Couple of advices from a 4-weeks Data Science bootcamp Survivor!
Surround yourself with successful people and you’ll become successful. You have heard this for sure, right?! I was not sure if it was time to make a career change since I was starting to feel really comfortable and kind of stuck at my previous job but at the same time I felt this was not what I wanted to do forever.
I pulled the trigger and walked away from my comfort zone. A place that was the result of almost 10 years of study and hard work but was not satisfying me. You might wonder why would I do that? I knew that I needed to make a change.
I started my journey to become a data scientist and now I am in the 4th week of data science immersive bootcamp. As I look back at these four weeks, I feel so proud of myself as I have learned a lot and feel so close to achieve my goal (8 more weeks to learn a lot more and get the certificate!).
At the end of each day, when I wrap up studying for the day and checkmark my calendar, I have this great feeling of accomplishment and mental growth. I tell myself hey! You did a good job. I like to high-five myself sometimes!
What do I mean by mental growth? I am starting to find myself and believe in myself more and more. I know I am developing great skills and am on the right track to become a better version of myself and it will not stop at the end of this bootcamp.
Need my advice? Please don’t just dive into any immersive program or bootcamp hoping it will make something out of you. Develop a vision first. You need to have the mindset that challenges are opportunities and you can’t learn everything overnight.
Data science is an ever-changing modern world practical field of work with a relatively low number of people in the field with an actual degree in Data Science. Then how did I know if I liked data science? If you like collecting, analyzing and interpreting extremely large amounts of data, developing hypothesis, making inferences and detecting patterns, then consider Data Science!
Do I have any other advice? Sure!
Have a goal (in this case, there is only one: ‘BECOME A GREAT DATA SCIENTIST’!).
Try to visualize the next couple of months of your life.
Get familiar with the concepts. How? Learn what data science is, what data scientists do, explore real time case studies, get familiar with stack overflow, Kaggle website (data science platform) and other relevant websites, and read related articles at Medium blogging platform.
Understand the power of preparation and learn the necessary prerequisites (and believe me, learn more than just basics!) such as calculus, linear algebra, probability, discrete math, machine learning concepts and of course learn the basics of one of the most popular language in this field, Python!
Well, I went through all this and now I am in the program. Any other advice?
Sure! Make friends! Talk to them, ask for their opinions, share thoughts. You should know you are not alone. Enjoy each day on your program as days pass by quickly and you don’t want to regret when looking back.
Work hard to keep up with the pace (and yes that means stop watching Netflix!).
There will be lots of labs, assignments, lessons, discussions, projects and scary quizzes every week! I’m not kidding, Yes! every week! Start your assignment the day they are given to you. It is nice to have the time to review them and work on your weaknesses.
Be ambitious but understand your limits
If you don’t feel frustrated and stressed in the program then you are most probably not making the best out of it. You are investing your time, money, and energy in the program, so you better be ready for it!
My last advice at this stage: Get help and be helpful!
Wrapping up
While a data science bootcamp is intensive and needs so much attention and efforts toward progress and success, the above tips will help you prepare, adopt, and work efficiently toward your goal. This will guarantee that your data science bootcamp will be a success and a great experience!
p.s. If you are reading this, and still interested in the program, please remember not to decide based on one article and do your own data collection, analysis, and interpretation!
