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So you want to be a data scientist?

So you want to be a data scientist?

By Misra Turp

Interviews with data scientists, data engineers, machine learning engineers and professionals in other relevant areas to data. We chat about how they ended up where they are now and what kind of projects they work on.
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A look into the world and future plans of Data Professor

So you want to be a data scientist?Sep 01, 2022

00:00
30:08
A look into the world and future plans of Data Professor

A look into the world and future plans of Data Professor

Chanin Nantasenamat is behind the very successful YouTube channel Data Professor. He is an actual professor with a background in working in academia in the field of bioinformatics. Since the beginning of the pandemic he has started his brand Data Professor and has been taking the data science scene by storm.

We talked about his background, how he decided to start his YouTube channel, how he built his YouTube channel to the size it is now, what future plans he has, his role at Streamlit and advice he can give to aspiring data science practitioners.


Data Professor YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/DataProfessor

Data Professor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedataprof

Chanin's Data Science Landscape: https://twitter.com/thedataprof/status/1557407932060663808

Sep 01, 202230:08
#22 - Being a data science consultant at Amazon with Naz Levent

#22 - Being a data science consultant at Amazon with Naz Levent

Amazon has many services and one of the biggest products they have is AWS. It stands for Amazon Web Services and is a cloud services platform. As part of their cloud services platform, Amazon also has skilled data scientists helping their clients implement data science solutions effectively and efficiently.

In this episode, I talk to one such data scientist: Naz Levent. Naz has been with Amazon for more than two years and has been part of some exciting projects in fashion, energy and entertainment industries. She even worked for F1 on a prominent project whose results were broadcast to hundreds of thousands of F1 followers.

She shares with us how she got into data science, how she got her first job, what her days look like and why she loves her job. She has some unusual and great advice on how to get ready for a data science career.

Take a listen!

And don't forget to go check out my courses at soyouwanttobeadatascientist.com/roadmap

Feb 22, 202143:40
#21 - Working as a data science while still studying with Khuyen Tran
Feb 06, 202123:17
#20 - A look into Women in Data with Sadie St. Lawrence

#20 - A look into Women in Data with Sadie St. Lawrence

Communities all over the world are on the rise. People want to connect with others that they have shared values with. People in these communities help their fellow members with hard times, follow each other's journeys and are there for each other through challenges. One such great community is Women in Data. Its goal is to increase diversity in data careers. But it’s more than a community. It “provides awareness, education and advancement to women in the tech industry - specifically in analytics, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence” in their words.

Behind this organization is Sadie St. Lawrence. And she has a very interesting story on how this all got started. Being the only woman in her studies, Sadie felt the need for a community and built one from the ground up to help others who felt like her.

Now, in just 5 years, Women in Data is active in 11 countries.

Sadie is a data practitioner herself who has a background in data science and consultancy. In this episode, we talk about: Her journey into data science, how to approach getting into a data career, her advice for aspiring data scientists, what programs Women in Data has for aspiring data scientists, how to get in touch and become a part of the organization and much more!

Don’t miss this awesome episode!

Women in data website - https://www.womenindata.org/

Women in data YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwMkDNVrU2Vzc0dlJSdl7ww 

Hands-on Data Science: Complete your first portfolio project course - https://www.soyouwanttobeadatascientist.com/hods

Data Science Kick-starter mini-course - https://www.soyouwanttobeadatascientist.com/courses/data-science-kick-starter-mini-course

Jan 23, 202133:19
#19 - Helping the government work better with AI with Nicole Janeway Bills

#19 - Helping the government work better with AI with Nicole Janeway Bills

Jan 08, 202142:23
#18 - An unconventional path to founding an AI Start-up with Mikiko Bazeley
Jan 02, 202129:36
#17 - Starting a business on data with Susan Walsh, The Classification Guru

#17 - Starting a business on data with Susan Walsh, The Classification Guru

Data Scientists are in demand and that's why becoming a data scientist is also in demand. Though many times what people have in mind when they think of becoming a data scientist is working at a company, with a boss.

This doesn't have to be the case for everyone though. Ways you can do data science and in general, careers in data are too many to count. If you're really passionate about what you're doing and you value freedom above all else, like Susan, you might even start your own business and become your own boss.

Susan, also known as, The Classification Guru started her business after she realised that there is a gap in the market for people who would tidy up your data for you and make it ready for analysis. And now, her business is flourishing. She gets to work with fun use cases, have fun making marketing content for her work and make money on top of it. 

In this episode we talk about her journey building her business, how she came up with an idea, what kind of services she offers to her clients, how she likes her job and many more things!

Tune in to learn more about the possibility of starting your own business and to get some inspiration!

The Classification Guru website - https://www.theclassificationguru.com/

The Classification Guru YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfrWRbL-zeEZsHwjYhj3v_A/videos 

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Hands-on Data Science: Complete your first portfolio project course - https://www.soyouwanttobeadatascientist.com/hods

Data Science Kick-starter mini-course - https://www.soyouwanttobeadatascientist.com/courses/data-science-kick-starter-mini-course

Dec 20, 202043:01
#16 - Being a data scientist in a multinational tech consultancy with Rossy Nhung Nguyen
Dec 06, 202023:59
#15 - Finding remote work and life of a machine learning engineer with Ceren İyim

#15 - Finding remote work and life of a machine learning engineer with Ceren İyim

As a person who looked for jobs in the remote workspace before the pandemic, I can say, it is not easy. Fully remote companies tend to be, simply, super cool and have great culture. That’s why they get a lot of applications. This in turn makes the space super competitive.

When I, “re-met” Ceren 6-7 months ago, she was also looking for remote work. In the meantime, she actually found a remote position at an awesome company called Data Revenue and has been with them for the past couple of months.

In this episode, we hear how Ceren changed her career from being a logistics consultant to a machine learning engineer, which resources she used to learn data science, how she got her current position, her projects and more.

It's fair to note that with the latest developments in the world, as in a global pandemic, companies started seeing that remote work is actually possible. A lot of businesses have been temporarily or some even permanently moved to a remote working style. As a result, a lot of new opportunities for remote work opened up! This will make remote positions more accessible to a wider array of workers in the coming years. If you're interested in getting a remote position, let's hear it from Ceren who has been through it all!

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Hands-on Data Science: Complete your first portfolio project course - https://www.soyouwanttobeadatascientist.com/hods

Data Science Kick-starter mini-course - https://www.soyouwanttobeadatascientist.com/courses/data-science-kick-starter-mini-course

Nov 26, 202026:39
#14 - Economics to Data Science with Jayeeta Putatunda
Oct 23, 202033:57
#13 - From ecology research to data science with Meg Thomason
Sep 27, 202044:23
#12 - Life as a PhD student working working on AI with Selene Báez Santamaría

#12 - Life as a PhD student working working on AI with Selene Báez Santamaría

Doing a PhD is a great way to dive very deeply into a topic you're passionate about. When it comes to AI there is no shortage of interesting topics. If you don't want to have the limitation of a company that needs to make profits and want to satisfy your curiosity about your passion, doing a PhD might be just the thing for you. This week I'm interviewing Selene Báez Santamaría.

Selene is a PhD student working on interaction between humans and robots. We discuss her journey towards starting a PhD, how she acquired her knowledge, what she did before starting her PhD and the details of her research. We also talk about how PhDs work, who it is for and how can you steer your career towards academia.

Aug 30, 202037:17
#11 - Data Science in Research with Sakshi Mishra

#11 - Data Science in Research with Sakshi Mishra

Curious about how data science and machine learning contributes to renewable energy research? In this episode, Sakshi Mishra from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) joins me to talk about her journey and her work. NREL is part of the United States Department of Energy and its main goal is to innovate on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

We talk about how the lab comes up with research projects to work on, how she uses ML in these projects and how these projects are used in the real world. Apart from her work, we also talk about how she ended up where she is and what qualification she needed to get this job that quite honestly, sounds very dreamy.

Give it a listen to get inspired about applications of ML in research!

Jul 31, 202039:29
#10 - An unexpected way of using data science and life at Adobe with Shivali Goel

#10 - An unexpected way of using data science and life at Adobe with Shivali Goel

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine a vast variety of jobs where data science skills and machine learning are used. So, we end up defaulting to a data scientist position. Shivali Goel’s job is an excellent example of a non-data scientist title where data science skills are highly used.

Shivali is a globalisation engineer at Adobe. She works on making sure that Adobe products are applicable and acceptable across the globe to different countries, cultures and languages. While doing so, she uses NLP and other ML techniques as her main tool.

This goes to show that you don’t only have to be a data scientist by title to be practicing data science and using the “cool” ML techniques in your work. 

Shivali says that her passion for languages, different cultures and NLP is combined in her position. Let’s hear it from her in this episode and go into the details of how she works.

Jul 17, 202023:51
#9 - Start-up life and being a free data scientist with Yaakov Bressler

#9 - Start-up life and being a free data scientist with Yaakov Bressler

Yaakov is a data scientist and theatre producer. He has experience working in start-ups and more recently as a free data scientist ready to make trouble. He has worked on some very interesting projects bringing art and data science together. 

We talk about his experience working in start-ups, how he comes up with his projects now and what he works on currently. Yaakov has great examples of bringing multiple disciplines together. This episode surely will widen your horizons on what kind of projects are possible in data science. 

Don’t miss it!

Jun 22, 202040:31
#8 - Data science from two perspectives with Nikola Valešová and Petr Míchal

#8 - Data science from two perspectives with Nikola Valešová and Petr Míchal

Nikola and Petr both work for the same company in Prague. DataSentics, where they work, has a wide selection of projects and a very interesting portfolio. As part of their jobs as data scientists, Nikola and Petr not only implement machine learning models for their clients but also act as consultants and help them from start to end of creating a whole product. That's a great example of the ideal case of being a data scientist.

We talk about how they ended up where they are, what kind of responsibilities they have day-to-day and how they like their work right now. This episode is special in the sense that we hear the experience of being a data scientist from two different perspectives!

Don't miss it!

Jun 09, 202037:37
#7 - Freelancing and starting your own company with Katia Stambolieva

#7 - Freelancing and starting your own company with Katia Stambolieva

On this week's episode, I welcome Katia Stambolieva, proud co-founder of the space tech company NinaSpace and a freelance data scientist. In NinaSpace, Katia and the team work on detecting wildfires from space and warn governments on time to mitigate the negative effect of these unexpected events. Apart from her work at her company, she also does freelance work primarily to help amplify the impact of social, civic or environmental projects. She truly is an inspiration for anyone who dreams of starting their own business and has a lot to teach about being a freelancer. 

Katia shares her journey to data science, business and space tech, we discuss the position of women in tech, talk about what it takes to be a data scientist and much more. Don't miss it!

May 27, 202046:52
#6 - Becoming an ML engineer and work life at Twitter with Jigyasa Grover
May 11, 202022:07
#5 - Whys and hows of a product analyst career with Kasia Rachuta

#5 - Whys and hows of a product analyst career with Kasia Rachuta

In this episode, we look into one of the many data-related titles: product analyst. Kasia Rachuta is a product analyst at Square, a financial services company in San Francisco. She also held data science positions before and is able to compare the two easily. 

We talk about how being a product analyst differs from being a data scientist, what her daily responsibilities are, what she loves about her job and what she did to get where she is right now.

All of this and more in this week's episode!


Apr 29, 202022:20
#4 - A senior data scientist's life with Samantha Zeitlin

#4 - A senior data scientist's life with Samantha Zeitlin

Samantha joins me to talk about her career in the fourth episode of So you want to be a data scientist. She is a senior data scientist at Sentry.io in San Francisco. We talk about her journey from academia to business. We also discuss her daily responsibilities and what being a senior data scientist changed for her. Samantha has really helpful insights for aspiring data scientists and great advice for anyone transitioning careers to data science. We talk about all this and more, in this episode.

Apr 14, 202036:36
#3 - Being a technical writer at a tech firm with Melissa Barr

#3 - Being a technical writer at a tech firm with Melissa Barr

Melissa is a technical writer at Uber working specifically for the machine learning team. In this episode we get to learn more about technical writing and what this job entails. Melissa talks about her journey of becoming a technical writer, shares the kind of tasks she performs day-to-day and informs us about the career path of a technical writer. She has some really good tips for anyone interested in a technical writing or data related position.

Apr 01, 202030:46
#2 - Discussing big bank life with Víctor García Cazorla

#2 - Discussing big bank life with Víctor García Cazorla

Data science can take many shapes and forms. It is important to get insights from people working in different industries, different sized companies and different roles. In this episode, Víctor García Cazorla joins me to share his data science story. He works at ABN AMRO, one of the major banks in the Netherlands. He shares his experience of working in a big bank with us. Additionally, we discuss day-to-day activities, the way of working and the tools that he uses.

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Music by: Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3986-lobby-time

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Mar 19, 202029:60
#1 - Talking about data science in consulting with Madli Kivisik
Mar 03, 202031:32