Is master's degree a must if I want to switch to Data Science??
I studied economics for bachelor and minor in Math/Stats. Ive been wanting to move into Data science for a while. Is a master's degree necessarily or bootcamp/online certificate is enough? My goal is to be a Data Scientist at a big elite company
Not required, you can do your own research privately and publish them, get them reviewed and accepted world wide and show them in your resume
+1, we need some way to evaluate your abilities. Having an MS isn't a perfect indicator of performance but if I have to pick from 50 resumes I'm going to use that to narrow it down for practical reasons. If you want to stand out without the degree show what you've accomplished in the field, github papers etc
If you choose a Bootcamp then check the Data Science Alumni of that bootcamp on LinkedIn. Lamba School, Coding Dojo and FlatIron seem to good bootcamp a with a solid alumni based and they also have Income Sharing Agreements so you don’t pay until you get a job.
What kind of data scientist do you aspire to be? A lot of DS jobs are more into data analysis; using standard number crunching tools, some statistics etc. Usually Master's is not required for this. If you want a ML heavy role, apply for Applied/ Research Scientist positions & yes, they often ask for masters/ PhD.
Yeah more like the first one. The latter is abit too research focused for me. So how do i get a job in tje 1st one??? Is bootcamp enough???
For the first one you can look for data engineer position. Although i have a ms degree don't remember being asked one as a requirement. Or at least you can substitute your work as a ms degree for some positions. It will allow you to put your feet into door.
My recommendation, if you want to go this route, is to get really strong in engineering and either try to (eventually... it’ll take time) get into ML engineering or a company where DS is heavy on engineering. If your calling card is math/stats/econometrics, there is a very high bar as most of those roles will go to PhDs and the scraps are extremely competitive. There’s a very powerful current right now. There are hordes of people trying to break into DS from schools and boot camps and it’s hard to distinguish yourself. I don’t think a Masters is necessary (if you want to go back to school, maybe think about going for a PhD) but you’ll have to work very hard and thread the needle a bit: network heavily (helps land interviews in the future which overcomes lack of masters), build up your skills (IMO a job where you’re using python everyday), take online courses, do some kaggle to practice building models, and read papers/blogs to stay current.
Hello. That is my problem. How do i even get a job where I can get to use python if I dont even know python?? Like with a masters degree it helps me to stand out abit from those bootcamp people. It is faster to break into as well. Only 1.5 year. I dont think i can break into DS in 1.5 year withoit a degree no matter what I trief
Unfortunately, a master’s program isn’t the silver bullet you might hope it is. And your wallet will be about 50k lighter for it (and even worse, you won’t earn an income for 18 months). More than most careers, DS is about self learning and putting in the hours during your personal time. If you don’t know python, learn it on your own and see if you like it.
Not required, but it's very hard to even get an interview if you don't have a PhD and/or few years of experience
Yes. You need it
It definitely won’t hurt but not necessary. The biggest skills (coding) they will be looking for is Python and sometimes R as well as strong SQL knowledge. Math and stats are also typically a requirement, but it sounds like you have those covered. If you don’t have the coding knowledge, I would recommend you start by trying to get into a data analytics or BI type role for a year or two instead of trying to go straight into DS. This will allow you to build these skills daily and will learn a lot more doing this than spending 1.5-2 years on a masters. If you can get a strong base of using Pandas and Numpy and working with data in Python (e.g. feature extraction, cleaning and prepping data) then that would be helpful. A lot of DS roles end up as SQL monkeys and spending most their time on prepping data. Then once you have mastered the basics, start working on more of the ML side and building knowledge of the various learning techniques (supervised and unsupervised): classification and regression algorithms, clustering, etc.
Good to know that you have mentioned big company. From my experience I have felt that doing DS in a place which doesn't understand and cannot fund is totally useless and creates anxiety.
While not all companies have a graduate degree as a requirement, it's unlikely that you'll have the expertise or temperament needed to do research if you are not someone who wants to go to grad school.