How to Get Your First Data Science Internship

Introduction

   When I was looking for an internship in Data Science, I got a lot of advice from my seniors and colleagues. But more surprisingly no one was talking about the importance of internship in data science. And at the end, not many were talking about the real journey of landing an internship in Data Science.

   My whole journey of landing an internship in Bumblebee Data Inc. and my learning experience at BumbleBee Data was equally exciting and achieving. During my internship, I came to know about the spaciousness of data science and was surprised by how unready I was to get into full-time as a Data Scientist.

   Even for those who are well experienced - an internship is the very first and efficacious step to get into the data science field. I have seen many people have a successful transition from another field in data science with the help of internships.

   So, Hello! If you are looking for some great tips to break into a data science internship, you’re at the very right place!

   In this very article, I have pinched my own experience on important key features you must know to get your desired data science internship. Each section will help you to learn more about how your future journey is going to be.

Get Familiar with Data Science

   So what should be your first step towards getting into data science from ground zero? Before you start all of your applications you must understand what this field all about! So, let’s take a few minutes to look at all those aspects, look at different roles possible in data science.

   In the very first place, you must know what you’ll be working in an internship. Before answering this, ask yourself - why you want to get into the field of Data Science? Is it due to your love for programming languages, mathematics, and future opportunities you’ll be getting? Or just because Data Science is the Sexiest Job of the 21st century, and you are going with the flow because all these words are fascinating and trending?

What is Data Science?

   If you planning for data science then you must be aware of the fact that data is increasing exponentially day by day. The ability to collect the data from the sources has come with the last few years. Every organization is trying to use a variety of tools and methods to get insights from those raw data. In short, this is known as Data Science.

   In very simple words, data science is all about using various tools and techniques to get insights from data and make models that can predict desired results to make our business decisions. Here are some of the most popular relevancy of Data Science:

• Early identifying and predicting disease.
• Healthcare recommendations.
• Optimizing Airline routes in real-time.
• Fraud detection
• Sport Analytics
• Automating digital ad placement.

So, if we conclude that, data science is all about finding insights and patterns from data, then how you should distinguish a Data Scientist from a Statistician? Well, it's a nice question! Let’s dig in more to find the answer.

Data Scientist vs Statistician

   You might be aware of the fact that both Data Scientists and Statisticians work to find insights from real-time data. Finding a relationship in data is done by a statistician while a data scientist will use all those relationships to build predictive models that help in future business decisions. A Data Scientist is more focused on finding a generic model that can have high accuracy in prediction.

   A Statistician uses different tools like Excel, R, or Matlab since these tools have many libraries that can help him in data analysis. On other hand, a Data Scientist often uses Python Programming Language, MYSQL, Apache Spark, Hadoop for analyzing data and building more generalized models.

 Internship in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

   There are many positive aspects of a data science and AI internship, it starts with getting a work opportunity with the subject specialist in the industry until producing your own great Data Science Portfolio. Many times internships provide a great mentor-ship, where you can work and build great connections in the industry. Students learn from industry experts. Today in this blog I’ll focus on how a student can get a Data Science Internship in his interesting industry.

What is Data Science Internship?

   Data Science Internship in today’s globe is an excellent opportunity for a student that dreams to get practical knowledge and experience working with real-time data. Most of the fresh graduates and current students face difficulties in getting their first Internship or Job in Data Science. Precipitously we all know that the project and data we’ll be working on will be far more different and tangled than what we have been taught in college.

   During the internship, you’ll be working on real-life projects of Data Science that are far more tortuous because while learning we usually come across data sets that are well preprocessed and that looks more clear and easy to handle in a contrast to real-life data sets.

   In your Data Science Internship, you will be given real-world data sets along with all these you’ll also be given instructions under the experts working in the same company for the last few years, solving complex problems and doing complicated analysis for the organization. Here are the main elements of Data Science:

• Doing Data Analytics
• Generating regular report
• Doing Data Visualization
• Presenting your findings in an easy and comprehensible way

   Sometimes for an enthusiast Data Scientist, it seems astonishing, as it is not just a single job he’s doing. Intern has tasks together with designers, software engineers, and managers. You need to work out the complex matrices, review the reports from other teammates, and work on some of the complex problems.

   Before starting you need to have knowledge of a couple of programming languages and along with this you need to be fluent in SQL queries. It may be difficult for some of the students so they need to give it a try before making up their mind to work as a Data Science Professional. During the internship, you’ll be working on all aspects of Data Science and it will help you to be ready for a full-time job in a company or for just an interview.

How to get a Data Science Internship easily:

   Now if you are here, you’ve already made up your mind to be a Data Scientist, the very first step is to get a Data Science Internship. So, let us know what are the basic prerequisites to grab an internship opportunity.

1. Your Resume or Curriculum Vitae (CV)

   If you are planning for a Data Science Internship then the earlier you start working on your Resume the superior it will be later. It should be accurate and compact because your CV plays a very principal role in getting an internship opportunity.

2. Your Cover letter

   To stand out of the crowd you need to have a very creative yet simple cover letter. No doubt a common cover letter will also create an impression among the applicants but here the problem is the company has a very long list of options (applicants), so here it becomes very important for you to be different from other applicants to have a great chance for selection.

3. Your Personality

   During any kind of interview, your personality takes part in a very key role. Having a good personality doesn’t mean to look good, most importantly a good personality means how easily you can depict yourself in front of the interviewer. Every minute detail about yourself like your body language, how you speak, your demeanor, and propriety makes a very crucial impact in front of the interviewer. You need to be well dressed and it is advised to prefer a clean formal dress before going for an interview.

4. Your Soft Skills

   If you have good communication skills then you are ahead of half of your competitors. Many companies wish to have an employe with good fluency in speaking. So you need to be well prepared and you need to have a lot of confidence on your face, it will create a good impact on yourself. Many students usually miss the chance of getting a Data Science Internship just because they lag in speaking confidently in spite they have got good knowledge. There are many websites from where you can practice the interview questions. It will boost your confidence definitely.

5. Related Experience

   As a fresher you might not have direct experience in the Data Science field, however, it doesn’t signify, you don’t require any experience. If you have experience in banking then it will be counted as experience because it is believed that these jobs help to develop soft skills like leadership qualities and communication skills. In the incorporated world, these skills have their own importance so many companies consider these experiences.

6. Expand Your Professional Network

   Before getting any job or internship, you need to have a good professional network. For Example, I got my Data Science Internship from a network of mine from Instagram. For some time I was following the Co-founder of Bumblebee Data Inc. and later I contacted her for any opportunity in near future and our conversation ended with my summer internship at Bumblebee Data Inc.

   Linkedin is another example where you can build your professional network and it is one of the best platforms to find internships or jobs. Even you can try Linkedin premium to get connected with people in the same field you want to work in. Connect with Data Scientists and mostly HRs of the company and drop them a formal message about your looking. The message should be short and concise, give a brief introduction about yourself, what are your future goals, and most importantly show your interest in that organization. There are many such platforms where you can apply for such opportunities like angel.co, Internshala, and indeed.com, etc.

7. Look into Online Resources

   You can find many online blogs for Data Scientists, that you can even subscribe to get regular updates about opportunities in this field. There are many online courses and tools you can use to build your concepts in data science. Some platforms provide the most asked questions in data science interviews, you much look at them before going for the final interview.

   Here are some of the best online platforms to start your journey:

• Kaggle
• KDNuggets
• Medium (Towards Data Science)

8. Take Offline Resources

   Nowadays every college and university have their own Placements Cell, which assists students to search for such internship opportunities, prepare a resume, and cover letter. They also provide sessions to prepare for interviews. As a student, you should seek help from your placement cell at each and every step of your journey as they have more knowledge and experience. You must attend any workshop organized by your college on career development it will help you in any way.

That’s it for today, I hope after reading this article you’ll get your desired internship. All the best!

Note: Originally Published at The Engineer Guy