
Ask HN: BI/ML transferable to other industries - anarchimedes
I wanted to get other BI&#x2F;ML folks input on how transferable their abilities and knowledge is to other industries. It seems that a lot of the insights into the data and impact come through understanding the business and it would be interesting to hear if that has presented a significant roadblock to getting hired and&#x2F;or being effective in a new industry.<p>I am pushing 7+ years in a BI&#x2F;ML role with my current company and I want to make sure I am not locking myself out of getting employed elsewhere.
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mlthoughts2018
Companies usually only pay lip service to the value of "insights" or the use
of forecasting or rigorous modeling for business intelligence. They will
require much fancier-sounding experience to appear on your resume than they
will ever allow you to focus on for real work projects once hired. The value
of "insights" is an ever-shifting political problem.

In that sense, whatever job skills you develop to be good at the political
metagame being played between managers who supposedly wield data science or
business intelligence will be transferable and help you survive in corporate
culture.

But any authentic skill you have in statistics or modeling won't be valued
except for the brief period when you need to use it to satisfy arbitrary and
capricious credential signalling requirements during the interview process.

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anarchimedes
Thank you for the feedback.

