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Stats. Lots and lots of stats. Get good at doing number crunching on big data sets using hadoop, R/incanter/etc and learning how to derive meaningful and defe

by evgen 17y ago

Stats. Lots and lots of stats. Get good at doing number crunching on big data sets using hadoop, R/incanter/etc and learning how to derive meaningful and defensible insights from all of the public data that is floating around out there. Pick an org that suits your interests and see if they need help with general computer systems stuff while you work on a side-project that will impress them. If you are good at it and this particular skill set interests you then you will also have a wide range of jobs to pick and choose from if you decide to go into the private sector.

ff0066mote 17y ago
Stats, wonderful. I deplore math. Your advice is interesting and highlights my major shortcoming. I've heard the idea to "work on a side-project that will impress" your desired future employer many times around the HC site. Is that the entrepreneur speaking, or are you offering that seriously? I have to learn their business backwards-and-forwards before I can independently produce something which NGOs may find universally useful. I guess I have to start small to go this route.
- evgen 17y ago
  I was never much into math until after I left university and now I am constantly kicking myself for not finding the small little subfields of math that I now find useful and interesting. You can get a long way in stats with a pretty basic understanding of how it all works; a lot of what you might do here is the sort of stuff that you can pull out of intro stats books -- you are not going to be writing the stat anaysis code, you just need to know when and how to apply it. You would probably also be well-served by learning a bit about visualization and how to present quantitative information to a lay audience. Do not aim for a side-project that will be universally useful to all NGOs or even to one NGO, aim for a side-project that someone in a position of authority will think is cool or which can serve some small facet of the organization. Think mashup or something small like a heatmap that shows where most of the volunteers/donors live, etc. Don't solve their big problem as your side-project, solve some small problem that can be used to show them that you are capable of solving the big problem (if they hired you to do that task, for example.)

by evgen 17y ago

ff0066mote 17y ago

Stats, wonderful. I deplore math. Your advice is interesting and highlights my major shortcoming. I've heard the idea to "work on a side-project that will impress" your desired future employer many times around the HC site. Is that the entrepreneur speaking, or are you offering that seriously? I have to learn their business backwards-and-forwards before I can independently produce something which NGOs may find universally useful. I guess I have to start small to go this route.

evgen 17y ago
I was never much into math until after I left university and now I am constantly kicking myself for not finding the small little subfields of math that I now find useful and interesting. You can get a long way in stats with a pretty basic understanding of how it all works; a lot of what you might do here is the sort of stuff that you can pull out of intro stats books -- you are not going to be writing the stat anaysis code, you just need to know when and how to apply it. You would probably also be well-served by learning a bit about visualization and how to present quantitative information to a lay audience. Do not aim for a side-project that will be universally useful to all NGOs or even to one NGO, aim for a side-project that someone in a position of authority will think is cool or which can serve some small facet of the organization. Think mashup or something small like a heatmap that shows where most of the volunteers/donors live, etc. Don't solve their big problem as your side-project, solve some small problem that can be used to show them that you are capable of solving the big problem (if they hired you to do that task, for example.)