One of the first things I tell new graduates/analysts/data scientists is that you're not a real one until you've broken something important & valuable. It's th

One of the first things I tell new graduates/analysts/data scientists is that you're not a real one until you've broken something important & valuable. It's the breaking of things and seeing it go wrong in the real world that often boosts one above the level of academic coding and model building, because "holy shit, all that engineering and principals stuff actually matters and the real world is hard and there's consequences". But I expect everyone to do it also, because without curiosity and an urge to push the boundaries, you'll be a very mediocre data scientist :p