What is More Convincing than a CV? - when you look for a data science job | /en/2018/02/more-convincing/

yihui 2022-12-17 02:37:59

What is More Convincing than a CV? - when you look for a data science job

https://yihui.org/en/2018/02/more-convincing/

4 Comments

giscus-bot 2022-12-17 02:38:00

Guest *Daijiang Li* @ 2018-02-05 14:44:05 originally posted:

How to data scientists? Or
How to be data scientists? Or
How to select data scientists?

@daijiang

yihui 2022-12-17 02:38:04

Fixed: #40

Originally posted on 2018-02-05 14:48:46

giscus-bot 2022-12-17 02:38:01

Guest *Rebecca Robare* @ 2018-02-05 15:17:06 originally posted:

"You need to have a few (data-related) projects of your own, without anybody asking you to do them. These projects show that you are intrinsically interested in data science." Because when I'm done with work, I want to go do more work... This might be real-world advice for hiring, but I live in a world where my non-data science hobbies are intrinsic to my mental health and my husband, children, and friends are entitled to my non-work time, which it is a pleasure to give them. This is great for hiring data scientists who don't have families or outside interests. Maybe that's what turns a profit, but it's also what turns over your employees.

yihui 2022-12-17 02:38:05

I don't think Eduardo meant to exploit employees for profit (again, I was paraphrasing him and I might mishear -- I apologize if I did). You can definitely have your non-data science hobbies, but if you are applying for a job as a data scientist, I think it makes sense to have something to show your genuine interest in data science. For example, if two job candidates are both interested in basketball, I don't think it is a bad idea to first consider the one who has written a few blog posts analyzing the data of his/her favorite basketball teams.

Put it another way, how would you hire a data scientist? What do you think are good criteria for hiring data scientists? All other things being equal (I know this is unlikely), would you hire the candidate who has done a few data projects by him/herself while other candidates haven't?

Originally posted on 2018-02-05 16:28:44

giscus-bot 2022-12-17 02:38:05

Guest *sleight82* @ 2018-02-05 21:27:27 originally posted:

Completely agree with Rebecca. All of these things can be done and evaluated within one's job/employment arrangement - it's called contacting the references supplied on the CV and asking questions about the candidate. You can 'do projects of your own' within the scope of the work you normally do; you can give talks at meetups and conferences as part of your job-related requirements. Having a 'Github' presence is meaningless - I could do all of my work in a Subversion repository and no one would ever know - but I'd be knowledgable about version control. Being 'intrinsically interested in data science' (whatever that means - about as much as what 'data science' means) cannot be solely determined by looking what someone does outside of their job. I could hate data science, but really want a job title that is hot right now, so do some ridiculous (and possibly wrong) analysis and write a blog post about it, and all of a sudden I'm a better candidate for doing that? Not buying it. I'd rather see that someone does something (anything) that they enjoy and are passionate about on their free time as an indicator of someone I'd like to work with. If that happened to be data science blogging and git cherrypicking, then great. But if it's underwater basketweaving, hooray too - I'll evaluate their enthusiasm just the same. And if they didn't list anything - then I'll talk to their listed references to gauge.

giscus-bot 2022-12-17 02:38:02

Guest *Emma* @ 2018-02-13 06:36:14 originally posted:

I totally thought the title means cross validation...

giscus-bot 2022-12-17 02:38:03

Guest *GyD* @ 2018-02-26 07:47:34 originally posted:

Don't think you made a mistake, it's just your habit of not saying no kicking in.

I completely agree that if someone's really into data science, (not just some work to do for 8 hours) he/she will going to have some side projects of their own.

There is no problem with shifting your focus to other things, but a person whose biggest interest is his/her work is going to put more effort into that topic and thus is a better candidate in my opinion.

I know a bunch of people who have husbands/wives/kids etc. but at the same time they are organizing meetups/conferences, giving talks, doing side projects, commiting to open source, etc.