Data Science Careers: The Power of Brand, Story, and Depth
When coming out of undergrad, my only job offer was as a technical consultant at an IT Services company. I had completed a few programming courses in undergrad, but my exposure to the software development lifecycle was mostly nonexistent. I was constantly looking for advice online and through different people in my social network; however, there wasn’t this abundance of information that exists nowadays. It would have been much easier to navigate my newfound tech career if I had a mental model to help organize my career plan. After having over 100 chats with current and aspiring data science professionals, I believe I can boil down all data science and analytics career paths to 3 dimensions: Brand, Storytelling, and Depth.
Brand
As a consumer, you are consciously and unconsciously exposed to different brands constantly. Some of the most common brands you are exposed to might be different foods, cars, or tech products. These brands influence your perceived value of the good or service and will influence what you purchase. This philosophy can also be applied to your career. Your resume/CV, LinkedIn profile, and personal website are full of brands. The University you attended, your current and former employers, and YOU all have a brand(s) that portrays a specific value to a prospective employer or hiring manager. As a data professional, you should be constantly building and improving your brand(s). The stronger your brand(s), the more desirable of a candidate you will be. This could take the form of attending reputable Universities, gaining work experience at certain types of organizations (e.g. big tech), or specializing in a specific domain (e.g. finance).
Note: Fantastic article on how personal brands have taken over.
Storytelling
As a data professional, you will often be surrounded by people who do not understand tech or data as well as you do. Whether it is a Hiring Manager, your Supervisor, or a prospective life partner, you will inevitably have to explain what you have done at work to someone who might not understand tech or data well. The ability to tell a compact, compelling story about something you have done at work will do wonders for your life and career. If you cannot tell a compelling story, your career will be limited even if you are stellar at coding because you will not be able to influence others. Influence starts and ends with a good story. This story could convince a Hiring Manager why they need to hire you, an investor why they need to fund the development of your AI product, or your client why they need to add a new unique ID to a CRM system. Can you tell a cohesive story from problem to method to solution and outcome in about 60 seconds?
Depth
In the tech world, there are a ridiculous number of technologies and methods that are mentioned on job postings. To make things more challenging, this number is constantly increasing. If you are new or early in your tech career journey, you might believe that you need to learn as many of them as possible. This could not be more wrong. Someone who is okay at python, SQL, Tableau, Spark, ETLs, DBT, data analysis, and machine learning is usually less valuable than someone who is an expert in one. There is a certain level of proficiency or knowledge that must be acquired in each technology, concept, or method for you to be a useful employee. These skills require many years of education and/or work experience before you start hitting diminishing returns. Moreover, the foundations of one skill will often translate to another one. Build depth before breadth.
Final Thoughts
As you progress through your data professional career, you will be exposed to an abundance of information and advice from a wide variety of sources. If you remember to map the flood of information to the mental model of brand, storytelling, and depth then I promise that you will be more prepared for your career journey.
~ The Data Generalist
Data Science Career Advisor