What would the fediverse recommend for someone who wants to become a data scientist, has extensive experience analysing data, but doesn't have a proper data science diploma. Would recruiters see a PhD as a data science credential? Would specific certifications help?
>has extensive experience analysing data
This should be better than most degrees out there tbh.
The DS hiring is a bit messy because the skill set depends on the company, and it varies. Having good statistical fundamentals would help immensely though.
@shibaprasad Thanks!
I should have specified: extensive experience analysing data, but never as my primary job description so it ends up a bit hidden in my résumé.
@raphv Interested in answer you get. I’m a (former) scientist and I've worked with big data sets, classifiers and filters. My bosses do NOT believe I have data scientist credentials or experience, but I’m not sure if they are representative.
But in reality, I know data better than most co-workers, and I don't think the ML trained guys know more. (Obviously they understand model architecture better).
Might help reach to add #datascience tag.
@ThreeSigma @raphv In my experience, many ML-trained guys can't solve business problems with Data. They are really good with ML, and they can often only apply ML methods which IMO is not enough. Specially if you are working on divergent problems.
@shibaprasad @ThreeSigma @raphv Totally. Familiarity with ML methods is not a substitute for the domain knowledge and experience in a particular industry. Somewhat on a tangent, I would trade any data science credential for proficiency with Spark or whatever out-of-core / distributed computing framework the company is using. Ability to write clean and performant code is more important than credentials.