Back in 2011 when I was a sophomore at the University of Washington and required to declare a major, psychology was a no brainer (pun intended). The subject is endlessly fascinating, the professors were engaging, and the linear algebra pre-reqs were non-existent. Not that I didn’t enjoy those classes, but I wasn’t itching to spend more of my time studying matrix factorization.
Little did I know….
Somewhere around 7 years ago, my journey toward becoming a “data scientist” began. Not necessarily out of choice. Rather, it was out of chance and saying “yes” to opportunities. Fortunately, they turned out for the better.
More recently, my non-STEM background encourages people in similar boats to reach out seeking advice, or simply my story, on how I moved from a graduate of psychology toward a data scientist. My typical monologue is consolidated below into five chunks which I believe are the most influential in said journey.
Stay curious
Someone once said,
“all the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.”
The single thread throughout my path toward a data scientist — and my life, really — is a consistent curiosity. I cannot sit still intellectually; there is always something to be discovered and understood. This curiosity guides my focus from one topic to another — from audio engineering (and wanting to be a rapper) to psychology to data science and many more in between.
7 years ago, while managing the social media program for a small company, my curiosity led me to dive deeper into the analytical side and run informal experiments. Acquiring this small piece of experience, I was recruited for, and successfully landed, a social media analyst role.
4 years into the analyst role, my curiosity led me to explore more sophisticated methods to apply to the projects I supported. Others on my team were ACTUAL data scientists and referenced R. 6 months later, I was recruited for, and successfully landed, a data scientist role.
Curiosity alone won’t help you grow into a data scientist. But it will increase your probability of being the right person, at the right time, with the right set of skills.
Be who you want to become
Another person once said,
“Fake it until you make it.”
Generally, I am not a fan of dishonesty. However, there is a huge benefit in positive self-perception. Not only in influencing your own behavior, but also in how others will start to perceive you.
For example, each year thousands of individuals train for triathlons (swim, bike, run). Some of those people will tell their friends, “I am doing a triathlon!”, and those friends will encourage them accordingly (it is no small feat).
Other people will tell their friends, “I am a triathlete”. It hits different. It moves you from a person doing a thing to a person who IS that thing. This small change in phrasing signifies a heightened level of commitment to achieving those goals. It will lead to a different mentality about your success inside and outside of “training hours”.
Obviously, I didn’t just start calling myself a data scientist right away — that took some time. There were skills and mental models required to achieve such a title. My point is, I had a goal to become a data scientist, so I started to be who I wanted to become.
Bing (read: Google) was my friend and can be yours as well. There are endless resources to learn whatever your heart desires. Personally, I started by sheer force — performing all of my analyses in R. It was a forcing function to learn how to ask the right debugging questions, learn the tool, and therefore grow my skillset. From there, I leveraged DataCamp for more formal coursework.
Surround yourself with smart people
“Surround yourself with the dreamers, and the doers, the believers, and thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see the greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself.”
Along with the above quote, another one states, “you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with.” Now, that is likely not 100% fact, though there is some truth in such osmosis.
Placing myself in the presence of smarter people helped tremendously in my journey. They were pseudo-mentors, unknowingly teaching me how to speak about data, structure a problem, and find the best solution. They provided tangible guidance as well as encouragement.
These people do not have to be just co-workers, if at all. They can be online or in-person communities, people you meet at networking events or conferences, or mentors you “cold-call” on LinkedIn. They are people who speak the same language and get excited about the same nerdy things that others wouldn’t understand.
Most of all, they are individuals who set a bar for you to reach (and maybe even surpass).
Be prepared to say “yes”, then do it
Even with all the curiosity, becoming, and “surrounding” in the world, goals are not reached without saying “yes” to the opportunity to pursue it. It starts with a simple “yes” to deciding data science, or something else, is the right path. It continues by saying “yes” to opportunities which will start to pop up as manifestations of the energy you put into the craft and out into the world.
“If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives.”
Be prepared to accept them. Some will seem irrelevant or not big enough. But each one will be a period to sharpen a skillset and grow. Over time you can be more selective and practice the skill of saying “no”.
Baby steps….
My career is filled with saying “yes” to recruiters who want to chat, coworkers who want to collaborate, random people who want to network, or myself who wants to learn something new. I felt so fortunate to even have the privilege so why waste the opportunity?
Follow good omens
With all of that said, a lot of my career path I attribute to luck. My first draft had this at the very top. However, I imagined most readers would then feel discouraged to read further.
“You’ve got to find the treasure, so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense.”
— Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Data science did not start as an end goal — it actually wasn’t a fully defined career until recently. I was just the right person, at the right time, with the right skillset, and a willingness to say “yes”.
The quote above comes from Paulo Coelho’s book, The Alchemist. Highly recommended. One important theme is the concept of omens — good and bad. This book encouraged me to be mindful of both, especially the good ones. Often times, we go throughout life not recognizing them until later (hindsight is 20/20).
Good omens, luck, or whatever you want to call it — no one would be who they are and where they are without it. After luck, what is needed is the willingness to start and a dedication to the journey.
