Data Science Career Clinic: Identifying the Right Data Science Learning Resources for You
Jungwoo Ryoo
Chancellor & CAO, Penn State DuBois | Making Connections and Bringing Clarity!
One of the most popular questions I receive from my LinkedIn Learning course viewers is where to get started and what to study to more effectively manage data.
All of us could use data science skills to be better at what we are doing. However, what we need to learn often depends on what tasks we need to accomplish or what career aspirations we have.
If your goal is to tell a more compelling story with your data, taking a course on effective visualization may help you take a step forward.
If you want to streamline your data collection and analysis process, learning a scripting language like Python should help you.
You should always think about what problem you are trying to solve before jumping into learning a new skill. This is similar to going to a hardware store and buying tools for your home improvement project. You wouldn't buy plumbing tools for fixing lights.
Therefore, I strongly recommend that you first identify your needs and then establish relevant learning goals sparingly because we don't have unlimited time.
What can help you significantly while you are determining what skills to acquire is to get a quick and broad overview of data science tools. A LinkedIn Learning course that can be helpful for this is: Data Science Tools of the Trade: First Steps. If you are interested in data science career options, check out: Data Science & Analytics Career Paths & Certifications.
If you want to develop a better sense of what's happening in the data science field in general, regularly visiting a portal site like kdnuggets.com or a blog site such as www.datasciencecentral.com may be helpful.
If you already have a problem domain in mind, joining an interest group or professional society can enhance your chance of success. Let's say that business intelligence is your field of interest. Becoming a member of INFORMS and pursuing their Certified Analytics Certificate (CAP) program lays a clear path towards accomplishing your data science learning goals.
Epidemiology & Biostatistics Consultant a/k/a Data Scientist | Exclusive and innovative solutions for data science challenges in public health, research and education
5 年Jungwoo, I'm a data scientist, too, and I'm SO GLAD you emphasize "telling the story" over the actual programming. I agree with you! I notice that you recommend Python - I come from healthcare, and I instead learned R first (both Python and R can do the same types of data science). I was curious as to which is the best to recommend first to students, so I posted an article on LinkedIn here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/should-i-learn-r-python-hadley-wickhams-answer-surprise-monika-wahi/ ....and the consensus seemed to be that if you are comfortable with programming, learn Python first, and if you are not (like me, LOL!), learn R first.
Big Data AI Artist
5 年Stunning
Policy Advisory in AI & Education | Institutional Governance | Academia & Research
5 年Jungwoo Ryoo thanks for sharing. It would be great to refer your articles in our curriculum at our AI Academy @ CERT The Centre of Excellence for Applied Research & Training
Chancellor & CAO, Penn State DuBois | Making Connections and Bringing Clarity!
5 年I thank Gabrielle Burns, BSN, MBA, MSSCM, RN?for inspiring me to write this article. I also thank my content manager, Steve Weiss?for sharing several online data science resources and encouraging me to start this series on data science learning resources!?