Shift your career with a Data Science Bootcamp

Marta, Olivier and Agustina share their experience and tips for accomplishing a career change via attending a Data Science Bootcamp

The speed in which digitalisation has reshaped the job market has not only created new types of jobs, but has also given place to an exponential amount of data generation, the so-called “oil of the 21st Century”. Ensuring how to take advantage of it is crucial to companies who want to proactively design strategies in today’s competitive environment. It is also equally relevant to those who -no matter the stage of their career- aim for better career prospects by learning Data Science skills.

In 2012, Harvard Business Review referred to Data Scientist as “the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century”. This attracted a lot of attention and triggered the offer of new learning options for those wanting to step into the Data Science field. But, in a practical way (and leaving the buzz behind) which are the most frequent challenges faced by those who put all their effort and motivation to shift their career into Data Science? This is what Agustina, Marta and Olivier -former participants at the di-Academy Data Science bootcamp, in Belgium- know very well.

The three of them attended the 2016 Summer Coding Camp, where they learned courses on R, Python, SAS, SQL and Statistics. Afterwards, they were selected to join the Data Science bootcamp where -during 12 weeks- they studied Data Science business cases from field experts. Their efforts were fruitful as they found a job in Data Science, and are happy to share more about their journey with us.

Let’s start with Agustina Pérez. While she originally studied Literature, she started diving into coding at her work, and attended some training on Web Programming and Web Design. She then kept an eye on the new MOOCs related to programming, machine learning and data analytics, and attended the bootcamp as it seemed the sweet spot between the three of them, allowing a good transition from theoretical knowledge to business applications. During the bootcamp, she started a traineeship at Startups.be, and later got a full time position there having, as she describes, “the most interesting job I’ve ever had. The bootcamp helped me make a transition in my career to Data Science”. (Do you want to meet Agustina and hear to her testimonial? Join us on July 3rd.)

Marta Redmann also shared her story with us. She studied Electrical Network Engineering, gained some experience mainly in the energy sector, and then did a Master in Artificial Intelligence. She realised that her interest was fully into the Data Science direction, and joined the Summer Camp to learn the technical basis of programming. At that moment, she signed a contract with Teradata, and started her new job as a Data Scientist at the time she also joined the Bootcamp. As she says: “applying for the Bootcamp showed to my future employer that I was really interested to learn Data Science”.

Same as Marta, Olivier Van Tongerloo had a background in Engineering (in Electronics) and worked for several years in that field. He started getting interested in data when he did his thesis on Graph Theory for Economics and a project about Marketing at a friend’s company. He then decided to join the Summer Camp and Bootcamp to help him with the career switch by improving skills and proving his motivation. While attending the Bootcamp, he also did a traineeship at a Data Science consulting firm and met Keyrus, the company which hired him after completing the program.

Concerning the challenges they faced, the three of them agreed that, due to the fast pace of the lessons, they could not always deepen that much in some of the topics presented in the business cases, as they were busy with other projects/full time job outside the 2 weekly sessions (Monday and Tuesday) they had to attend. Their tip is to, before the bootcamp’s kick-off, allocate some time during the 3 remaining weekdays to review the topics, or to include them in some ongoing project.

What was the most enriching part of joining the Bootcamp? For Agustina, it was was studying from business cases delivered by consulting experts showed the real work of a data scientist was one of the strongest points of the bootcamp. Olivier enjoyed attending hackathons and having visibility on a broad variety of topics allowed him to choose the path to choose within Data Science. Martha loved learning about the (many) tools and ways to build a Data Science solution, which makes it almost an art.

Overall, the three agreed that the most valuable element was building a network. Getting in touch with people of different backgrounds while interacting during plenty of different activities allowed them to exchange views on the different ways in which Data Science is applied. As Marta said: “real-life classes are much better because you can directly ask your questions to the teacher and interact with other students”. It is also the perfect way to meet a future employer.

Beyond the buzz on Data Science “sexiness”, what is important to keep in mind is that stepping into Data Science requires mastering the technical knowledge and acquiring the practical vision on how to use it. Joining a Data Science Bootcamp pays off because it brings these 2 elements together, but it also requires a high level of commitment and motivation. Hence, if you would like to be join one, here are some extra tips from our former bootcampers:

• Learn as much as possible from various sources. Online classes and MOOC’s surely help in order to have some basics before considering joining a Data Science Bootcamp.
• Consider that, while you can prefer R or Python, the best is to work hard and be able to master both of them.
• Try and fail fast, and don’t be afraid of asking questions.
• Attend Data Science meetups and events. In Belgium, a great start is joining the Data Science Community meetups.
• Define the topics of your interest, and think about a project you could work on.
• Join informative sessions to learn more about the options of your interest. Meet the people behind the bootcamp, ask them to clarify your doubts.

Are you interested to acquire some Data Science skills in Brussels? Want to learn more about our Summer Coding Camp (kicking off on August 7th.) and Data Science bootcamp (starting on October 2nd.)?

Join us for our informative session on Monday, July 3rd. at DigitYser (in Brussels). Agustina will also be there, sharing her experience. We look forward to meet you there!

If you can’t join, drop us a message to training@di-academy.com. We will provide general information and keep you in the loop of other informative sessions. Talk to you soon!

DigitYser DigitYser is the digital flagship of Brussels where communities gather to learn, create and implement digital solutions focussed on Data & AI , IOT and VR.