Source
r/datascience•
quantpsychguy

Question for the experienced

Meta

I know the entry level DS world is crazy right now but I'm thinking specifically about folks that have been DS for 3+ years.

Do most folks seem to work with DS that want to be ICs (individual contributors) at a high technical level or do most folks seem to want to be managers (i.e. have direct reports and administrative duties)?

In my anecdotal experience, I thought most that were non-junior DS wanted to stay in the more technical, hands on, IC side of the house. Am I wrong?

Posted Apr 8, 2022, 2:14 PM UTC

4728
GamingTitBit•

It depends on who you are, your family circumstances and what your career goals are. Honestly I thought that I was going to always be the more technical person (in Ds for 6+ years now) and I still do I'd say 60% technical work of coding, analysis, reporting etc. But I've also found I really enjoy mentoring and training others, more than I thought I would. And alongside that I like managing projects because I know how it feels to be the junior ds and I can help encourage their growth and make progress and hopefully give them a better experience than I had with some of my managers.

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proof_required•

yeah this is me! And I am struggling a bit to move into such a role officially even with 7+ years of experience. Unofficially I am working in such role!

5
GamingTitBit•

Do it unofficially, put it on your CV then move company! That's what I had to do because there was no room for me to move vertically.

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proof_required•

yeah HRs are such gatekeepers. I literally explained my work in an interview with respect to what they were asking for in their job description and then at the end HR is like "oh you never held a lead position". Ugh!

I am trying that now - putting it on my CV and applying!

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Acceptable-Milk-314•

I'm more sitting here waiting to be found out as a fraud

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No_Clock8248•

I am a fraud data scientist and now I am moving into DE

11
the_dataengineer•

What's the reason behind this decision? Is it, that you were always more interested in engineering or do you think it's easier?

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No_Clock8248•

It's getting very hard for me to add value being a DS. As I am not a PhD ,I don't have expertise of that level. Also I find Engineering enjoyable .

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the_dataengineer•

Then use Data Engineering to transition towards MLops / ML Engineer roles. It is very important to deploy and operate models int production. A lot of data scientists lack this skill, because it's computer science heavy.

Companies looking for this a lot. It also gives you a chance to apply your DS skills.

2
BrowneSaucerer•

I've been in data science for 11 years now, fully in the manager game. My time is probably split 20% Business development, 20% people management, 20% project management, 20% strategy and 20% technical stuff. It's very different and you get way less deep focus work done . You do start to see how much of the potential value is lost through not getting the people , processes and clients on board. You can stay technical forever and get very good but I think to make an impact on the world you do have to step out from behind the terminal a bit

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Reelox14•

I think this is a valuable take on data science in many industries at the moment. Sure if you work at Google or a similar place there will be a proper culture for working with data, but in most places right now the real struggle is with communication and finding the right problems to solve as well as communicating your results in an easy way. In order to do that you need people skills as a DS.

For me after 4 years I'd say I have roughly the same distribution of work except the people management part (since I am a technical team lead)

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transitgeek10•

in most places right now the real struggle is with communication and finding the right problems to solve

I agree with this. I work in government, which I realize is different than most people on this sub, but our problem isn't that we don't have the data or know what it says (despite what many biz development people who ping me on LI try to tell me), but that it's hard to get those in power to care enough to make changes as a result of what we know.

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ghostofkilgore•

I want responsibility and that usually means taking on some kind of managerial or leadership role to some extent. I've worked for far too many idiots now to leave my job in their hands.

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WirrryWoo•

Initially I wanted to become an IC early in my data science career. The idea of diving into various technologies and building projects in a scalable way from the ground up sounds exciting to me.

Now, I want to become a technical manager to lead and mentor a group of data scientists. Having been a contributor most of my career (only 3-5 years so far), I realized that my greatest strength lies in mentorship and asking questions, two attributes that are great to have as a technical manager. I love scheduling time to collaborate on code reviews, and most important help those around me grow while learning something new from them.

I also want to be much more involved in open source and side projects so that I have more flexibility to allocate my skills to problems I’m interested in. This gives me an opportunity to exercise the skills I want to use in my career in a less constrained setting.

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transitgeek10•

I like mentoring too... but I'm wondering how much of management is actually mentoring. I fear that it's more dealing with politics in the organization and managing than actually mentoring. I would love to be proven wrong on this.

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[deleted]•

7 YOE. I've always wanted to be an IC, but my company ran out of IC positions, so I was promoted to manager in title only. But once I had that title it was less than 2 months before I started receiving projects to manage. I hate it and am actively looking for a new role that is a proper high level IC.

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K9ZAZPhD|Data Scientist|Ad Tech•

4 YOE at "mid-senior," and I want to stay in a technical role, but I do want to dip my toes into mentoring.

2
inertialcurve•

I’m not like a manager role, but I see a lot of higher ups managing people more than actually doing data science.

2
sizable_data•

For me personally, I’d like to be able to have direct reports and manage a small team with a strong technical focus. Basically a technical role with leadership/management responsibilities.

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camilaaab•

At first I thought I wanted to be an IC but as I was the first and only DS in my start up, I had to focus on being a manager and build a team. It was fun actually, it was a very social role, I could see myself doing that later in life, but I'm still young so tried again the IC path and now Im working as a consultant, I work flexible hours and it feels amazing.

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GOBBlutheCompany•

Im curious if you’d recommend a good consulting firm for DS?

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quantpsychguyOP•

Are you looking to join one or looking to hire one?

If it's joining on, I'd say your best bet is getting on with a good consulting firm and just joining the data science arm. That will give you exposure to both data science and the types of problems they solve.

So MBB, Big4, Tier2, etc.

Aside from that, you'd likely want to target the firms that build and do in-house data science - so go find the ones from the Gartner 4 square - Data Robot, IBM, Dataiku, SAS, H2O, Alteryx, etc.

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GOBBlutheCompany•

Thanks. I am A senior Data Analyst with DS education trying to break in. Would ideally work my way into the role. Do you think that is possible at those companies? Starting as a Analyst at the DS team?

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quantpsychguyOP•

Sure. But you should think strategically about this - do you want to be on a data science team or do you want to be a consultant?

There may be a lot of overlap but the two are not the same.

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camilaaab•

Not really, I was in a roster of consultants within an organization so they call me for specific projects there, I have no exp with consulting firms sorry.

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gpbuilder•

No it’s a mix, I have senior IC coworkers and my manager is also ex - IC. I actually see myself trying to be in a more managerial role in the future. The idea of mentoring and empowering more junior DS’s appeals to me.

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the_dataengineer•

The problem a lot of companies have (except FAANG i guess) is that salary is usually capped for technical roles. You are basically forced to move into a leadership position to earn more. If you are interested in making that move, why not.

A lot of people though are very good in their job and don't even want a leadership position.

It's a big problem not only for the employee, but for the company. It still boggles my mind why companies cannot change this. This only leads to unsatisfied employees who are going to leave sooner or later

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