Can a Materials Scientist switch to Data Analyst?
I’m 1 year out of college. I work as a materials engineer and one of the thing that become inevitable throughout my internships and work is data science work. At one job I worked on the corrosion team at a car company and I had to analyze data on millions of cars using everything from excel to Python to PowerBi. I had to do that on another internship to prove the company wasn’t meeting specification on a certain part. At my current job I use Python and excel to more or less present data. I’m going though these job postings and it seems like I already have the necessary skills. I know Python, JavaScript, basically everything about excel and PowerBi, and just missing that sql experience. Should I just do the Google/ibm data science course and apply to jobs or can I just go straight to applying now? #dataanalytics #datascience
Definitely Data Analyst is just a catch all term from financial space to a more coding focused background there is a wide variety of skill sets used in that role.
Should I just start applying and see where I land organically? Or focus towards a specific space ?
YES you can do it without a data science course! I was a process engineer for a year before I switched— but I made up some projects on my resume that were data science related under my current role. that’s what helped me land a new role. i’d apply for anything entry level- 1-2 years of experience and start asap.
My data science jobs are throughout my resume. Should I just aggregate them to subsection and say “data science experience” and have bullet points saying “did X for Y company”
your jobs previous to the current one don’t matter much. i’d take out most bullet points non data science related under your current role and concentrate on data science experience (add 2-3 non data science related at the bottom). make the first bullet point a heavy DS project and list tools you used (python, sql, bi tool etc)
It's not about just tools, it's about stats. How good are you at stats?
Fairly good. You have to learn a ton of stats to get a material science degree at my school. We did it in matlab and I just transferred the skills to all my roles regardless of the tools used.
I made the same transition from materials to data, if you represent your previous experience as relevant to the skills and attributes employers are looking for in a data scientist it should be a smooth transition. You can demonstrate your proficiency with SQL in the interview, you don't necessarily need to have used it in your previous jobs.
You can just apply if you're in a hurry, but you might be happier with the results if you prep a little first and then apply.
Like what do you mean happier with results? Do you think I can get into a higher paying job or that unless I take the course I’ll be ghosted by a lot of position?
Higher paying roles and higher chances of going all the way to offer.