Deb Yeagle ⋅ Tampa, FL Plan To Win, Inc. ⋅ 39 years experience

David-
Thanks for your service!
About a year ago, when I was pursuing my Data Science certificate, I discovered the towardsdatascience.com website. Here are links to a couple articles of interest. The first one contains ideas on volunteer organizations. The second one contains ideas on projects to keep your skills sharp. Good luck!
Deb
https://towardsdatascience.com/5-ways-to-gain-real-world-data-science-experience-674f0c80e836
https://towardsdatascience.com/14-data-science-projects-to-do-during-your-14-day-quarantine-8bd60d1e55e1

Kenneth Lewis ⋅ Colorado Springs, CO Lewis Leadership ⋅ 1 years experience

Check out https://operationcode.org/ and join that community. I think you’ll find a decent network that can help.

Also, look into FourBlock. They have a relationship with the Saleforce Tabluea folks. Could be worth looking into.

Another idea to consider is Freelancing. Look at sites such as Fiver or Upwork and start taking some jobs there. Then perhaps you can build a skill set and get paid for it.

Kenneth Lewis ⋅ Colorado Springs, CO Lewis Leadership ⋅ 1 years experience

Check out https://operationcode.org/ and join that community. I think you’ll find a decent network that can help.

Also, look into FourBlock. They have a relationship with the Saleforce Tabluea folks. Could be worth looking into.

Another idea to consider is Freelancing. Look at sites such as Fiver or Upwork and start taking some jobs there. Then perhaps you can build a skill set and get paid for it.

Geoff Bernstein ⋅ Williamsburg, VA U.S. Marine Corps, Captain ⋅ 11 years served

If you’re looking to build out your resume, I would build out a public GitHub where you post some of the projects you’ve worked on. I just did mine on Kaggle data. Try to show a decent mix of data cleaning, modeling, and full projects with your own written analysis. R Markdown or Jupyter Notebooks work well for that. Show your flexibility and ability to do self-directed work.

If you’re still looking to volunteer, Taproot Plus offers some real-world opportunities. I volunteer through a local meetup group as well.

I can tell you that SAS is still widely used, but the company I work at has been actively moving away from it, bit by bit. You’ll eventually learn a mix of platforms. As funny as it sounds, get good at SQL. SQL is always the killer app :-D

The VA VET TEC program is offering tuition-fee data science boot camps through Galvanize. It’s python-centered, so I’ve been looking at it myself as I try to transition to Python from R and SAS.

Kevin Trosine ⋅ Oviedo, FL Verizon ⋅ 30 years experience

Thats a fast growing segment in the tech world for sure! My company is very active in this space, so if you're looking for more info on the field of data science check out WWT.com This is a great resource to see whats going on and what type of use cases we are hearing from customers, in many different industries.
Lastly, we have a program that specifically looks to help people with military backgrounds as they consider transitioning to the civilian world. Best regards!

Kristin Williams-Washington ⋅ Laurel, MD U.S. Army, Major ⋅ 4 years served

I own a management consulting firm and we are always in need of data scientists. Feel free to contact me at KWashington@W2ConsultingCorp.com and we'll see what we can do.

Bin Yu ⋅ Pleasanton, CA Adobe ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi David,

Data science is a busy area where HR supply is much less than demand. You can look at many popular hiring sites including Linkedin for entry level openings. There are many internship opportunities in the coming season from large and startup companies.

Good luck,
Bin

George Goodfriend ⋅ New York, NY American Corporate Partners ⋅ 1 years experience

Hi David,

If you're looking to donate your time, you should check out VolunteerMatch.org! It's an online platform that connects nonprofits with individuals looking to give back to a specific cause or community. I did a brief search for you and the possibilities are endless.

Best,
George

Jerry Welsh ⋅ Middleville, MI Master Military Transition Advisor/HPS GPO ⋅ 30 years experience

David,
William has great advice. I would also conduct some Informational Interviews with folks in these positions right now, stress you interest in the industry, but gather information on what people doing the job every day do, how they became interested in the field. Folks like to help veterans, but remember ask for information and you will get that and maybe an invitation for an internship, but ask for a job and you will get the pat answer go online and fill out the application. Companies appreciate people taking the time to research, ask good career questions, everyone can call up and ask for a job! Thanks for your service and God Bless.

William Munroe ⋅ Dunstable, MA Nominet, CyGlass ⋅ 20 years experience

Hi David,
One area that data science is taking off in is cybersecurity. Every, and I mean every cybersecurity vendor from Palo Alto to Fire Eye and beyond are looking for data scientists. All of them offer internship and coop programs and they do not require that you be a college student. A high percentage of them lead to jobs. Also, many of these companies have veterans programs. So reach out on this network for software development managers at cybersecurity companies and offer up your services. It is such a hot space, that I am sure you will find something that will help you gain experience.

Best Regards
Bill