How to become a Data Scientist in 2020:

Complete Guide to get you Hired

by ​Self Learn Data Science

If you aspire to become a data scientist in 2020, you’ve come to the right place. In this

massive in-depth guide, I will walk you through the step-by-step process I took to

become a data scientist. Of course, becoming one from scratch takes determination,

motivation and lots of self-discipline. If you think you are up for the challenge, read on.

Need help becoming a Data Scientist? Self Learn Data Science provides 

services to help beginners learn the hottest skills in the 21st 

century and get hired as a Data Scientist. Read more ​

here​
. 
Content

1. Should you become a Data Scientist?

2. Your desired role in Data Science

3. Qualification Check

4. Level up your Data Science Skills

5. Work on Projects

6. Build up your Online Presence

7. Linkedin and Networking

8. Build your Resume

9. Get Hired!
1. Should you become a Data Scientist?
The very first question you should ask, why a Data Scientist?

The hype around the topic of data science is very real but that should not be the only

reason you are coming into this field. The fact is, becoming a Data Scientist, especially

from scratch, is no easy feat. A Data Scientist requires a certain knack for looking at

data and it involves lots of experimentation, research, critical and analytical thinking.

The media often portrait data science as the cool kids next door, working on amazing

technology such as machine learning or artificial intelligence. But behind every buzz

word are tons of programming, mathematically theories and experimentation, most of it

don’t rhyme well with cool.

However, if you have done your fair share of research and decided that Data Scientist is

right for you, here is the good news.

The best time to get into data science is NOW.

Other than the fact that;

1. Linkedin ​reported that Artificial Intelligence Specialist is the #1 Emerging job in

2020,

2. World Economic Forum​ predicted that Data science and related roles created a

net 58 million increase in jobs in 2022, and

3. Glassdoor​ revealed that the median base salary of a Data Scientist is $107,801

Data Science has also matured substantially in recent years with its potentials greatly

recognized by most industries. Areas like healthcare, finance, agriculture, retail, defense
have already seen their operation impacted by AI and there is only more to come. This

means that equipping yourself with data science skills is valuable to your employers, no

matter the industry.

Furthermore, learning data science has never been easier! Just look at all our posts on

data science ​courses​ and ​books​ available at your fingertips. The immense interest in

data science has led to an explosion in the amount of data science resources,

benefiting both beginners and practitioners in the field. Video lectures, blog articles, and

e-books, a wide variation of teaching materials are publicly available for learners. To

add on, offline in-person lessons are also in-demand right now and we will introduce

them in the next few sections. Keep on reading.

So should you become a Data Scientist? If you believe in the potential of Data Science,

if you are motivated and driven, if you are excited about changes, I will say why not?
2. Your desired role in Data Science
Even though we generalize everything as Data Scientists, understand that there are

multiple roles in Data Science.

● Data Analyst

● Data Scientist

● Machine Learning Specialist

● Data Engineer

● Business Analyst

● AI Research Scientist, and many more

Specifics of each role are beyond the scope of this guide but this ​blog post​ summarized

it nicely.

Why is this important? The role you chose decides the skills you need to hone. A

Business Analyst concerns more about their products and business knowledge while a

Machine Learning Specialist focuses on their technical skills. Having an ideal role early

in your journey helps to plan your learning, projects and job hunt later on. Other than

that, you can even go further by narrowing down the specific industry for the role you

want. One piece of advice is to leverage the prior experience that you may have. If you

are knowledgeable or passionate in certain fields, find data science-related roles in

these industries that integrate your experience and data analytics skills. This way, you

will definitely be a valuable and in-demand asset in the industry.

Do some soul-searching at this stage and find the role you really want. Although this

guide focuses primarily on Data Scientist, many of it still applies to any other roles.
3. Qualification Check
Check what now?

This is the time to assess your past qualifications and see where you need to start your

data science learning journey. Doesn’t matter if it is a completely fresh start, but it’s

important to know where.

Basically, you should try to check off the few fundamental ​skills needed to become a

data scientist​ (Contains guide on where you should start learning data science).

Many of you will be doubting yourself and question if your qualifications are sufficient to

build a career in data science. I can and I will assure you right now that you definitely

can. Apart from the more academic work such as an AI Research Scientist, you

certainly do not need a Ph.D. or even a higher degree to excel in data science.

4. Level up your Data Science Skills

Once you figure out where to start, it's time to get into action. There are typically 3 ways
you can go about learning Data Science.

1. Bootcamps

2. Graduate Degree (Master or Ph.D.)

3. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

These are ranked according to the ability to personalize your learning with 1 as the least

customizable to 3 the most flexible. There is no one perfect path, just the one most

suitable for you.

Bootcamps

Bootcamps are basically intensive on-campus training that ranges from a few weeks to
a few months. They aim to cover as much content as possible in the short duration so

you would expect a very steep learning curve. Time is also a factor as these often

require massive time commitment during the course. As such, this option is only

recommended for full-time learners who are able to commit to their schedules.

In addition, this is also the least personalized option on this list. Mainly because most

bootcamps assume zero knowledge and attempt to teach everything from scratch, so

there is no need to customize your experience as everyone starts equal.

One plus point of bootcamps though is the opportunity to connect with like-minded

individuals. Your fellow learners should be as motivated as you are, who wanted a

change or advance in their career and all of you are working towards a common goal.

These are the best candidates to network with as you can be sure they will be active in

the data science field.

Graduate Degree

Graduate Degrees usually span from 1-2 years for a Master's degree to 3-4 years for a
Ph.D. These are specialized postgraduate programs with a validated curriculum to

teach the specialization you chose in-depth. Some examples are the MIT Master of

Business Analytics and Master of Science in Data Science from Columbia University.

Furthermore, these programs provide some degree of personalization where you can

choose the specialization you want. You can take modules that interest you and

personalize your learning. However, stating the obvious here, this is also the most

expensive option in this list and you have to take that into your consideration.
Enrolling in a graduate degree program is often a huge commitment, so make sure you

have done your research.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

MOOCs have come a long way since it first started. Recognized universities are
releasing some of their modules as MOOCs and even major tech companies like

Google​ ​have come up with their own online courses. Gone are the times where MOOCs

were being frowned upon and companies are becoming more receptive of self-learners.

Using the right resources and the right learning path, anyone can build their arsenals of

data science skills using online courses.

In addition, there has been a shift from on-campus teaching to online-style delivery. As

such, for people who wanted the flexibility of online courses but the credibility of a

university,​ ​edX​ or​ ​Coursera​ have partnered with Universities to provide their Master's

programs on these platforms. This has brought MOOCs to a new height and changed

the definition of what constitutes an online course.

Online courses are also where Self Learn Data Science shines as an education blog.

We are a team of self-taught data scientists who have been through the path of

self-learning through various MOOCs and worked our way to full-fledged Data

Scientists. Using our experiences, we are here to help fellow knowledge-seekers like

you and assure you guys that this path is definitely feasible and doable. Having doubt?

Contact us at hello@selflearndatascience.com and we will answer all your doubts.

No matter which path you chose, leveling up your data science skills is just the first step

of becoming a Data Scientist. Read on to find out more.

5. Work on Projects
While courses tell employers you know data science, projects show them your ability as
a Data Scientist. Of course, doing projects is not only for your resume but it also builds
up your technical skills, maybe more so than any course could.

Kaggle

Kaggle, the best data science competition platform. Even though Kaggle is known for its
competition, working on Kaggle can be a project on itself. Competition datasets are real
data by companies with the purpose of using the strength of the community to solve
their business problem. During the competition, you will experience the process of data
collection -> data processing -> modeling -> evaluation -> and optimization, similar to a
self-initiated project.

If you are new to Kaggle, competitions are available in a few categories. For starters,
there are playground or knowledge competitions that test your fundamentals while
featured competitions are available for Data Scientists to compete and win prizes. If
possible, work on active featured competitions as ranking yourself against the
leaderboard is a good experience and a great addition to your resume.

However, the major drawback is that datasets from Kaggle are just too clean. Basic
pre-processing of data was already administered by companies before hosting the
competitions in Kaggle, reducing much of your workload. If you have not heard, Data
Scientists typically spend upwards of 70% of their time processing data while only 30%
of the time modelling. So you can see that being spoon fed in Kaggle might not be the
best for you.

Self-initiated Projects
Hence, I also recommend you to go out there and work on some self-initiated projects. It
does not have to be game-changing or life savings. Just novel and innovative will do the
trick. If you know what industry you wish to work in, find projects related to that industry.
Find your dataset or scrap a website, go through the process of experimentation and
experience what it is like to be a Data Scientist. There is no better advice than having
your own beloved pet projects which you can proudly present to the world (and
recruiters).
6. Build up your Online Presence
What do you mean by online presence? Do I need to be an influencer to be a Data
Scientist?

Not quite, but close. Having an online presence has become increasingly important in
the tech world, including Data Science. For self-taught learners like us, an online
presence helps to validate our work and qualification in data science. This validation
comes in the form of the followers, comments, and peer-reviews you have in the online
space. But this is not any social media followers, I mean people who read and find your
articles interesting, people who share the same thoughts or issues as you in the field, or
even people who get inspired by your ideas and use your projects.

Yes, the easiest way to build up your online presence is to write your thoughts and
share your work.

Medium

Medium is an online publishing platform where writers can write and share their articles
at no cost at all. You do not need a domain name or a hosting server to post your
content online. Just sign up an account, build your profile and write away. Medium has
also become the preferred platform for publishing data science articles making it the
best choice for you to start.
So what to write? It can be anything or everything. The main goal is to pen down your
thoughts, your journey and appeal to people like you.

Some blog ideas;

1. Share your Data Science curriculum with others

2. Reviews courses you took
3. Short write-up of your Data Science projects/competitions
4. Thoughts on Data science-related matter

We also have our own Medium account. Follow us ​here​!

GitHub

Oh yes, Github.

You do not truly belong to the technology sector if you don’t know GitHub. GitHub is a
development platform where users upload their open-source codes in the form of a
repository (repo) to manage or share their projects. Furthermore, It has great build-in
version control functions that benefit both software engineers and data scientists and
allow collaboration between professionals. Hence, starting a GitHub account goes a
long way to getting noticed in the tech space. Some potential employers might even ask
for your GitHub to assess your projects, codes and technical competency!

So what are some of the things you can do with GitHub?

1. Upload projects
2. Fork interesting repos
3. commit to other repos
7. LinkedIn and Networking
Never underestimate the power of networking. When walking into unknown territory,
having offered a helping hand is rarely a bad thing.

This is where LinkedIn excels as a social platform. LinkedIn allows users to build their
professional profiles and connect people with similar backgrounds. You can find people
in similar spaces, send them a personalized message and build meaningful connections
all in a single platform.

Here are 4 tips to help you optimize your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn

1) Add a Professional Profile Picture

Firstly, when logged on to LinkedIn, click on ‘view profile‘ to edit your profile.

A profile picture and a cover image are used to represent yourself on LinkedIn. This is
the first thing people see before reading your profile and a good first impression counts.
Sample profile pictures by the LinkedIn team themselves. When in doubt, just dress
formally, smile and snap away.

2) Fill up your profile sections

Your profile is segregated into sections where each section tells something about you.
The most important sections to tell others all about yourself are your experience,
education, certifications, and projects. To start, click on the ‘Add profile section‘ and add
these sections individually to your profile.
You can find ‘Experience‘, ‘Education‘ and Certifications under Background while
‘Projects‘ can be found under Accomplishments. Flaunt your achievements, this is your
profile and be proud of what you have achieved. Nothing is too insignificant, give
yourself the credit you deserved. With that said, your profile should remain factual.
Honesty is the best policy.
3) Personalize your Intro
Next, personalize your intro by pressing the pencil symbol under your cover image.
Change your headline to reflect your current status. It can be your current role in the
company, current education or even general statement about yourself.

For example,

● Data Analyst in Self Learn Data Science

● Computer Science Major at Stanford University
● Data Science Enthusiast connecting with Like-minded Individuals

Anything that describes you really. The headline will appear alongside your profile
picture so here is also where your first impression goes. Make it count.
4) Let recruiters find you
After completing your profile, it's time for recruiters to find you. The last step is to let
recruiters know that you are open to opportunities and the job you prefer. Head back to
your profile page, click on the ‘Add profile section‘ and find ‘Looking for job
opportunities‘ under Intro.

Once set up, it will appear on your profile but only visible to recruiters.

Now you are done. Pull out your contacts or head to suggested networks and start
connecting. Happy linkeding.

Networking
LinkedIn is hardly the only way to network. In fact, connecting with others face-to-face
leaves a more impactful impression and certainly more meaningful connections. Join
your local data science community, attend a meet-up or go to a conference. Even if you
are using LinkedIn, do not miss out on these channels of networking. All are great
avenues to meet people, gather ideas, and who knows, you might find your next boss in
the mix.
8. Build your Resume
Finally, you are ready to get a job in Data Science. Or is it?

There is just one last hurdle – getting your resume noticed by employers. Recruiters
and employers get hundreds of resumes per job opening, so how do you make your
resume stand out from the rest and not get filtered to its demise.

If you have been following our guide, here are some pointers for you. Read to the end to
find out how to get a FREE resume template.

1) Profile
Other than your name, make sure to add your social and online profiles. This is to allow
recruiters to find you easily if they wanted to.

2) Projects / Experience
If you do not have any data science-related experience, we recommend prioritizing your
data science projects before experience. This way, it will be kept relevant to the job
scope for whoever reading it.

List down your top 3 projects starting from the most impactful. Try to have some
variations in your projects to show a wide range of experience.

For each project;

● Make sure the title is self-explanatory (E.g. Using Twitter’s tweet sentiment to
predict prices of S&P 500)
● Describe the project: Start with a strong action verb -> Tools you used -> results
you achieved
● Keep it short, concise but show your competency objectively

3) Experience / Projects

The Experience section will come next, list your 2-3 most relevant and recent working
experiences.

Here is where your blogging experience can come in handy if you do not have any tech
experience. It might not seem much but it will definitely show your enthusiasm and
motivation in the area of data science.

As for other experiences, keep it relevant to the employers. Even if your experience is
not related to data science, rephrase it to advertise your soft skills such as
communication, leadership or time management.
4) Skills

Be strategic and relevant in this section. Although you can pretty much write anything
here, keep it to the most important few especially in the ‘Certification & Course‘ section.
Unless these certifications are widely recognized, most employers do not care what
MOOCs you have taken. Only state those that are popular or from a highly credible
university.

As for technical skills, do not spam all skills you think you know. Be strategic. Use the
company’s Job Description (JD) as a reference and write those that are required for the
role you are applying for.

Try to keep your resume within one page, the most two. Concise is key and personalize
each resume to the role you are applying before you hit the send button.

9. Get Hired
Now you are ready to be hired as a data scientist, go ahead send your resume and
hope for the best. As a self-taught data scientist, my advice to those walking the same
path is to persevere. Data science is never easy and so is getting hired as a self-taught
data scientist. Assess your ability and do not be afraid to start lower.

Don’t wait, be motivated, get working and join us in this exciting career of a Data
Scientist.
 Steps you take don’t have to be big,

they just need to take you in the right direction

– GRADIENT DESCENT

S​elf Learn ​Da

​ ta Science