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I've only been hiring DS folks since 2012, but my experience matches what you've said exactly. The biggest differentiator I've seen is to be able to participate
by pcsanwald 10y ago
I've only been hiring DS folks since 2012, but my experience matches what you've said exactly. The biggest differentiator I've seen is to be able to participate in actually building production quality systems vs being proficient enough in R or python to hack together a prototype on a very small dataset.
The former kind of data scientists were very successful at our company, the latter, not so much. Both categories I described usually had a STEM type PhD.
- user5994461 10y agoThat sounds weird to me. Does American PhD don't have to work for a few years at real companies as part of the PhD curriculum?
- ylem 10y agoI think the scenario they are describing is for say math/physics PhDs who are transitioning to data science. During their degrees, they concentrate on research, so they don't (on average) have real software engineering experience.
- sigstoat 10y agono. it's even a stereotype that they've never worked at a company. where is it required that PhDs work at companies to receive a degree?
- user5994461 10y agoFrance. There are various internships dues during the PhD and the final paper is done while working 1-3 years at one place. Basically, everyone has experience when they graduate from a master or a PhD there. Not all experiences are born equal. e.g. Some work is at top tech companies, some work is at universities or low quality research centers with little work & expectations.
- gumby 10y agoI am used to the PhD being an academic, not practice (trade) degree. This is true even in fields where the PhD is pretty much required for work in industry (medicinal chemistry, biology etc). And even in computer science where a PhD can even be a hindrance to getting an industry job, the PhD is pretty much university only. I am curious what countries it works the other way around.