The story that has helped develop my Data Science career

Having a career in data is a hefty challenge. You have to know many stuff about a lot of different topics: math, coding, machine learning, cloud, just to name a few. The list is huge and it becomes bigger by the day.

If you search the web for "advice for a data scientist" you?could get 128,000,000 hits in less than 1 second. You go to Linkedin and there are a bunch of people posting articles about what does a Data Science needs to do or the phases of a good data science project. Sure, I am guilty on that as well and probably this post also has some things that have already been said there.

But in this case, I wanna tell you a story my thesis supervisor told me that has sticked with me ever since I heard it and has been vital in my Data Science career.

The story goes like this…

We were finishing the multivariate techniques course which by the way was called "From problem to analysis" (a really great way to emphasize what really data science is all about) and he told us that a very important lesson for the course was not regarding the technical stuff but soemthing else. And he went something like this:

"Imagine that you have to make an important presentation which airs on the Sunday news. It will be the National Channel and everyone is going to hear about your work. In your audience you will have my grandmother who is a mathematician and my auntie who is a writer and hates maths.

Therefore, your work needs to target all audiences. You have to be as?PRECISEas possible so my grandmother doesn't get mad at you and at the same time as?CLEAR?as possible so my auntie really understands what you are saying.

Your work will be very important and you should focus on ensuring that nobody in the country is left out"

- Tacq

At the time I thought the story was nice and made lots of sense. As time passed I realized that it was more useful that I could imagine. It talked about many important skills a Data Scientist should have to have to be successful. After giving a big deep thought about it I made a list of actions to get those skills for my own use that now I am sharing with you.

The skills to be PRECISE and CLEAR on the Sunday news…

1. Learn the math so well that you can be?PRECISE?when you explain what your work is about to stakeholders or fellow data professionals.
2. Be sure you understand the math well, so you can be crystal?CLEARwhen you explain to stakeholders what your work is about and it's impact.
3. Get really deep into your own coding skills, so you can do tidy and?CLEAR?code that can be explained to a colleague or a team member and put it into production.
4. Understand the problem well, so you can be?PRECISE?and can tackle the problem with the proper analytics solution (From problem to analysis, remember?).
5. Learn how to be a good storyteller so you can be?PRECISE?and?CLEAR. Telling a great story with Data is difficult it requires communication skills, preparation, a profound understanding of your work and great problem solving. But if you manage to do it you can make a great impact and bring lots of value.

…and the list goes on.

6. Have fun.

7. Always be prepared to be amazed…

Probably all these points aren't new to you. Everyone talks about them and you have certainly came across them a thousand times. In reality and in my humble experience, it is very easy to talk about them but difficult to put them into practice.

Daily work can easily shift your focus from some important stuff or maybe experience may let you think you are proficient on one or more of these skills. Even though this could be true, for me, thinking that one day I will have to be on the Sunday news is a good reminder that it is always good to revisit and keep developing these skills.

If your work makes sense to stakeholders, develop into actions from other company members and translate into great results then you're doing well. But for that to happen, you and your team has to do great analytics and make every stakeholder know about it.

And for that to happen you have to be?CLEAR?and?PRECISE.