From industry to data science: a career reboot story
Data specialists know their stuff, even when beginners. Meet George Bobrov, a rookie analyst who has recently landed his first position in the field. It took him 2.5 months and just 1 interview (see the stats below). While his “colleagues in search” were busy arguing with recruiters and blaming the market, he took the responsibility. A sequence of intelligent and properly performed steps has led him to his goal, and faster than expected.
Blitz Interview
Q1: What inspired you to enter data science?
Upon completing my university studies as an industrial engineer I got an opportunity to contribute to a project aimed at predicting flood risks. At the time, my only programming experience was the bubble sort algorithm in C++. So I read Joel Grus’ book “Data Science from Scratch”, and crafted a solution to forecast flood risks, centered around LSTM neural networks.
Engrossed by the outcomes, I became increasingly invested in data science. I had a full time job, so in the evenings I attended machine learning courses, created my own projects, and participated in Kaggle competitions. I thought these initiatives might be enough to secure an internship, but this turned out not to be the case.
Q2: Could you elaborate on your job-hunting strategy?
I applied mostly through popular job boards and, when possible, directly to company websites. Throughout this phase I experimented weekly with different hypotheses on how to increase application conversion, based on the content of resumes and cover letters. For the first 50 applications I wrote cover letters. After that I basically had a precompiled list of documents to apply with a perfect fit.
Q3: Did you receive useful feedback from employers?
The feedback I received was typical for first-time job seekers. My applications were declined due to “Zero experience with corporate databases and big data” or “No experience with production LLMs”. Most open vacancies demand middle and senior specialists.
I made the decision to continue studying, master technologies, tried to connect with more experienced people, kept studying, kept searching. Hoping that someday I will be able to improve my skills to an acceptable level.
Q4: And, finally, an offer!
I got an offer around Easter. It was the only interview I was invited to and the one where I received an offer. Despite 2.5 months of searching, it was unexpected but incredibly exciting.
I have interesting tasks at my new job – I build ML solutions in the marketing field. Some things come easily to me, others less so. Generally speaking, I have a sense that my knowledge and skills are growing. And I hope our ML team expands soon!
I'm still working on my own projects in speech-to-text and grayscale-image-coloring fields.
Q5: What would you advice to job seekers?
Overall, I consider my employment to be more of a stroke of luck. I think the biggest challenge is not giving up and continuing to search. Find people who can support you in this journey!
Thank you George. We wish you further professional growth and inspiration in your studies!
⬇ Scroll down for the afterword ⬇
Afterword
Perhaps there was some luck in George’s career track, as in every story with a happy ending. Undoubtedly though, this tiny interview contains a lot of lessons to unpack.
First of all, George has turned his GitHub page in a tool to succeed in competition. His portfolio was clean, recently updated, and representative. Here’s a list of other steps that certainly has worked in his favour:
- Experimented with different job search strategies
- Measured and tracked the efficiency of job applications
- Continuously improved his messages to the hiring side
- Didn’t hesitate to ask more experienced people
- Pursued his goal with dedication and passion
GitHub ranks among the best resources to find someone who thinks and reaches outside the box. We think recruiters will look there for strong engineers ever more frequently, and so we strongly recommend to invest in your domain/industry visibility. Resumes are not enough when it’s about top-tier employment or high competition.
Our closing advice is equally applicable to juniors and seniors. Stop looking for a way to trick an employer into hiring you. Convince them with tangible proofs of your competence instead!