Been in a dilemma the last few months over choosing one route over the other. Currently a business intelligence engineer with 4 yoe. Mgr asking me to choose one stream to specialize. Which way do I go? I'm trying to evaluate this from a comp perspective vs growth perspective. From what I understand, DS is paid higher compared to PM. But the growth curve for a PM is way faster. Also, I do want to keep my options open as i want to try to go for a MBA in a couple of years. Tbh, the reason for my confusion is that I enjoy building ML models and doing PM work, but the way Amazon is structured its hard to do both. Please help!
“DS is paid higher compared to PM” — I don’t think this is always true. Maybe at Amazon but I know for a fact PMs get paid more than DS as they grow up the ladder. Is switching companies an option for you? We have Data Science PMs in my org at Microsoft which sounds exactly like what you want to do.
Its definitely an option. Could you DM me a few job links?
PM. The kind of Data Science work you describe is being commoditized rapidly. All the interesting/challenging/remunerative jobs in Data Science require a PhD, which doesn't seem to be in your plans. A PM who can speak/understand technical concepts is better than one who cannot.
Can you elaborate on how these jobs are being commoditized please
"Building ML models" was the giveaway. Most serious data science work revolves around data collection and preparation, with model building taking up not as much time as newbies think it does. Judging from OP's post, I guess he is using scikit-learn, SparkML or something similar, and ends up with a multiple regression model every time. That type of work is no longer a differentiator. Alternatively, if he is working on deep learning models, image or video understanding, that is a totally different story; but then he wouldn't have asked this question if he did.
I am a former BIE. I agree with v0. high TC DS job all require PhD(like applied scientist in Amazon). You don’t have any advantage if compete with them. You will have Analytics and coding advantage comparing to non tech PMs.
If you like bs and bullshiting people, go PM. Else go DS
You won’t have any trouble getting into MBA even as a DS - got into a couple of HSW, and know many other DS’s who have done the same.
Can someone also explain why the growth curve for PM is faster?