My background is in neuroscience and I have spent time in both biomedical research and clinical medicine. I loved certain aspects of both, however neither provided the avenues for growth that I was looking for in a career. After reflecting on what I enjoyed about my experience with science and medicine, I figured out that I am drawn to these fields because of my curiosity and that I need a profession which allows for (or even better, encourages) a freedom of exploration.
My favorite part of any scientific paper I have read or any research project I have been apart of is the data analysis. Maybe I am weird, but discovering trends and relationships among the data feels like opening a present on Christmas morning. After graduating from college, I initially thought the only way to keep statistics in my life would be to pursue a graduate degree in something related to science or medicine. However, once I discovered there was an entire profession dedicated to analyzing and interpreting data from a wide variety of sources, I knew it was something I had to look into further.
Researching what it takes to become a data scientist lead me to two conclusions. First, you can come from any background. Huge amounts of data are generated every day from seemingly every industry in the world. This means that any experience you have from previous careers within an industry can be carried into a data science career as that knowledge will be invaluable when interpreting industry-specific data. Second, you may need to be a jack of all trades. A quick google search for the “top skills of a data scientist” will yield numerous articles listing everything from educational/professional demographics of people already employed as data scientists to a broad range of “must have” technical skills. Furthermore, because data is coming from a broad range of sources and is used in many different ways, the term data scientist may mean different things to different companies. Ultimately, three skills consistently appeared throughout my research: strong computer programming skills, strong math/statistical understanding, excellent communication.
As I hone my computer, math, and communication skills through the rigors of the Flatiron Data Science Bootcamp, I look forward to applying these skills within a career that allows me to combine my love of statistics and science while also providing endless opportunity for growth and exploration.