Special People To Connect With When Choosing A Data Profession Path.
Starting or switching to a new career as a data professional can be very intimidating. At some point we all faced this stunning reality of the path to follow.
On my own part, I started with the big name “Data Science” without even knowing the true responsibilities of a data scientist. But when I did, I had to retreat and asked myself what I wanted.
After a time of research, I knew I needed a direct application of my Mathematics skills without heavy coding, yet be part of the persons that advice or make decisions that move a business forward. That’s how I ended up with “Data Analytics”.
There are several areas of the data profession. I am of the school of thought that, when making decision to become one, that decision should be driven by the problems you want to solve than the high salaries and big names associated with them.
When you make up your mind on the problem you want to solve, you then carefully look for the data profession that best aide your journey. For clarity sake, I will discuss this under three point.
- Choosing the right data profession for yourself.
- Best learning resources for you.
- Connecting with the right persons for guidance and growth
Choosing the right data profession for yourself.
#datascience, #dataanalyst or #dataengineers, these are all professions but you are the professional. Professions don’t solve problems, professionals do. You use the knowledge associated to your profession to solve business or humanity problems.
So, choose wisely. Below are some of the names of job descriptions associated to data:
· Data Scientist.
· Machine Learning Engineer.
· Machine Learning Scientist.
· Data Analyst.
· Business Analyst.
· Data Architect.
· AI Engineer.
· Data Engineer.
· Business Intelligence Analyst
· Data Storyteller
· Database Administrator
Do not be perturbed, with all these names, I will personally recommend you pursue a career in Data Analytics, Data Science, Data Engineering, Business Analytics or AI/ML Engineering, as any path you make up your mind to follow will likely find root in any of the above careers.
Best learning resources for you.
Now, after choosing a data profession, starting can be confusing as there are lots of materials and videos out there for any these fields. Youtube is a great resource for learning, but lots of videos there are unstructured.
I will recommend you follow a structured curriculum, this will help you measure your progress. Some of them are datacamp, qataquest, udemy and coursera.
For every progress you make, I will strongly advice that you document it in your own words and understanding. This is for reference purpose and for the consumption of other upcoming data professionals.
In a very strong term my friend Solomon Eseme will say “document the process”. That piece of document might turn to asset for you tomorrow.
Connecting with the right persons for guidance and growth
The importance of building the right connections cannot be overemphasize. I will try listing some of the persons I follow and their links. These are strong voices in the community. Follow them and you will not be lost.
I will always start with George, he is a seasoned Data Governance specialist. His weekly Good Data Morning show has helped me improve.
Second, is the man that has loaded me with over a hundred Udemy videos, I look forward every week for his free videos. He is Danny Ma. He is an amazing and always smiling data scientist.
If as a newbie you are not following #DataWithDanny, then you are wasting a lot of money. Those Udemy courses are worth fortunes. Thank you Danny.
The third in my list is the person I call the Boss Lady. That name depicts to me how she bosses her show. Especially the Datacated virtual conference.
She anchored a whole 4hours show without blinking. That conference was rich. Kate is a powerhouse in the area of data visualization. If you wanted to be Datacated, please follow Kate.
Fourth in the line is the man with the highest level of energy and how he manages to maintain it, I honestly don’t know. He is SCOTT, In terms of data management, he is a goto person. Go to him and find out what “The Single Source of Truth” means in the world of Data.
Fifth in line is the #66DaysOfData man, a simple, gently spoken and knowledge filled data scientist Ken Jee. He is the anchor of #66DaysOfData, it is a very wonderful concept that has truly help a lot of newbies grow their skills.
He is one of the persons that has end to end data science projects. This type of project help in building portfolios.
Sixth, is the man that I enjoy listening to, he is Alex, so he goes with the name ATA in his Youtube channel, which stands for Alex The Analyst. Alex works with one of the Fortune500 companies and he finds time to mentor upcoming data analyst.
I have seen persons get jobs through the skills he teaches. I encourage you to follow him on youtube and LinkedIn.
I will not end this article without talking about Ravit, this guy is just like Danny, and he loads me with lots of books in data science, statistics, python, R and so many others. His Ravit Show is a very interesting weekly show. Follow him and you will not miss a book he shares.
How about Al Bellamy’s #showusyourdata challenge. Follow him and you won’t miss a thing.
The list continues, but with these ones, you are sure going to meet more persons in the community that will help you be better. This list does not by any means suggest that the first person is better than the second or the third.
It’s just that when I want to make reference, George’s name comes first in my head. Why not, he has been supportive personally.
I am a data analyst and I am very comfortable with it. Please carefully choose your career path based on the problems you want to solve. You may want to follow me here and on LinkedIn.
