In Recognition of Great Information

This man’s blog has some of the most unconventional information I have ever read.

Source: Greentech Media

Jeremie Harris wrote a blog on the significance of various degrees to the field of Data Science. It provided a significant amount of information for me and, possibly, for anyone else who has an interest in becoming a data scientist.

The blog can be found here: https://towardsdatascience.com/do-you-need-a-graduate-degree-for-data-science-8e3d0ef39253

This advice from a Ph.D. drop out has me both invigorated and encouraged that I may be able to break into this field in the up and coming years.

The key moments I would like to highlight involve three sections.

1. If the point of your undergrad is to get a job, there’s little purpose in paying more tuition to wrap up if you’ve already secured a position at a company that has enough runway to get you your first 2 years of experience.
2. Do you need a Master’s to do data science? It depends. Here’s a scorecard I just made up. Add up the points that apply to you, and if the total is greater than 6, then the answer is “probably a Master’s will be helpful.”

• You have a “hard” STEM background (physics/math/CS undergrad or other degree/diploma): 0 points
• You have a “soft” STEM background (biology/biochemistry/economics undergrad or other degree/diploma): 2 points
• You have a non-STEM background: 5 points
• You have less than 1 year of experience working with Python: 3 points
• You’ve never had a job that involves coding: 3 points
• You don’t think you’re good at independent learning: 4 points
• You don’t understand what I mean when I say that this scorecard is basically a logistic regression algorithm: 1 point

3. Master’s degrees are bootcamps. Treat them that way. If you do one don’t focus on your grades, focus on what you’re learning. Ask what the postgraduate employment rates look like for your program.

These were my three main takeaways. What were yours? Please read the blog and let me know! If you have any extra tidbits of advice, I would be most elated to read them.

Thank you for your time.