Related Posts
More Posts
Thoughts on BGB Group (NY)?
Bowl Leader
Coach
Additional Posts in Data & Analytics Consultants
Bowl Leader
Got messaged by a C3 . ai recruiter. Read that wlb is bad and that the interview process is absurdly long, but the Glassdoor reviews are 4.2 and can't find actual hours worked posted by anyone. How's the culture really? I'd be aiming for DS consulting, something more functional but with DS/ML concepts as my differentiator.
C3.ai, Inc.
Has anyone else begun to resent data science?
Community Builder
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Mentor
For masters absolutely stay with the highest tier school you can get into, their brand is 80% of the value from your education. And do not do math, do data science
I typically hire MS and Ph.D. mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists in my DS lab that is focused on government work (mostly DoD). I do hire Data Engineers as well, who do most of the wrangling, but data "science" is indeed a science. For quant/fintech/mgmt consultants, your mileage may vary. There is a huge spectrum of "data science" out there, from traditional stats and business analytics to applications of leading edge AI research.
I'd advise to first figure out what "kind" of data science you're wanting to do, then choose a program based on that.
I also disagree with the idea that you need a degree from a prestigious school. Maybe if you are looking to join one of the big firms, but I'd take an undergrad with a music degree if they knew their shit and had the right aptitude and attitude. I have a mathematician with a BS from a local school that I'd put up against anyone from UT or elsewhere any day of the week.
Georgia Tech is the best online DS program
I would second the Georgia Tech online DS program. They have a good reputation of online degrees since they are also known for their OMCS program.
And as others mentioned, the brand of a graduate degree is more important than the differences in curriculum because it will open more doors. Also, you can always learn more things after graduating but the pedigree will be permanent for your life so choose wisely.
do you want to be an ML researcher or do you want to be a business side data analyst/ data scientist which requires a lot of the things people mentioned. The two require different amount of technical expertise.
Mentor
This really is the question to ask yourself, also noting that jobs wise option 1 is a pretty small population and option 2 can be found at just about any company with revenues over 20M
Have you thought about bootcamps? They are usually cheaper than masters and get you through faster. Might be more difficult to get a DS job without a masters though, depends on your network and the Bootcamp quality.
Mentor
Ya boot camps were working the last few years but with the recent tech layoffs there’s a large number of highly qualified folks out there, so the shortage that drove demand for boot campers isn’t the same as it was. As some folks mentioned, I’ve also heard good things about the GT program
Mentor
Just an FYI since I’ve noticed the majority of people in the bowl are hyper focused on “data science” and “machine learning”, the vast majority of well paying jobs out there in the data field won’t have you building ML models or even doing basic linear regressions. The most common will be dashboarding and KPI tracking plus data cleaning to get you there. Want a new job that pays 100k? Git gud at SQL and tableau or power bi. The Python and r are nice to haves but most companies don’t need it or aren’t ready for it (cue the technical purists skewering me)
Agree with M1 - getting into a program with great contacts / pedigree is arguably mote important than academic rigor for Masters. On the DS vs Math debate it depends on what you want to do. If you know for sure you want to get into Data science then theres no need to beat around the bush - take the MS in DS
Georgia Tech is a pretty great program for an online MS
Georgia Tech, they also have the best in person program, and a very coveted engineering school. Lots of opportunities coming to that area soon.
If you want to work in academia or maybe like the Census Bureau, a math degree is better. Probably for working in consulting, tech, or industry, data science would have more opportunities (and pay more)
I am not from the US, therefore cannot mention anything about online Master's in US. However, some skills that may help you to get a job could be
- Using Python for data cleaning and analysis (could use R as well but Python is more popular). This includes data manipulation and plotting.
- Theory and implementation of some machine learning models (bias, variance, regularization methods, ensemble based models, Gradient Boosted Trees)
- Basics of A/B testing
- Object oriented programming in Python
- Loading data from and writing data to files
- Writing ETL scripts in SQL
- Basics of data modelling
- Basics of version control using Git
- Communication at the right level of detail for different audiences
You don't need to be an expert in all of this before attempting to get a job (you would be surprised how many positions are Data Scientist positions without requiring one to use any machine learning). Best of luck!