"Career change" advice

[synergy1]

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!

 

[evan12]

I was thinking of starting a big data startup too , but to offer both hosting and analyzing of that data. it is really new trend and few people know it, but you will have two challenges :
1- there are few open positions for this type of career ( if you are looking for employment )
2- Make sure the languages you are learning is the correct skills required, dont just assume .

Regarding to mobile app , I was planning to build a mobile APP that can use some machine learning algorithims to detect which stock to buy , but I found there are already alot of algorithms that developed regarding to stock to check all possible values (it called technical indicators ). so not sure if your idea will be really something new , a simple filter in any investing application can filter out all value stocks .

 

[AAAgent]

I have a friend who did this at UPENN. She graduated UChicago undergrad and started there, went for her PhD at Cornell for econ but got screwed having a horrible mentor and settled for masters and quit and went back to UPENN.

From what I've seen/my experience, i'm assuming credentials come into play here for big data roles at universities. What school did you go to(GPA seems decent)? You do seem a bit older and may have some experience already, what is your experience in?

I have done a lot of job hopping to build the necessary skills i believe i need to be successful. I've been an analyst at bloomberg and other financial data companies, i've been an account manager, and have done sales. I believe great business needs need analytical skills to be able to identify solutions to problems, public speaking/client facing skills to be able to convey these solutions confidently and professionally, and lastly sales skills to be able to persuade people to believe in your vision. If you are having a hard time breaking into big data, try breaking down the skills you think you need in order to get to that role or more importantly be able to structure a story of why you want to be in big data and how you've been prepping your career to break into it.

I helped my friend break into actuary at his company. He was a systems analyst at a big insurance company and applied twice for actuary job and never heard back. I'm more of a go after what i want type of guy even if i fail and look stupid. I tried to break into investment banking and emailed about 100 different managing directors with a short blurb of who I am and why i'm reaching out. Was just asking them for a 5-10 minute phone call to point me in the right direction and 1/100 of those people offered to help me but i didn't meet the GPA requirements. I told my friend to email every head/vice head in actuary at his company and eventually, one guy offered him lunch meeting and gave him the job. Most people start actuary when they're 22 he broke in around 26.

find out how likely you are to get in with your current credentials and just work that much harder to make up for whatever you're lacking. Many times you will have to go outside of your comfort zone/think outside of the box as traditional means aren't available to you.

 

[synergy1]

1- there are few open positions for this type of career ( if you are looking for employment )
2- Make sure the languages you are learning is the correct skills required, dont just assume .

1: Agreed. This profession is still being defined it seems, and thus the skillets vary. A data scientist at two companies might have totally different competencies. This is why a portfolio to maybe land a job to sharpen my skills seems like a good idea

2: My research thus far point to R, JAVA and Hadoop. Analytics, and programs to manage large data sets. The buzzwords that keep coming up are HDFS, and Mapreduce. The general gist seems to be a way to manipulate huge amounts of data efficiently. Suffice to say I have never done this in my previous work!

To answer your question, I have no intention to monetize the stock market app. It will be a showcase of what I can do and its goal is to be simple, easy to use, well tested, and reliable. The first customer will be me, because it would be nice to take out my phone, type in a ticker and check the basic metrics that I see valuable. The calculations will not be complicated at all. If you want a flavor of what I'll be getting, go check out Piotroski F-Scores. Technical analysis prefers to analyze the price, while fundamental analysis prefers income statements and the like...the later is what I will look at.

AAAgent my experience certainly isn't in Hadoop or Java. I think Hadoop wasn't even around when I finished my masters thesis. In hindsight it would have made my life easier than the cumbersome matlab. That said, most of my real experience is in collection, tuning, and modelling basic data sets. I have some programming experience, and have created university quality type products. Functional, but not pretty. As for the professional world, its been mostly Excel, or LABVIEW ( to collect the data).

 

[AAAgent]

Seems like big data requires that you know a particular language and you don't have experience in those languages?

Maybe try an analyst focused position at a company that has big data positions and try an internal transfer? That's how i moved up roles and my friend moved into actuary.

 

[synergy1]

Yeah, thats what I was thinking. Its the whole idea of getting your foot in the door. Many IT people do just that and get the experience on the job and teach themselves as a hobby. Unlike my field, IT and programming can be entirely self taught. While you might not be an agile trained developer like someone in the industry, anyone can jump into the field and make something. Its all about work experience, and since code is so public..its like being able to work on a resume on your spare time.

On an unrelated note, I am curious what your idea was. I am also hesitant to share mine (at least on the web). Either way, hope you keep at it.

 

[AAAgent]

Sent you a PM Synergy. Let me know what you think.

 

[synergy1]

Will do sir.

 

[synergy1]

Turns out someones company actually needs something I can do, so I will essentially be consulting for them. They are located in Germany. Didn't think after 2.5 months of studying, and programming that these types of services would be useful, but they are. It will be short order before its time to put up a website with some past and present projects to give prospective clients a look at what I can do for them..