you don’t have the capability or the funds you can use Github pages to generate a free portfolio site. You could even expand your portfolio site to blog about each of your projects in detail.
8. Use LinkedIn
Use LinkedIn to connect to data science colleagues, potential employers and recruiters. Make sure to complete your profile fully, especially noting down all experience including hackathons and side projects. If you are interested in receiving offers for new jobs from recruiters there is an option on your profile to allow this. Additionally on LinkedIn you can post commentary and discussion on articles you find interesting or even share your own articles from your portfolio site.
7. Compete in Kaggle events
Or other hackathon style events like TechCrunch Disrupt and GovHack. These events are a great way to both improve your skills and try them out in real world applications. It also serves as a great networking opportunity to meet other data science enthusiasts and potential employers. Competing in these events also gives some experience to put on your resume if you are not currently working in the industry you want.
6. Study for a degree
Whether you already have a degree or not, you could consider studying for a degree. Depending on your current education you could choose a bachelor’s, master’s or even a PHD. Studying will allow you to get exposure to the latest techniques and technologies being developed in academia. While not all the knowledge will be applicable to real world problems, you will gain a good foundation of data science skills. It also serves as an opportunity to connect with lecturers and other industry members, which good result in a better job!
5. Learn a data science language
You need to learn a language that is used in the data science. More accurately you will probably need to learn multiple. This is because data science requires using different components and integrating them efficiently. Here are just a few languages that are beneficial to study:
- shell/bash
- python
- R
- SQL
Picking up one or more of these languages will have you in good stead to boost your data science career!
4. Start writing on Medium
Medium is great way to share your expertise with other interested. You can write some articles about some fun side projects you have uploaded to Github. Include detail explanations and code excerpts to share and showcase your skills. Additionally you can cross post all these articles to your portfolio website and LinkedIn for more exposure of your expertise. Writing articles on Medium, LinkedIn and your personal site is additionally a fantastic way to improve your written communication skills. This is an underrated skill in today’s workforce, and is a beneficial skill to improve.
3. Get Involved on Twitter
Sweep the dust off your Twitter account and start interacting with the data science community. The data science community is generally very active on Twitter. This makes it a excellent way to connect with other data scientists and share your knowledge. Twitter is also very beneficial to keep up to date with the latest news; and you can curate it to your preference by choosing who you follow.
2. Find a mentor
Finding a mentor is quite possibly one of the best was to boost your career. They could give you advice on where the industry is headed and what skills you should focus on. Finding a mentor can be difficult but here are a couple of ways you could try:
- colleagues through your current workplace
- lecturers or other students at university, if you are studying
- through connecting with people on Twitter
- attending local data science meetup events
1. Become a mentor
One of the best ways to fortify knowledge for yourself is to teach others. Even if you aren’t an advanced data science operator, I can be beneficial to mentor others in the basic skills. This will reinforce your knowledge and you will likely even learn something new! This is also a great networking opportunity and a way to showcase yourself in the community.
So there’s ten simple ways to boost your data science career. While they maybe simple you still need to put in the hard work to actually show results. Have we missed any stellar ways to boost your career? Let us know in the comments below.
Alche is a passionate writer about many topics and wants to share knowledge in a simple way so all readers can enjoy and learn.