

Ask HN:How to switch career from programmer to data scientist? - aforarnold

Doing programming for 3 years, while working in a project, I had to learn basic statistics and I found it really satisfying.Though, the complexity of the project was fairly easy, now I am thinking to switch track. As I have some programming experience, if I can learn data science that would  be great. I know there are some online courses but I want &quot;your&quot; comment, feedback or experience, because that would help me to go forward.
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MojoJolo
In my case, I was a software engineer for more than a year. I made an
algorithm that works well during my MS degree. A company took notice of it.
They hired me.

I don't have much data science background. I don't have any formal
introduction in it. But when I started, I realized that my experience in
building the algorithm is a good enough starting point. My point is, don't
just take online courses, try to apply what you learn. Try Kaggle, can't vouch
for it though, I still don't have a chance to try it. You can also gather
data, do some data science out of it, post your findings as an article in your
blog, and share it in social media. Not a sure fire, but can give you
credibility and people will know that you knew something about data science.

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soboleiv
A topic having loads of information answering your question:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7068672](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7068672)
[https://github.com/datasciencemasters/go/](https://github.com/datasciencemasters/go/)

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soboleiv
How about trying chasing some data scientists jobs and fixing your
knowledge/experience gaps as you go?

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MaysonL
Online courses, and Kaggle competitions. Lather, rinse, repeat.

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queensnake
Unfortunately Kaggle doesn't seem to have as many entry-level competitions as
it once did. Some learning ones, sure, but you need something to let you _move
up to_ 'Masters Level'. Also, it looks like the whole process would take a
couple of years.

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runjake
Insufficient data to provide a meaningful answer.

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runjake
This comment is getting down arrowed into oblivion, sorry.

The OP originally submitted this with the subject _and_ contents of "How to
switch career from programmer to data scientist?". It wasn't a very useful
query. He edited his question after that.

I thought I'd quote a little Asimov to elicit more information.

