Hey all. I work in IT and the job market is terrible. I’m not too sure what to do. I was thinking of getting into dsta science stuff, but I don’t know how to get there or what options I have. Any advice would be great.
I have been a Data Scientist for almost a decade now. I pivoted my career into it after working as a chemist / software tester. I got my work to pay for me to complete a three year Master Program after which they gave me the title which allowed me to jump to other companies when I wanted more money. So it can be done and I am glad that I did it.
However, I stared my program in 2015 when Data Science was HOT. Now I mostly see Data Scientist being promoted in place from data analysis or other related careers. You only really get hired at another company if have 5+ years of experience. So if you really want to do this you will need your company to promote you and train you in place. There’s a huge pool of people looking to get into it right now. Most of which did a coding bootcamp to upskill so those are mostly useless. They only really work for people with a PhD in some technical field where they learned a few tricks to get business knowledge instead of their academic data skills.
How do you become a dsta analyst then?
Got me. I pivotted to IT to begin with but it was early in my career and I could still live at home so I could pay for and take the time for cert classes without having to worry about needing to pay bills. All why you had an area that was actively looking for people. Only thing that seems to even have some thirst for workers that is not super niche is healthcare but im unsuited to that.
Don’t. Learn and specialize.
The issue with chasing what the ‘hot’ high paying easy to get into job is, it won’t be around in 5 years. Data Science is past it’s prime already.
Stop chasing trends. Build skills and find a company that invests in it’s employees and stay there. They exist. They just aren’t ‘sexy’. A lot of companies who burn and churn employees are more visible because they are aggressively recruiting people and are easier to get hired at since they don’t really care so much about quality vs quantity.
Stop looking for a ‘cheat code’ to an easy and high paying career. That shit doesn’t work unless you have the social status and connections to back it up.
Actually I had little idea it was popular. I just really like that kind of thing.
5 years ago like every other person i met was a data scientist.
now they are all struggling to find jobs.
Yep, and be prepared to take a (minor) paycut and/or not work on something “shiny and impressive” in exchange for a better working environment.
be prepared to take a (minor) paycut and/or not work on something “shiny and impressive” in exchange for a better working environment.
I can confirm this is an excellent plan. Anecdotal as it is, I traded a fast-paced job with great people and terrible management for a slower-paced job working on things that do not interest me at all, with excellent peers and fantastic management. The change in working environment (and recognition of WFH as work) has made a huge difference.
My pay cut was 3% initially, but the rate increases of the new job has outpaced that of the old, and it’s a few percent in my favour now. I’m pleased and relieved, and I hope its boring self can continue for a few years while I derive satisfaction and joy from interactions at work, and accomplishments and leisure outside of work.
Fully agree! Best advice I ever got from a high school teacher can be paraphrased as, “Think about what jobs will still be there in 20-30 years and can’t be sent offshore. Go into that career path and save your interests and passions for your hobbies.”
Buy this book.
“Discover What You Are Best At,” by Linda Gail.
First the book tests you’re natural abilities in things like social skills and mechanical problem solving, then shows you a list of jubs that use those skills.
For example, both nursing and hair dressing need good social skills and good dexterity. Two totally different jobs with similar skill sets.
I got pointed at a job I’d never considered, and ended up with a good career.
Any chance you can do a lateral move within your current work? Might be easier, but you’ll probably have to accept a “demotion” if you have less experience than the people already there. On the other hand, you don’t “lose” your job and have to go through the entire process of quitting and applying. Having established connections and know-who’s within the org might also make it easier to pivot.
My two cents: start your own shop. Find a customer segment that you care about and build valuable things for them. It takes a fair amount of effort, but I’ve learned after several layoffs that it’s a lot harder to lose 10 customers than it is to lose one W2 job. Precarity is constant. Diversifying your income is a much better mitigator for a terrible job market than pivoting.
This is all assuming that you like your current line of work. If not, pivot sooner rather than later. Take an online course or watch a YouTube video, and then start doing the new thing to learn it. Build some case studies to develop and showcase your skills. What would a data science portfolio look like? What do other data scientists demonstrate on their sites? Learn enough to do that, and pepper in the current experience you have to differentiate yourself.
I’m in the same boat. I’m trying to go from frontend developer/designer to project manager. My advice is to look for certifications that are respected in the field and then acquire them.
i think this only applies in the us. nobody i know in europe gives two shits about certifications, unless it’s the kind you can’t work without, like electrician.
Certs are really only for HR. Most hiring people understand certs are just taking a test and have little to do with real job skill.
I help in hiring for my company. Most candidates lack communication skills and the ability to apply their knowledge. We have hired people with MS in IT who were totally incomplete, and people with no degrees in the field who were stellar, self-motivating, and were quickly promoted.
The problem that most employees don’t want to hear is that all their experience and degrees mean nothing if they can’t market those skills and demonstrate basic social competence and self-reliance.
Not to mention most resumes/letters we get are schlock and show zero genuine interest in the job or the company and it’s mission. Just taking 5 minutes to read the company history etc can give you a huge leg up in applying and interviewing because it shows you actually gave a tiny bit of a shit.
we’ve started to phase out letters entirely because they also serve no purpose.
I got certifications, communication skills, and I research every company I’m lucky enough to get an interview for. You hiring? I would be a star employee.
Edit:
Question, how do you suggest writing resumes that involve the company mission? I can’t think of something that doesn’t involve having AI tailor your resume or throwing keywords around in the summary (which those never work). I try to tailor cover letters to places I’m applying to.
We are hiring entry level jobs only that pay about 45-50K. People often balk at the starting offer, but we offer fulltime WFH, and everyone who works here has been here for years or decades.
It is very hard to get applicants, because people balk at the starting pay. But what they dont’ realize is our benefits basically offer you an extra 20K+ in total comp and are far more generous than most companies these days. We have gold-plated healthcare package, and retirement matching, which is rare to find.
But anytime my job comes up in casual conversation people balk at me because it’s a no-name small company, and therefore it’s not ‘real job’ like it would be if I worked for a giant mega corp.
The other issue is people’s salary expectations are insane. They think at 22 they should be making 90-120K to start w/ zero experience… there are very few fields in which that is true.
It’s so tough. 45k isn’t enough to cover expenses where I live (I know because we’re doing it, and if we weren’t dual income it just wouldn’t work). It doesn’t matter that my husband gets amazing retirement matching and decent benefits, because without my (admittedly small) income we couldn’t pay rent and utilities. If you want to be independent here and have a yard, you need to make more. A few years ago here you couldn’t even find an apartment with that salary, but it’s calmed down a little.
for a 22 year old it is. more than plenty to live with a roommate or two, afford food, and have some extra for paying off your debt and savings.
but a lot of them are entitled and think they DESERVE a 3-4K one bed apartment in the hottest neighborhoods. no amount of pay is ‘enough’ when you live beyond your means and have unreasonable expectations for your standard of living. And yeah, if you think ‘bare minimum’ is a luxury lifestyle, than a 100K job won’t cut it, you need like 200-300K for that lifestyle.
we aren’t hiring 50 year olds with kids for entry level jobs.
Tell me about it. I’m not in this stuff for the money. If you want, DM me.
Certs are really only for HR.
I’d add on vendor managers to that list. Most ‘larger’ (read: more than 50 employees) orgs I’ve been at also cared about vendor certifications because it could make or break their partnership level if they didn’t have enough certified employees to make the cut. That’s why I got my ccna a decade ago (and haven’t renewed it since I left there), because my company needed more certs and they gave me a 2k/yr pay bump to get certified.
My pivot from IT was to go into a front line support role that I hated but used to show my other non technical skills (“soft” skills) and moved into a knowledge org in the company. From there it’s building out your portfolio with accomplishments and objectives you did/helped on. I have since moved further away from tech and into a more public role and it is the soft skills which have allowed me to keep my job. Everyone knows the tech in IT - it’s why we’re originally hired. Being able to talk to people, to help them learn and/or grow, and have them like the conversation is what keeps me valuable.
It’s not the path for everyone but hopefully this gives you some ideas on where to apply your non-tech skills and your ability to be a person instead of a filled fix-it role.
Sidestep into engineering. Utilities and maintenance will exist for as long as there are utilities and a need for maintenance.
Currently an engineer actually
So all you gotta do is find offers where there’s a need to maintain software/hardware of industrial machines or server rooms or anything longterm really and insert yourself there, learning the specs on the go.
Easy! 😉 Heh.
what is “engineering” in this field? We have devs and engineers and i dont understand the difference bc im a peon who plays with javascript all day
Glorified repairman, but of a specialization companies and/or government can’t do without.
it’s a title.
If you can, ask people you know if their workplace is hiring and which positions. I’ve gotten more jobs from the people I’ve met in the past than from sending my resume out to online listings.
