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Question for HN: I'm graduating this Spring with majors in Systems Engineering and Physics, and I want to work as a data scientist, preferably at a startup. Wha
by philip1209 14y ago
Question for HN: I'm graduating this Spring with majors in Systems Engineering and Physics, and I want to work as a data scientist, preferably at a startup. What can I do to position myself for such a job? If any of you work in the field and are willing to provide some 1-on-1 advice, please shoot me an email - mail@philipithomas.com
- 3pt14159 14y ago1. Know programming. 2. Be smart with an eye for economics (there is way more overlap than people give it credit for). 3. Start by talking to people and telling them what you want to do. Most founders want to help people reach their dream. If you have a github account, email me and maybe you can start with us over at 500px here in Toronto.
- jvm 14y agoWhat's the Toronto scene like? I'm finishing up a PhD at NYU this year and was planning on breaking in to the field after graduating. NYC is obviously a great place to be but for relationship reasons I was thinking of moving to Toronto (which is honestly a nicer city anyway much as I love NY), but a cursory inspection suggests a lot less demand for data-loving jobs. I would love to be mistaken though; am I?
- chubot 14y agoFrom my experience, you will spend most your time finding, collecting and cleaning data. Doing anything super algorithmically interesting will be rare. Get familiar with the Unix shell + Python (or similar language). The shell will save you tons of code. awk/sed/cut and friends are very fast for cleaning data (in development time and runtime). And shell scripts are good for grabbing things from different systems.