9 ms·

How I Did It: From Psych Degree to VP of Data Science at Top Startup

153 points by gczh 7y ago

NadavKeyson 7y ago
inspiring!
ahuth 7y ago
Curious how the author got better at communication. What are good resources or books for doing so?
- 7d7n 7y ago
  I didn't recall any books helping much on communication. With regard to presentation and speaking, I had great leaders around me who provided candid feedback the presentation was off-point, too long, or had to be re-ordered (e.g., when presenting to non-tech folks, results before methodology). It was also useful to "rehearse" any conference presentations at meet-ups and get feedback. Feedback to improve written communication is harder to come by. Few people feedback on your design documents or reports. For this, I find blogging and seeking feedback from writers whose writing I enjoy to help the most.
- allenskd 7y ago
  Well.... I imagine it comes with the author's field? I've always been vocal about how much I suck at communication in both my personal life and work. I think I would have landed a super nice position if I wasn't a socially inept person. Bitterness and "reality" or "truths" won't help us, so these days I'm just leaning on being reasonable and as human as possible because nobody likes a person who's constantly pointing out flaws and telling people they are horrible. (thankfully I've never in my life told anyone they are bad at something, at the end of the day this field you can keep improving yourself. I imagine in a field of medicine if you mess up too much that's it for you)
- pergadad 7y ago
  Practice! Written communication: blog, short stories, editing others' work Oral: practice public speaking, either by volunteering in your own context whenever possible (most shy away - you stand out for volunteering to speak) or build confidence and skills outside, eg in Toastmasters.
zachwill 7y ago
Awesome work, Eugene! I had almost the exact same experience going from a psychology degree, to coding in SF, to heading up analytics for the Trail Blazers. Luck, self-study, and Kaggle! Really cool to hear that someone else also took the psychology to data analysis route.
- disgruntledphd2 7y ago
  Me three (except for the VP part ;))
dx87 7y ago
When I was doing a cyber training exercise in the military, we had an Air Force general tell us that the best technical officers they had started out with non-technical degrees. They said that officers with undergrad degrees in things like IT, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, weren't very good at thinking outside of the box because everything they did was fairly low level and had a provably correct solution. The officers with degrees like psychology and political science were better at taking in large amounts of information, and deducing a "best" answer to a problem that didn't have a "correct" answer. I noticed the same thing when I started teaching after I got out of the military; people with technical backgrounds wanted a checklist to follow, and didn't really care about the end result as long as the steps were followed. Non-technical students would look at what the result should be, and do whatever was necessary, creating their own checklist as they went along.
- gczh 7y ago
  That's rather interesting. I noticed a lot of friends who are much better at communicating than those who started off on a technical career with a technical degree. Not that being highly technical is a bad thing but in business, you go further as an employee and/or manager if you can grok what's better for a business. Usually that's where communication comes in. Very cool example you have there. I'm keeping this filed on my Roam Research documents!
  - gczh 7y ago
    Not the author here but I'm relaying your message to him. He's going to come online soon to reply to the comments. We're on a different timezone
- bcrosby95 7y ago
  As a technical person, I find it interesting that so many technical people are that way. I start to get into a motivational rut if all I'm doing is working on a list of technical things to complete. Engineering disciplines are some of the few degrees that provide you the ability to both directly solve other people's problems and have close customer contact - that was a major reason why software engineering attracted me as a career rather than just a hobby.
omarhaneef 7y ago
One of the interesting aspects of this account is the role of online classes (Coursera and edX). I always thought that those kinds of things are useful and should be effective but (online) anecdotes suggest they are not. Seems like there is a missing step and the author was able to find that step. (Branded company work?)
- 7d7n 7y ago
  Author here: I believe the missing step is being able to APPLY the knowledge and skills (learned from online courses) to create value. It's not difficult, you just need to know that creating an artifact is not the end of your job--it needs to be used to benefit customers and generate value. Remember to measure the impact after your feature/system is launched. I've seen many interview candidates struggle with this (missing step) too. Those that get past it were hungry enough to want it, as well as followed up with proper validation and measurement.
brenden2 7y ago
Getting to VP level at a "top startup" has little to do with data science, and everything to do with your ability to play the networking game. Depending on the size of the company, VP level jobs are more about management skills than technical proficiency.
- pirate_dev 7y ago
  This exactly. I can't begin to list off all the rich dumbasses who had all sorts of titles in startups because they went to the same school, knew the founders, etc. I've had such people have no idea what model they even use for large chunks of their pipeline. Obviously they hire the actual talent and these guys get the credit.
  - allenskd 7y ago
    How is this different from any other company though? It happens a lot where I live. You either know the higher ups through some sort of connection(school, event, family, etc) became friends and that's it you landed on a nice position. I'd love to say it's only prone in startups but it's been plaguing companies forever, especially small-medium sized ones where it's easier because the owner is probably hoping to find able hands, perhaps the huge ones have slightly better processes to counter this type of scenario.
    - viklove 7y ago
      It's not different, all companies are like this. That doesn't make it any better though... Success is mostly based upon who you know and being at the right place at the right time. That's why it's disingenuous to suggest you can "teach" how to be successful with blog posts like this -- you can't teach someone how to be born into the right family so they can attend the right school and meet the right people.
- dominotw 7y ago
  > VP level jobs are more about management skills than technical proficiency. I would say this is true for all mid-management and up. Tech proficiency is largely irrelevant once you go into management.
levanify 7y ago
Awesome post! Thank you for taking the time to document down your learnings along your journey of pursuing data science. What I really like about your journey is how one thing manages to lead to another in the most amazing way. Some people attribute it to luck, but I guess in your case you really have made your own luck by taking actions to move towards your goal! Congratulations on your accomplishments thus far! I just have a few questions which would love if you can elaborate further on. Firstly, it seems to me that the online course enabled you to reach top 3% of a Kaggle project which led to a series of career opportunities. However, I believe that being able to reach the top in Kaggle competition is not an easy feat. This kind of process is not really replicable especially for the people who are just starting out in Data Science. In that case, what would you recommend them to do? And secondly, what is the end goal of a data scientist or at least for you as a data scientist? Would it be going into research? Continue to climb the ladder till you reach the top of the company? Data science and engineering in general are great as a form of intellectual challenge. However, personally sometimes I feel that there is a lack of meaning in the thing that I am doing as engineer/data scientist (especially if the culture of the company is very bottom-line driven). Just want to hear your thoughts! :)
- 7d7n 7y ago
  On the first point: I assume you're asking for avenues to practice and demo your work. If so, personal projects are a great way. The most impressive candidates can demo something they've deployed. This demonstrates the ability to apply what you've learned AND learn the rest of the stuff as needed (e.g., spin up EC2, build basic front end, maintenance, etc.). The latter is more important and gives confidence that you take ownership and likely can do the same (i.e., end-to-end with results) in the company. On the second point: having meaning in work differs from person to person. Some people enjoy pushing the envelope (research), others enjoy staying hands-on (individual contributor, IC), while some big picture thinkers enjoy coordinating (PMs). It's helpful to think back on what gave you the greatest satisfaction and work with your leaders to be a role that lets you perform your best. I find it most fulfilling to build data products that are useful, relative to generating tons of revenue. I would be equally happy as an IC doing the hands-on or leading a small team and mentoring them to become more effective.
- 7y ago
azizsaya 7y ago
Fabulous post but this caught my attention: "The learning curve was steep. Pushed me 2x beyond my existing abilities. Exhilarating." What is meant by “steep learning curve”? https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6209/what-is-meant-by-steep-learning-curve https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6209/what-is-mea... I don't mean to be rude, just that it is interesting.
- lostinroutine 7y ago
  Considering that he says it "pushed him", I'd guess he means that there was a lot to learn and it didn't come easy.
- scarejunba 7y ago
  A learning curve is a plot of work required for achieving some amount of learning. Those guys just didn't get that that was how it's being used. "How hard is it to learn Haskell?" Not "How much time does it take to learn Haskell?" For instance, people will say some things are easy to learn, hard to master (playing Go). Other things are hard to learn but once you have, you're close to mastering them (kinds of problems that have a trick - like integrating e^ax cos bx).
euix 7y ago
Its often the case that less technically minded people move into management.
- mrits 7y ago
  I moved into management 5 years in at my startup. At the time I had ~50% of all code commits. I wanted to run a team because there was so much I wanted to create that I couldn't without the help of others. After a few years of VP of Engineering and then CTO I'm back to writing small apps in Rust for free. So while it was enjoyable it didn't scratch the same itch.
- 10kresistor 7y ago
  So they can make technical decisions. This is one of the reasons I hate programming at companies. I didn't serve in Iraq so I could work my butt off to get a degree and then spend years working professionally while continuing to learn and do side projects to have someone who doesn't know anything tell me what to do.
  - shostack 7y ago
    So they can empower their teams to make the best possible technical proposals that they then champion as the path forward. And that's assuming there at only technical considerations and not broader ones involving discussions with many other stake holders.
quietthrow 7y ago
VP at a top startup mean very different things to different people. To somebody who values sr titles it’s Substantial. To somebody who views titles as a measure of how much and what you contribute will only view this as substantial in the context of where you operate - VP of the lemonade stand vs VP at a large company (by revenue,employees etc). Most of the experienced crowd on this site will generally take the latter view. Most of the young/fresh grad kind of people on this site will take the former view. As for yourself I would suggest you measure yourself by impact and not title.
- throwawayhhakdl 7y ago
  Article suggests he has 3 direct reports More of a PM
creddit 7y ago
According to his LI, he was a VP at Lazada for 1yr and then became a senior data scientist at another company.
- 7d7n 7y ago
  Yes I left soon after it was acquired by Alibaba (didn't like the 996) and wanted to put my skills to help in healthcare (in a 10-man startup).
mettamage 7y ago
Key lessons that I'm picking up: > In year two I was internally transferred to the workforce analytics team, working to forecast job demand and build a job recommendation engine to move people within the organization. I'm hearing this a lot from friends. > On the side, I continued self-learning. I picked up Python (love it) and took classes in machine learning. Spark, a shiny (pun intended) big data framework was emerging and provided free courses on EdX—I devoured these too. I'm currently noticing this myself. I'm devouring content on Hack The Box. I'm currently making 16 hour days and am at 200+ hours within 2 weeks, and devoured half of their active boxes. You don't need a background once you have 16 hour per day (every day) determination. There are people who need more than sheer determination, but enough don't. They simply need Elon Musk level determination. > They were struggling with accurate product categorization and had heard about my sharing on the Kaggle competition. Use the right status symbols. It used to be university, now it is being at the top of a competition. > My family and closest friends thought it was risky. However, deep down, I knew I would regret not accepting the offer. A potential pitfall that he avoided. I've been heavily hit by this and kind of stalled my life for a year. So yea, he could've listened to them. I know I shouldn't have, but I did. He didn't and pushed forward. > The failure and embarrassment was very public. But so was the recovery and success. One that I know from my personal circles: go to a public embarrassment that isn't yours and no one dares to touch and make it into a success. It's not easy to do but if you can do it, then do it, in the right company this will transform your life. Or at least, it transformed the lives that I know of whom did it. They didn't do it consciously though, it's upon reflection that they realize. > But once in the field, there were PhDs with more experience around me—why did I get promoted above them? When I read this I'm simply thinking that he didn't get promoted above them. Being a VP is something different, I imagine, than being a data scientist, so different skills are at play. Yes, you need technical competence but you also need VP skills. Let's see what he says. > The measurable value I created was 3x that of an average data scientist. Well, he could also communicate that. Could the avg data scientist do that? I don't know, I bet half of them couldn't or wouldn't care. > I was promoted to be a role model and to mentor the team to deliver and communicate better. Like I said, VP skills. ----- To close: I think he's right in his assessment, simply by looking at my successful friends, family and acquaintances and by constantly asking what they do. I'd summarize his success as: A) Get in (I'm struggling super hard at this part, "you can problem solve but have too little experience" is what I get, it's depressive, it's a key stage) B) Create trust with everyone C) Be the best pick for the new position out of your team From those key stages one can distill that technical skill is initially important and communication later. ----- If anyone wants to hire me as a mix between a hacker and programmer anywhere in the world let me know! I have 1 year of work experience in software engineering (excluding the bootcamp I taught for a year). My Hack The Box profile is looking to be more impressive every day.
runawaybottle 7y ago
How is this new? Non tech people have been running tech people for quite some time.
lonelappde 7y ago
This self promotion boast blog posts says nothing. Most data science people are self taught and don't study "data science" in college.
tuananh 7y ago
very inspring story. thanks for sharing. i experience many things similar with yours. - progress plateau is scary. whenever i experience this, I try very hard to get out of it. > I needed practice too. The data team wanted to launch an internal newsletter to spread awareness—I volunteered. Someone had to visit overseas markets to do a data science roadshow—I volunteered. We wanted to present our work at conferences—I volunteered. this is where I'm currently at.
dot1x 7y ago
Did being asian had anything to do with this?
zcw100 7y ago
Ok, this is shameless self promotion masquerading as a casual, "Hey I've got an interesting story". I notice that he conveniently left out the part where Alibaba promoted him to VP, Data Science at the same time he started an MSc at Georga Tech which he completed in two years which is an impressive thing to do while you're working so I suspect there is more to the story. If working in NYC has taught me anything, always be promoting yourself while simultaneously putting everyone else down. "I guess I just worked harder and smarter than all those PhD's around me".

153 points by gczh 7y ago

NadavKeyson 7y ago

inspiring!

ahuth 7y ago

Curious how the author got better at communication. What are good resources or books for doing so?

7d7n 7y ago
I didn't recall any books helping much on communication. With regard to presentation and speaking, I had great leaders around me who provided candid feedback the presentation was off-point, too long, or had to be re-ordered (e.g., when presenting to non-tech folks, results before methodology). It was also useful to "rehearse" any conference presentations at meet-ups and get feedback. Feedback to improve written communication is harder to come by. Few people feedback on your design documents or reports. For this, I find blogging and seeking feedback from writers whose writing I enjoy to help the most.
allenskd 7y ago
Well.... I imagine it comes with the author's field? I've always been vocal about how much I suck at communication in both my personal life and work. I think I would have landed a super nice position if I wasn't a socially inept person. Bitterness and "reality" or "truths" won't help us, so these days I'm just leaning on being reasonable and as human as possible because nobody likes a person who's constantly pointing out flaws and telling people they are horrible. (thankfully I've never in my life told anyone they are bad at something, at the end of the day this field you can keep improving yourself. I imagine in a field of medicine if you mess up too much that's it for you)
pergadad 7y ago
Practice! Written communication: blog, short stories, editing others' work Oral: practice public speaking, either by volunteering in your own context whenever possible (most shy away - you stand out for volunteering to speak) or build confidence and skills outside, eg in Toastmasters.

zachwill 7y ago

Awesome work, Eugene! I had almost the exact same experience going from a psychology degree, to coding in SF, to heading up analytics for the Trail Blazers. Luck, self-study, and Kaggle! Really cool to hear that someone else also took the psychology to data analysis route.

disgruntledphd2 7y ago
Me three (except for the VP part ;))

dx87 7y ago

When I was doing a cyber training exercise in the military, we had an Air Force general tell us that the best technical officers they had started out with non-technical degrees. They said that officers with undergrad degrees in things like IT, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, weren't very good at thinking outside of the box because everything they did was fairly low level and had a provably correct solution. The officers with degrees like psychology and political science were better at taking in large amounts of information, and deducing a "best" answer to a problem that didn't have a "correct" answer. I noticed the same thing when I started teaching after I got out of the military; people with technical backgrounds wanted a checklist to follow, and didn't really care about the end result as long as the steps were followed. Non-technical students would look at what the result should be, and do whatever was necessary, creating their own checklist as they went along.

gczh 7y ago
That's rather interesting. I noticed a lot of friends who are much better at communicating than those who started off on a technical career with a technical degree. Not that being highly technical is a bad thing but in business, you go further as an employee and/or manager if you can grok what's better for a business. Usually that's where communication comes in. Very cool example you have there. I'm keeping this filed on my Roam Research documents!
- gczh 7y ago
  Not the author here but I'm relaying your message to him. He's going to come online soon to reply to the comments. We're on a different timezone
bcrosby95 7y ago
As a technical person, I find it interesting that so many technical people are that way. I start to get into a motivational rut if all I'm doing is working on a list of technical things to complete. Engineering disciplines are some of the few degrees that provide you the ability to both directly solve other people's problems and have close customer contact - that was a major reason why software engineering attracted me as a career rather than just a hobby.

omarhaneef 7y ago

One of the interesting aspects of this account is the role of online classes (Coursera and edX). I always thought that those kinds of things are useful and should be effective but (online) anecdotes suggest they are not. Seems like there is a missing step and the author was able to find that step. (Branded company work?)

7d7n 7y ago
Author here: I believe the missing step is being able to APPLY the knowledge and skills (learned from online courses) to create value. It's not difficult, you just need to know that creating an artifact is not the end of your job--it needs to be used to benefit customers and generate value. Remember to measure the impact after your feature/system is launched. I've seen many interview candidates struggle with this (missing step) too. Those that get past it were hungry enough to want it, as well as followed up with proper validation and measurement.

brenden2 7y ago

Getting to VP level at a "top startup" has little to do with data science, and everything to do with your ability to play the networking game. Depending on the size of the company, VP level jobs are more about management skills than technical proficiency.

pirate_dev 7y ago
This exactly. I can't begin to list off all the rich dumbasses who had all sorts of titles in startups because they went to the same school, knew the founders, etc. I've had such people have no idea what model they even use for large chunks of their pipeline. Obviously they hire the actual talent and these guys get the credit.
- allenskd 7y ago
  How is this different from any other company though? It happens a lot where I live. You either know the higher ups through some sort of connection(school, event, family, etc) became friends and that's it you landed on a nice position. I'd love to say it's only prone in startups but it's been plaguing companies forever, especially small-medium sized ones where it's easier because the owner is probably hoping to find able hands, perhaps the huge ones have slightly better processes to counter this type of scenario.
  - viklove 7y ago
    It's not different, all companies are like this. That doesn't make it any better though... Success is mostly based upon who you know and being at the right place at the right time. That's why it's disingenuous to suggest you can "teach" how to be successful with blog posts like this -- you can't teach someone how to be born into the right family so they can attend the right school and meet the right people.
dominotw 7y ago
> VP level jobs are more about management skills than technical proficiency. I would say this is true for all mid-management and up. Tech proficiency is largely irrelevant once you go into management.

levanify 7y ago

Awesome post! Thank you for taking the time to document down your learnings along your journey of pursuing data science. What I really like about your journey is how one thing manages to lead to another in the most amazing way. Some people attribute it to luck, but I guess in your case you really have made your own luck by taking actions to move towards your goal! Congratulations on your accomplishments thus far! I just have a few questions which would love if you can elaborate further on. Firstly, it seems to me that the online course enabled you to reach top 3% of a Kaggle project which led to a series of career opportunities. However, I believe that being able to reach the top in Kaggle competition is not an easy feat. This kind of process is not really replicable especially for the people who are just starting out in Data Science. In that case, what would you recommend them to do? And secondly, what is the end goal of a data scientist or at least for you as a data scientist? Would it be going into research? Continue to climb the ladder till you reach the top of the company? Data science and engineering in general are great as a form of intellectual challenge. However, personally sometimes I feel that there is a lack of meaning in the thing that I am doing as engineer/data scientist (especially if the culture of the company is very bottom-line driven). Just want to hear your thoughts! :)

7d7n 7y ago
On the first point: I assume you're asking for avenues to practice and demo your work. If so, personal projects are a great way. The most impressive candidates can demo something they've deployed. This demonstrates the ability to apply what you've learned AND learn the rest of the stuff as needed (e.g., spin up EC2, build basic front end, maintenance, etc.). The latter is more important and gives confidence that you take ownership and likely can do the same (i.e., end-to-end with results) in the company. On the second point: having meaning in work differs from person to person. Some people enjoy pushing the envelope (research), others enjoy staying hands-on (individual contributor, IC), while some big picture thinkers enjoy coordinating (PMs). It's helpful to think back on what gave you the greatest satisfaction and work with your leaders to be a role that lets you perform your best. I find it most fulfilling to build data products that are useful, relative to generating tons of revenue. I would be equally happy as an IC doing the hands-on or leading a small team and mentoring them to become more effective.
7y ago

azizsaya 7y ago

Fabulous post but this caught my attention: "The learning curve was steep. Pushed me 2x beyond my existing abilities. Exhilarating." What is meant by “steep learning curve”? https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6209/what-is-meant-by-steep-learning-curve https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6209/what-is-mea... I don't mean to be rude, just that it is interesting.

lostinroutine 7y ago
Considering that he says it "pushed him", I'd guess he means that there was a lot to learn and it didn't come easy.
scarejunba 7y ago
A learning curve is a plot of work required for achieving some amount of learning. Those guys just didn't get that that was how it's being used. "How hard is it to learn Haskell?" Not "How much time does it take to learn Haskell?" For instance, people will say some things are easy to learn, hard to master (playing Go). Other things are hard to learn but once you have, you're close to mastering them (kinds of problems that have a trick - like integrating e^ax cos bx).

euix 7y ago

Its often the case that less technically minded people move into management.

mrits 7y ago
I moved into management 5 years in at my startup. At the time I had ~50% of all code commits. I wanted to run a team because there was so much I wanted to create that I couldn't without the help of others. After a few years of VP of Engineering and then CTO I'm back to writing small apps in Rust for free. So while it was enjoyable it didn't scratch the same itch.
10kresistor 7y ago
So they can make technical decisions. This is one of the reasons I hate programming at companies. I didn't serve in Iraq so I could work my butt off to get a degree and then spend years working professionally while continuing to learn and do side projects to have someone who doesn't know anything tell me what to do.
- shostack 7y ago
  So they can empower their teams to make the best possible technical proposals that they then champion as the path forward. And that's assuming there at only technical considerations and not broader ones involving discussions with many other stake holders.

quietthrow 7y ago

VP at a top startup mean very different things to different people. To somebody who values sr titles it’s Substantial. To somebody who views titles as a measure of how much and what you contribute will only view this as substantial in the context of where you operate - VP of the lemonade stand vs VP at a large company (by revenue,employees etc). Most of the experienced crowd on this site will generally take the latter view. Most of the young/fresh grad kind of people on this site will take the former view. As for yourself I would suggest you measure yourself by impact and not title.

throwawayhhakdl 7y ago
Article suggests he has 3 direct reports More of a PM

creddit 7y ago

According to his LI, he was a VP at Lazada for 1yr and then became a senior data scientist at another company.

7d7n 7y ago
Yes I left soon after it was acquired by Alibaba (didn't like the 996) and wanted to put my skills to help in healthcare (in a 10-man startup).

mettamage 7y ago

Key lessons that I'm picking up: > In year two I was internally transferred to the workforce analytics team, working to forecast job demand and build a job recommendation engine to move people within the organization. I'm hearing this a lot from friends. > On the side, I continued self-learning. I picked up Python (love it) and took classes in machine learning. Spark, a shiny (pun intended) big data framework was emerging and provided free courses on EdX—I devoured these too. I'm currently noticing this myself. I'm devouring content on Hack The Box. I'm currently making 16 hour days and am at 200+ hours within 2 weeks, and devoured half of their active boxes. You don't need a background once you have 16 hour per day (every day) determination. There are people who need more than sheer determination, but enough don't. They simply need Elon Musk level determination. > They were struggling with accurate product categorization and had heard about my sharing on the Kaggle competition. Use the right status symbols. It used to be university, now it is being at the top of a competition. > My family and closest friends thought it was risky. However, deep down, I knew I would regret not accepting the offer. A potential pitfall that he avoided. I've been heavily hit by this and kind of stalled my life for a year. So yea, he could've listened to them. I know I shouldn't have, but I did. He didn't and pushed forward. > The failure and embarrassment was very public. But so was the recovery and success. One that I know from my personal circles: go to a public embarrassment that isn't yours and no one dares to touch and make it into a success. It's not easy to do but if you can do it, then do it, in the right company this will transform your life. Or at least, it transformed the lives that I know of whom did it. They didn't do it consciously though, it's upon reflection that they realize. > But once in the field, there were PhDs with more experience around me—why did I get promoted above them? When I read this I'm simply thinking that he didn't get promoted above them. Being a VP is something different, I imagine, than being a data scientist, so different skills are at play. Yes, you need technical competence but you also need VP skills. Let's see what he says. > The measurable value I created was 3x that of an average data scientist. Well, he could also communicate that. Could the avg data scientist do that? I don't know, I bet half of them couldn't or wouldn't care. > I was promoted to be a role model and to mentor the team to deliver and communicate better. Like I said, VP skills. ----- To close: I think he's right in his assessment, simply by looking at my successful friends, family and acquaintances and by constantly asking what they do. I'd summarize his success as: A) Get in (I'm struggling super hard at this part, "you can problem solve but have too little experience" is what I get, it's depressive, it's a key stage) B) Create trust with everyone C) Be the best pick for the new position out of your team From those key stages one can distill that technical skill is initially important and communication later. ----- If anyone wants to hire me as a mix between a hacker and programmer anywhere in the world let me know! I have 1 year of work experience in software engineering (excluding the bootcamp I taught for a year). My Hack The Box profile is looking to be more impressive every day.

runawaybottle 7y ago

How is this new? Non tech people have been running tech people for quite some time.

lonelappde 7y ago

This self promotion boast blog posts says nothing. Most data science people are self taught and don't study "data science" in college.

tuananh 7y ago

very inspring story. thanks for sharing. i experience many things similar with yours. - progress plateau is scary. whenever i experience this, I try very hard to get out of it. > I needed practice too. The data team wanted to launch an internal newsletter to spread awareness—I volunteered. Someone had to visit overseas markets to do a data science roadshow—I volunteered. We wanted to present our work at conferences—I volunteered. this is where I'm currently at.

dot1x 7y ago

Did being asian had anything to do with this?

zcw100 7y ago

Ok, this is shameless self promotion masquerading as a casual, "Hey I've got an interesting story". I notice that he conveniently left out the part where Alibaba promoted him to VP, Data Science at the same time he started an MSc at Georga Tech which he completed in two years which is an impressive thing to do while you're working so I suspect there is more to the story. If working in NYC has taught me anything, always be promoting yourself while simultaneously putting everyone else down. "I guess I just worked harder and smarter than all those PhD's around me".