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I am looking for a mentorship in Data Science/Data Engineering.

Veteran

Matthew Rose Ankeny, IA

Hello,

I am currently working on my graduate degree in Data Science and looking for guidance and mentoring within the profession to further align with career progression. I have been working in the software engineering space for around 6 years and would like to learn more about the Data Science profession, how to get started in the field, and what are some emerging trends in the field?

Thanks,
Matt

6 December 2021 2 replies Mentoring

Answers

Advisor

Richard Byrne Hillsborough, NJ

Looks like you have a strong background.

Perhaps you should create a profile on Microsoft's https://LinkeIn.com to network with others?

I've added some links to my webpage that might help you.
http://eehot.com/ee.html#jobs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cloud_computing_providers

Advisor

Aaron Wolf Chapel Hill, NC

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your question and, more importantly, thanks for your service!

Having 6 years of experience as a software engineer is really solid base for getting into data science. With your programming background, you'll have more success bringing your ideas / experiments to life and will produce more repeatable / reusable code for the greater data science team. Keep enhancing those skills. A related hot topic these days is "data-ops" where it blends data engineering, data science, and software development together to make production level data pipelines that deliver value. Other emerging trends that come to mind are the proliferation of AutoML and ensuring privacy / governance with the ethical use of AI, and of course Big Data is always a buzzword.

Per your question how to get started, the graduate degree is a great first step. Depending on the program, they may have a robust recruiting cycle that you can get more involved with. I would try to explore that a bit as that is probably the cleanest route. Our company targets a couple of master degree programs for entry level roles.

If your particular school does not have the recruiting engine that fits your needs, then you'll have a little more homework to "break-in". I always recommend finding a passion topic and trying to uncover an interesting question. Then build an end-to-end pipeline that encompasses retrieving, cleaning, analyzing, storing, and visualizing your insight to answer the question. When I was just getting started, I looked at sports analytics. What is your passion?

Good luck and let me know if you have any additional follow-ups or clarifications.

Cheers,
Aaron

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