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In less than two weeks I'm starting a software development course that lasts for 16 weeks and actually gives me a recognised qualification at the end of it. I'll probably let you all know how it is going in here as I progress. Doing some prework at the moment and it's going alright so far. My salary has been so low for a while that even at the lowest end of junior dev roles I'd be getting a 25% raise so being off work unpaid for all of it and a bit after is worth it within like a year. Plus it's worth it in other ways like not being on night shift and not changing shift times and other quality of life improvements. Hopefully.
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Mar 20, 2019 01:07
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meanolmrcloud posted:Quick update! My bootcamp ends this week and it looks like our project will be good to go on ‘demo day’. I accepted an offer from one of the bigger companies in the area, pending a background check. It would start at nearly twice my current salary, though I do have to give up a lot of flexibility and work the 9 to 5, whereas now I probably only work about 30 hr per week.
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Mar 20, 2019 05:03
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Suspicious Lump posted:Did you mention what bootcamp you are/were doing? Can you tell us? It was Grand Circus in Detroit. Since starting, I’ve been uselessly bombarded with ads from other companies in the area, and looking at them, they all have their pros and cons. I would imagine that very few of them have the networking GC does though.
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Mar 21, 2019 14:07
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meanolmrcloud posted:It was Grand Circus in Detroit. Since starting, I’ve been uselessly bombarded with ads from other companies in the area, and looking at them, they all have their pros and cons. I would imagine that very few of them have the networking GC does though. What's up Detroit buddy? Willing to share what company you got a job at? I work in the City also, but not in an IT role. I'm at DTE.
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Apr 4, 2019 01:20
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Just finished my first week of the bootcamp I'm on. They told us that of the cohort that just graduated before us only 6 of them haven't had a job offer. So something like 75% of them had a job within a week of finishing the course. wtf
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Apr 5, 2019 21:36
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A sad illustration of the state of recruiting is the weekly emails I get from a company, asking me to schedule an interview, that is full of dead links and itself bounces replies. They do everything through web forms so when the web forms don't work, I guess they can't recruit.Budgie posted:Just finished my first week of the bootcamp I'm on. They told us that of the cohort that just graduated before us only 6 of them haven't had a job offer. So something like 75% of them had a job within a week of finishing the course. wtf My experience is that boot camps are all but required these days. Why filter resumes when you can pay someone to do it for you and then have the candidates come with an APPROVED sticker?
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Apr 9, 2019 07:36
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Trying to shift careers right now. Currently I’m an audio engineer (as in working in a studio. I don’t have a STEM background) and I’m considering doing a boot camp in LA. I’ve finished an online C class at my local community college and am currently taking C++ and Python courses through the same college. I guess I’ll probably take a JavaScript course too in preparation. My original plan was to try and apply for a Master’s program, but that seems expensive and unnecessary. I’ve read the thread which makes me more inclined to do a boot camp after years of thinking they were scams. I guess I’m just asking for a sanity check on if my general plan is logical?
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Apr 10, 2019 01:54
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How important is age in hiring at this range? I'm debating making a transition. I'm currently in my early thirties. For a few reasons, I may not want to actually begin applying to these jobs for another 2-3 years in which case I'll be in my mid-thirties. Would there be any real effect in delaying those few years?
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Apr 10, 2019 16:53
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Hamming Cube posted:How important is age in hiring at this range? I'm debating making a transition. I'm currently in my early thirties. For a few reasons, I may not want to actually begin applying to these jobs for another 2-3 years in which case I'll be in my mid-thirties. Would there be any real effect in delaying those few years? I know someone that made the switch at 36/37. In my opinion it's never too late and I think most sane people would prefer to hire someone that's older. But I'm also older.
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Apr 10, 2019 22:56
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In my experience, no pun intended, being older is an advantage unless you want to work at a startup - not sure about google/Apple/amazon maybe someone has a better idea for those companies
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Apr 13, 2019 17:51
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MickeyFinn posted:When did they get started in the field and what were they doing before? What is "personal momentum?" Running the gamut for the past decade. Personal momentum is you don't sit around and do exactly what you're told and nothing else. Data scientists need to be genuinely curious, and the type of people are just going to teach themselves something new, like a language or a package, out of a blue. The former yeah, but I don't know anyone who went through a boot camp. I'm in corporate America (past 5 years, startup before), and I don't know how it's different in tech or at smaller companies. ultrafilter posted:Anyone looking to break into data science right now should read Data science is different now. It's not a happy read, but it's full of things you need to hear. That's a weird quote, as Hive is widely used. It's true that there's an oversupply at one specific point where people have been susceptible to get rich quick schemes, but there is massive undersupply elsewhere *at the entry level*, and massive undersupply at the higher levels. There are 100 people applying to one opening because in many cases, they aren't qualified. And the piece is spot on that a ton of your team is spending doing data cleaning type things which honestly, a lot of the modeling/machine learning types are often bad at. But that doesn't have a whole lot to do with a CS degree. She has a very skewed viewpoint towards tech which is not representative of the entire field. Her advice at the end is mainly good. zmcnulty posted:So I have couple questions: Document things, including properly staffing on metadata Hire data engineers who know how to do things like ETL I doubt either will be done, or done adequately. Learning SQL is easy, learning the others can definitely be done quickly but it depends on your level of commitment. If you're just moonlighting, it's hard for them to sink in. Kim Jong Il fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Apr 22, 2019 |
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Apr 22, 2019 00:22
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I hope I'm not breaking any rules for reviving an old thread. I'm considering taking a Data Science boot camp to change careers before the end of the year and I would like to know what experiences people have had with the programs they've taken, I'm really only open to taking a part time/ online boot camps because I can't quit my job with a wife and kid at home, and I live in Philly and I don't think there are any philly based bootcamps. As of right now I'm leaning toward thinkful's 6 month online program which would cost just under $8,000 with a full prepayment, around $10,000 if I took a loan out, thinkful does offer a tuition refund if you don't find a job in the industry 6 months after completing the coursework thinkful also offers career support to help you find a job. I'm also looking into General Assembly's 2 month online program that has 3 hour classes twice a week not including 15- 20 hours of pre-work, and other time devoted to the class projects with a total cost of about $4,000, General assembly does not offer any career support, or any sort of tuition refund. General Assembly seems like it covers less , but I feel like I would have an easier time with something that has the weekly structure like general assembly's twice weekly classes . Thinkful is mostly self taught with weekly check -ins with mentors which would require more will power on my end, but is a longer process and more expensive. Would I be able to Min/Max myself into a job with a General Assembly's program, or would everyone recommend taking Thinkful's longer program that covers more topics? General Assembly's syllabus : https://tinyurl.com/y6mrl87u Thinkful's syllabus https://tinyurl.com/y6mrl87u
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Jul 18, 2019 23:40
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Do you have any software or IT experience already? What is your job now?
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Jul 19, 2019 02:39
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TBH this sounds like a terrible idea. From my understanding the value that boot camps bring is less in what they teach you and more in the employer network they have. If the camp is not local, what use is their network to you? I suppose you could uproot and move etc.
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Jul 19, 2019 03:26
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https://lpsonline.sas.upenn.edu/academics/certificates/data-analytics
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Jul 19, 2019 04:09
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pokie posted:TBH this sounds like a terrible idea. From my understanding the value that boot camps bring is less in what they teach you and more in the employer network they have. If the camp is not local, what use is their network to you? I suppose you could uproot and move etc. Yea, as someone who just changed careers, this is 100% true. every entry level position is still going to assume you know nothing and the biggest leg up you have is the pipeline of employers and events your bootcamp should feed you. An online program might heavily suggest that you attend meetups or suggest hot companies in your area, but it’s very different than meeting employers face to face weekly in a structured environment. Entering month 3 of gainful employment, still going good and feeling confident in my choice.
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Jul 19, 2019 04:26
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Sobriquet posted:Do you have any software or IT experience already? What is your job now? Non tech unionized job where I've maxed out my potential income, and has the spectre of automation/ai just over the horizon . I dabbled in webdev back in 2015-2016 I was able to learn some javascript/node/jquery/rubyonrails, and mysql/ mongodb; but at the time I was comfortable with my job and did not pursue web dev beyond dipping my toes in tutorials and documentation , and I have not worked on any projects since that time. pokie posted:TBH this sounds like a terrible idea. From my understanding the value that boot camps bring is less in what they teach you and more in the employer network they have. If the camp is not local, what use is their network to you? I suppose you could uproot and move etc. I took a deeper look at thinkful's website and it looks like they actually do have a presence in Phila https://www.thinkful.com/about/#locations , and while General Assembly does not have a presence here a quick Amtrak ride(s) to NYC is within my means to attend networking events. As far as moving my wife has been suggesting that she wants to move closer to family in Charlotte soon, and the work I do here pays a fraction of what I make down South, which is another reason I'm looking for a career change. We're both are originally from NYC/Long Island so a move back to NYC could happen too. I'll take a look at that. I didn't know upenn had any offerings, thank you. meanolmrcloud posted:Yea, as someone who just changed careers, this is 100% true. every entry level position is still going to assume you know nothing and the biggest leg up you have is the pipeline of employers and events your bootcamp should feed you. An online program might heavily suggest that you attend meetups or suggest hot companies in your area, but it’s very different than meeting employers face to face weekly in a structured environment. Which program did you take? What were the networking sessions like?
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Jul 19, 2019 05:08
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Danger Slut posted:Non tech unionized job where I've maxed out my potential income, and has the spectre of automation/ai just over the horizon . Danger Slut posted:Non tech unionized job where I've maxed out my potential income, and has the spectre of automation/ai just over the horizon . It was a full stack program, but focused on backend development. They were one of a few physical bootcamps in my area. The networking events were at the bootcamp and were typically presentations/q&a’s thrown by company recruiters or reps, followed by quick meet and greets. It was good for making a good first impression. We were also able to demo our projects for companies, and explaining the project and the code for recruiters helped garner additional attention.
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Jul 19, 2019 22:22
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I think you can take that course for free from EDX E: yes, only pay for certificate. I started this and found it pretty good. https://webview.edx.org/microsoft-professional-program-data-science TraderStav fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jul 19, 2019 |
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Jul 19, 2019 23:46
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meanolmrcloud posted:Yea, as someone who just changed careers, this is 100% true. every entry level position is still going to assume you know nothing and the biggest leg up you have is the pipeline of employers and events your bootcamp should feed you. An online program might heavily suggest that you attend meetups or suggest hot companies in your area, but it’s very different than meeting employers face to face weekly in a structured environment. I asked this a few months back and you probably missed it. Always good to find someone else from the D: meanolmrcloud posted:It was Grand Circus in Detroit. Since starting, I’ve been uselessly bombarded with ads from other companies in the area, and looking at them, they all have their pros and cons. I would imagine that very few of them have the networking GC does though. What's up Detroit buddy? Willing to share what company you got a job at? I work in the City also, but not in an IT role. I'm at DTE.
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Jul 19, 2019 23:54
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Hey! Yea, sorry I missed that. I am at one of the bigger mortgage companies in the area. I guess I should also mention something that didn't occur to me in this job transition is that software development, at least at my company, requires a pretty significant understanding of the industry you are developing for, and how your company operates in that space. As opposed to retail, or social work stuff like I was doing before, you could get by with a thin understanding of the business, people skills and building your skill set. At my new position, the nuts and bolts of how we navigate the loan process is vital to writing functional software, and there are an absolutely huge amount of things to keep in mind. It's pretty drat interesting.
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Jul 20, 2019 19:07
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meanolmrcloud posted:Hey! Yea, sorry I missed that. I am at one of the bigger mortgage companies in the area. I guess I should also mention something that didn't occur to me in this job transition is that software development, at least at my company, requires a pretty significant understanding of the industry you are developing for, and how your company operates in that space. As opposed to retail, or social work stuff like I was doing before, you could get by with a thin understanding of the business, people skills and building your skill set. Hoping you're not at the one that rhymes with NagCar and are at the one that rhymes with Stock our Flicken.
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Jul 20, 2019 20:51
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TraderStav posted:I think you can take that course for free from EDX Thank you for sharing that link. Looks like a solid one stop shop to learn.
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Jul 21, 2019 06:18
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meanolmrcloud posted:It was a full stack program, but focused on backend development. They were one of a few physical bootcamps in my area. The networking events were at the bootcamp and were typically presentations/q&a’s thrown by company recruiters or reps, followed by quick meet and greets. It was good for making a good first impression. We were also able to demo our projects for companies, and explaining the project and the code for recruiters helped garner additional attention. What stack did GC focus on? Maybe I can save myself a few thousand dollars by brushing on my JavaScript, sql/mongo, buidling a few projects on GitHub, and exposing myself to a newer stack.
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Jul 24, 2019 15:45
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JS\html front end stuff, .net c#, and standard sql stuff. They mentioned, but never explored alternative database options.
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Jul 24, 2019 16:36
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I'm currently going through a Master's program in Data Science. It's an online program, which isn't really ideal and honestly I haven't found much of the material to be much more informative than a DataCamp subscription would be. I know an online program isn't really the best choice. I've got two semesters left at this point and it's all being paid for by my current employer, so I'm going to stick it out. I guess my plan from here is to just work on personal projects and try to build a portfolio in the meantime, since I'm not sure how much value this degree is going to have on my resume. Missing out on the networking opportunities of a physical masters program is a definite drawback and that's what I'm trying to figure out how to overcome now. I found a monthly Python meetup in my area, but it looks like most of their recent events have been more focused on Django and other topics that aren't necessarily data-oriented.
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Aug 2, 2019 02:49
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You could introduce some data-oriented Python to the meetup! Give a lightning talk on Jupyter notebooks or something. I’m about to start my first software engineering role after leaving academia and spending two years in a customer-facing research support role. I’m a little nervous about the increased workload but the job seems like a perfect fit and I’m really excited. I have a graduate degree but I will say the companies I’ve had offers from were absolutely interested in seeing my couple of personal projects and open source work. Bite off some small things and finish them. Don’t get too tied up in having a “good” or “original” idea. I think for portfolio pieces it’s fine to wholesale clone something that already exists (don’t copy, but rebuild it with your own design) if you want. For example I made a website (Flask) that scrapes the federal bond yields and plots them, and an iOS app for building reusable checklists.
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Aug 2, 2019 02:58
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My boss says that in the next year or so, he wants to start a Machine Learning / AI project. So I've been looking into it in the hopes of being prepared and being able to be a part of it and use it as a means to enhance my career prospects and learn cool stuff. However, while looking into it, there is a lot of linear algebra under the hood, which I never learned. On the one hand, it would arguably be better to really get an understanding of it, even in a relatively short run-up. On the other hand, if we're just going to use some existing open-source library, does it even matter? I know learning the math would be better, but I am curious if goons think it is worth bothering.
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Aug 6, 2019 11:11
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If you want to develop a working vocabulary and an intuitive understanding of linear algebra, I highly recommend the ”Essence of Linear Algebra” series from 3blue1brown. As for whether you need deep LA understanding for what you want to do...it’s hard to say. I think you need to understand the concepts to know what you’re doing/why, but the actual implementation will not require much. You can certainly at least get started without that knowledge.
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Aug 6, 2019 15:58
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At some point someone is going to ask you why the model isn't working right. There are limits on how well you can answer that question if you don't know at least a little bit of the math.
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Aug 6, 2019 23:52
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Thinking about transitioning into coding after a little career in politics and government. I've talked to a couple of boot camps and even toured one. It seems like an okay route since I can afford it and I need the classroom instruction to really make sure I'm focused. Anyone have an experience with one?
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Aug 11, 2019 03:35
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I'm in one right now coming from a background in law. I think experience and expectations would vary wildly from city to city and camp to camp. I talked to several employers before making a decision and got answers ranging from we don't hire from bootcamps to we will accept resumes from X bootcamp to we have hired from X bootcamp before. I'm going in with the expectation that I'll find a Jr dev job at a startup or a law job that can involve coding. I also think that over time the value prop has changed, at least in my city, from bootcamps being accelerators for people that can already program to providing a synergy for someone who is a SME in another field. I fall into the latter group and it was 100% the right decision for me to quit my job to do this as I was miserable in my law job.
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Aug 11, 2019 05:29
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Chiming in late to the thread but I'm a Mech E undergrad Sys E M.S and started a legal tech startup after teaching myself Python which has done pretty well so far. We employ a few engineers and I can answer questions about hiring 2nd career software engineers. I also did this in my 30s after some tours at big tech and aerospace companies. TropicalCoke posted:Thinking about transitioning into coding after a little career in politics and government. I've talked to a couple of boot camps and even toured one. It seems like an okay route since I can afford it and I need the classroom instruction to really make sure I'm focused. Anyone have an experience with one? We had an extern from Insight Data Science and I'd recommend it as a bootcamp. Lambda school also seems to have very high placement rates due to their YCombinator connections and project based curriculum. mearn posted:I'm currently going through a Master's program in Data Science. It's an online program, which isn't really ideal and honestly I haven't found much of the material to be much more informative than a DataCamp subscription would be. I know an online program isn't really the best choice. I've got two semesters left at this point and it's all being paid for by my current employer, so I'm going to stick it out. I guess my plan from here is to just work on personal projects and try to build a portfolio in the meantime, since I'm not sure how much value this degree is going to have on my resume. An M.S. from a real school is > than a Bootcamp IMO. Building a GitHub with tutorials and personal projects completed is a great idea. You seem kinda down on the whole thing but you sound like you're on the right track. Consider pitching this like its awesome rather than a just-okay thing you're doing when you do decide to make a change. While Django/Flask may be "not data", they're a huge, important part of the life cycle in that they directly interface with the stuff you want to do. Understanding your core area of expertise and its direct interfaces is important. CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Sep 13, 2019 |
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Sep 13, 2019 12:37
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What kind of things do you look for in second career engineers that you don't get from new CS grads?
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Sep 13, 2019 15:25
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Mantle posted:What kind of things do you look for in second career engineers that you don't get from new CS grads? In order of importance of experiences most new grad CS majors don't have: Domain knowledge in our industry. Relevant personal projects where they solved a problem they had using similar technologies. Understanding marketing, particularly SEO. Understanding a sales funnel. Have ran a business of some kind. Understanding project management. CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Sep 13, 2019 |
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Sep 13, 2019 17:10
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When I was in grad school, I really liked my courses on program evaluation and regression analysis. Stuff like STATA. Are there any good accreditation or certificate programs? I want to; refresh old memory, learn new skills, and have a tangible thing to show employers that I know how to do program evaluation.
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Sep 22, 2019 01:57
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JIZZ DENOUEMENT posted:When I was in grad school, I really liked my courses on program evaluation and regression analysis. Stuff like STATA. They certainly exist for stuff like SAS, but unless you want to work with really old school businesses, you would want to use Python and R. I am not aware of certificates for either that anyone cares about. There is a crapton of resources on data science programming online. You could learn on your own and participate in competitions like Kaggle. Post your code online and show that to employers.
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Oct 26, 2019 07:16
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Thank you friend.
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Oct 26, 2019 17:09
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Holy poo poo how have I just learned about kaggle
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Oct 27, 2019 12:00
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Magnetic North posted:My boss says that in the next year or so, he wants to start a Machine Learning / AI project. So I've been looking into it in the hopes of being prepared and being able to be a part of it and use it as a means to enhance my career prospects and learn cool stuff. However, while looking into it, there is a lot of linear algebra under the hood, which I never learned. On the one hand, it would arguably be better to really get an understanding of it, even in a relatively short run-up. On the other hand, if we're just going to use some existing open-source library, does it even matter? Understanding LA is a huge plus for any programmer. Anything involving images, representing categorical data, NLP, vectorizing problems will rely on it. Just take a course or two at Khan's and maybe one of Andrew Ng's for reinforcement and applications to plant a seed in your head. IMO it's just one of those things that should be in the toolkit of any developer, especially anyone getting into ML. I can't overstate how important LA has been to me, but I can give you some anecdotes if you're curious.
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