The Data Science Dilemma - A

I did two things in the last six months, that gave me a lot of excitement. First, I began to learn Data Science and Second, I began my active account on Quora. Incidentally, I began answering a few questions about Data Science on Quora and found that some questions are repeatedly being asked. One of them, is "How to shift over my career into data science?" Usually the questions are more detailed, like "I am in this type of job and I want to shift over, what should be my pathway?" I answered many questions of similar kind but then they keep coming and keep coming and keep coming! So, I decided I would put together a longer answer here, so that I can probably do a short answer there and redirect the audience for a longer answer here.

I am going to write this in a three part series. Not so much because there is so much to say (which there, in fact, is!!) but because I want to keep my posts short and readable. So, I am going to do this one or two ideas at a time. And I promise to finish this within a week. So, you can expect me to do a post on this, once every two days. That said, here goes!

Let your passion dictate a career change - Neither popularity Nor Pay!

Data Science is an exciting career and it is the new in-thing in the world. All those stories we hear about exciting profiles and super exciting pay packets, make us think that the tale is "Anand became a data scientist and happily lived ever after!" Well, that maybe the tale but it is missing some detail. For all those enthusiasts who think that Big Data or Data Science or Whatsoever Analytics is an exciting career to shift over, the first thing I would ask is "Are you passionate about data, analysis, insights and research?" Because, if you are not, then the change over is not going to be worth the while. In fact, if you are not fully satisfied with your present career, you should first ask yourself, what you are passionate about and then decide which career to choose. Just because Neil Armstrong became the first man to put his foot on the moon (or so we all believe so far!!) we all cannot become astronomers and be the first one to put our foot on some moon or the other!

I chose to learn data science because I enjoy working with data. In the early years of my career I have developed client/server applications with database systems and I loved the challenge. In the later years of my academic career I have built a passion for research which naturally requires me to use statistical tools and generate insights from data. I have loved to explore, analyse and generate insights from data. I absolutely love this. Thus, my inclination to learn Data Science. Neither because it is popular nor because I expect it to pay money. There is a certain joy for me in the discovery through analysis of data.

For example, one of the group members on a special group for ML, AI, RPA and Analytics on Whatsapp asked the group what kind of visualisations he could do to analyse student's marks over two years. He gave us a sample list, showed us what he did and asked the group members to help him with some more interesting visualisations. Now, you see, for an enthusiast in data science, this provides a super opportunity to look at data and then try and visualise it in new ways. I began exploring the sample data he sent using Liber Office Calc (an open-source alternative to MS Excel) and soon found out that when we plot the Maximum, Minimum and Average marks on the same plot in a line chart, then some interesting analysis can be done. But that took about almost 30 minutess of time in looking at data and thinking what can be done with it. I could spend that 30 mins because I love data and I know once I keep thinking about it, I can come up with something interesting. I am yet to share my insights with him and if you know him please don't tell him yet!

So the first answer you need to find is "Are you really passionate about data, analysis, insights, research?" If you aren't this career is really not for you.

Catch you in the next post!