I am writing a post in order to enlist possible ways for a "career" change from someone who might have more knowledge than I do currently. I would prefer advice from people who are in the field, or an allied field...but anyone with knowledge from friends etc would be cool too.
I want to switch to big data/ data science. Here is my background as of today:
- I have a bachelors and masters ( with > 3.5 GPA) in engineering.
- I have experience C programming, and MATLAB programming
- Published a paper in ASME manufacturing science and engineering journal.
My current experience with data
- My masters thesis required a lot of data collection/ analysis. I used models and analytical data sets to determine the predictability of a variable in a process. The results showed a correlation and thus was published
- I did a ton of data analysis at my first and third jobs. Nothing to write home about.
- Learned C programming and could program in arrays, pointers, loops, etc. learned MATLAB programming mostly to solve stuff.
The current game plan
- Learning "R", a statistical software program ( open source).
- Learn JAVA programming language. I have simple classes created in the netbeans IDE
- Learn HADOOP.
- Upload code/ Projects to sites like github ( I will need to research it)
- Take requests from friends/family/ whoever for data analysis and reports for free. Build Coding portfolio.
- I have an idea for a simple phone app with online data I want to do. the data calculations are simple, but it would be a very quick/ dirty way to determine if a stock ticker is a good value/buffet stock. Not a be all end all, but a general starting point.
Okay, thats my game plan. I would like to think persistence and learning is the best way to go about this and land a job doing this, but it would be smart to heed other advice. I want to get a job utilizing these skills for a while in hopes to join a start up ( or start one).
Please no insults such as "do you know how hard this is". No need for the obligatory derogatory "list of things I should consider". This is playing to my strengths and as long as the path is set, this is accomplished with the time.
Thanks in advance!
I want to switch to big data/ data science. Here is my background as of today:
- I have a bachelors and masters ( with > 3.5 GPA) in engineering.
- I have experience C programming, and MATLAB programming
- Published a paper in ASME manufacturing science and engineering journal.
My current experience with data
- My masters thesis required a lot of data collection/ analysis. I used models and analytical data sets to determine the predictability of a variable in a process. The results showed a correlation and thus was published
- I did a ton of data analysis at my first and third jobs. Nothing to write home about.
- Learned C programming and could program in arrays, pointers, loops, etc. learned MATLAB programming mostly to solve stuff.
The current game plan
- Learning "R", a statistical software program ( open source).
- Learn JAVA programming language. I have simple classes created in the netbeans IDE
- Learn HADOOP.
- Upload code/ Projects to sites like github ( I will need to research it)
- Take requests from friends/family/ whoever for data analysis and reports for free. Build Coding portfolio.
- I have an idea for a simple phone app with online data I want to do. the data calculations are simple, but it would be a very quick/ dirty way to determine if a stock ticker is a good value/buffet stock. Not a be all end all, but a general starting point.
Okay, thats my game plan. I would like to think persistence and learning is the best way to go about this and land a job doing this, but it would be smart to heed other advice. I want to get a job utilizing these skills for a while in hopes to join a start up ( or start one).
Please no insults such as "do you know how hard this is". No need for the obligatory derogatory "list of things I should consider". This is playing to my strengths and as long as the path is set, this is accomplished with the time.
Thanks in advance!