
Hiring Data Scientists Step 1: Stop Looking for Data Scientists - SQL2219
https://towardsdatascience.com/hiring-data-scientists-step-1-stop-looking-for-data-scientists-9eb282a0f96b?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BBx%2B8vsh8RDWBJMBVPM5c2g%3D%3D
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moosebear
Dead on that data science job descriptions reveal how poorly companies
understand what needs doing on their data and how to ask for it.

I don’t agree the answer is to just look for personable, inquisitive people
sans PhD and treat them sanely. In the long run few companies are capable of
such magnamity and calm. You are typically not doing these nice people any
favors, dropping them into a messy pile of data and high expectations.

The solution is defining the task you need done and hiring something more
specific than a “data scientist”.

I have seen Facebook “data science” roles that were just entry level SQL
Analyst / dashboard “developer” roles. OK, why not just ask for a “business
analyst” or “marketing analyst”?

Other “data science” roles are just ETL development jobs; if ETL sounds boring
to you, just call this “Software Developer - Data Engineering”.

In the rarest of cases, someone justifies a need for an actual ML developer.
Ask for an “ML engineer” and pay the sky-high salary.

Of course, asking for a DBA is so unsexy that nobody dares do it, and all of
the above people - SQL analysts, ETL devs, ML devs - are way less productive
than they could be.

