I did not always dream of becoming a data scientist. It was rather a thought-through decision that I made after trying different things, learning what I can be good at, and getting to know myself better.
The first time I heard about Data Science was when I read a story about how Target was able to figure out a girl was pregnant before her parents knew, using data they collected from their customers. That time I thought that those people had some kind of wicked superpowers. It wasn’t until I started to learn programming when I found out that there is this fascinating field called Data Science, which I have recently chosen as my new career trajectory. At the moment I am a Flatiron School student going through the Immersive Data Science Bootcamp. Here are the most important reasons why I am confident I have chosen the right path.
1. I am curious to find hidden information insights
The world has never been so confusing and is changing so rapidly. There is more information than people can possibly deal with, but with a lot of insights hidden in the data. I would love to be able to discover those insights and make use of a huge stream of information that is out there thanks to the new technologies. Besides, it makes me feel confident that I can find out the truth for myself instead of relying on other people telling me what is true and what is not. The skills I am learning help me make independent conclusions and decisions, so I feel empowered and incredibly optimistic about the future.
2. I love coding
It was a big surprise to me when I realized that I can code and that I actually love doing that. When I was growing up, everybody thought that programming was boring and one had to have a certain math-oriented and analytical personality profile to do that. But later I discovered that coding actually has a great deal of creativity in it. Creating a program can be compared to building a physical object like a house or a piece of furniture. You need to design it, think of what features it will have, and how it can be useful. This is my favorite part about coding: the tools it gives to create something incredibly useful out of just our imagination. In Data Science coding skills are essential to process data unbelievably fast, which lets you focus on the most interesting things like interpreting the results and drawing conclusions.
3. Data Science promotes social responsibility
I have a special interest in Open Data and using Data Science for the benefit of my community. It seems that there is so much for people to gain from twisting the facts and manipulating public opinion, so I almost feel it is my responsibility as a data scientist to contribute to providing society with reliable analyses of information.
4. Data Science is the career of the future
My choice of data science as my career path was also quite pragmatic. I feel that it will be one of the most useful skills that businesses will want to benefit from. Data is a very powerful asset for all kind of business processes: sales, marketing, operations, human resources, etc. It is relatively easy to collect a lot of information these days, but to be able to analyze it and use it to boost a company's growth is a relatively new idea that is going to spread very fast. The demand for these kinds of skills is growing, and I wanted to make sure I jump on this train too.
5. I can make use of my background and experience
To be a good data scientist, it is not enough to just know how to code and do statistics. One of the most important things is to be able to ask the right questions that you want to find answers to. So it is very helpful to have a broad understanding of different industries to be able to help different kinds of companies. I have a degree in Economics, Management, as well as work experience in Tourism and hopefully some life experience. I wanted all these skills to actually be useful for me. It all came together when I realized that in Data Science every experience counts, because I will need to make sense of the things that don’t seem to make sense, and for that every additional skill/experience is helpful.
BONUS: Data Science is fun!
Maybe it is not the most obvious reason one can think of, but the further I am into the Data Science Bootcamp, the more I realize this. There is always a way to creatively approach the problem, turn it around and come up with a completely new insight!
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