It is but from experience, most software engineers are borderline data illiterate.

True, most software engineers also can't talk at all. That is why my transitioning to Business Analyst was peace of cake.

Most people are lazy and they can't look up Intro to ML - Feature Engineering, Data cleaning, Flaws of noisy data etc. and statistics on Khan Academy or their Pluralsight premium account on their company's dime.

Who cares about them? My guide is also targeted at people willing to explore larger surface areas of opportunity.


The reason why you do these things is to not end up in a small software house full of 50yos whose life is kids and C programs on the weekends.

Lol. I'm mostly salty because I just finished UAT on some new functionality on our (actual science) DS platform. The senior level arch had (seemingly unwittingly?) created a perfect ML model deployment option. I tried to deploy a gashed up linear regression model to test and he didn't seem to understand linear regression, no regularisation, just literally drawing a best fit line between some points.

As a former project manager I have considered BA but I can't be fuked with people anymore, srs. I'd rather be a full miscer and stare at a window of code all day.

Bro, but it is so dull. Seriously, look at my critique points above before the Categories.


Not to mention that the advancement is better on average and can be much better if you fake it till you make it.


Being head of etc becomes like Finance - where literally the PhD quiet kid who is smarter than everyone in the room combined won't make it.

Yeah sorry I wasn't trying to knock you or anything just sharing my experience. I've moved around a lot. Started off just doing general IT Support, first for hardware, then moved into systems. Then started programming, then start moving more into data. Started off doing lots of SQL Dev work, and doing some data migrations then started to get more into BI, data warehousing, report development. Then when data visualization platforms took off I started specializing in that. Then I went back to school and did a MSc in data science along with an MBA and thought I'd catch that wave but it wasn't what I thought it was, so I kind of have half backed out of it. At least backed out of the idea of becoming a data scientist.

I had the impression that data science was the evolution of BI but it really isn't and I think lots of others I've spoken to have that same impression.

Now I am mostly doing consulting/contracting work for companies and helping them figure out strategy for their data whether that's BI or Data Science or both.

I don't really like data science as a profession and wouldn't want to be a data scientist because the role is closer to a data analyst or statistician rather than anything in IT, it's not really a technical role. For most roles you are just constantly doing ad hoc analysis. It's really difficult when you come from a strong technical background because you just want to automate everything but ironically even though in data science you're constantly talking about AI and ML everything you're doing is just ad hoc analysis, you never end up automating any of it and it's in complete contrast to what the modern goal of BI is which is to have end users do their own analysis. Of course there are some data science roles where that might not be the case.

Whereas with BI it's basically always the same, build out a data warehouse, connect to it with one of the major data visualization platforms, run some training for some of the existing staff and you have a self-service platform where they can do everything else themselves essentially. You're basically done at that point, can either get 1 warm body on board to add whatever new data pipeline or you can just outsource it to a BI company.

interesting, it really does sound as boring as software dev

All the EE work I've ever done has been iterative/maintenance. I don't think you'll get a true greenfield project without a doctorate and a job in an R&D lab.

I sort of take a blue collar approach to it... doesn't matter if you like it, doesn't matter if it's boring, it's what they're paying you to do.

wellp, can confirm it same in Comp Sci

I admire the heck out of you guys srs. I don’t understand anything any of you guys said except for the comptia a+ guy (which I failed twice). Been working full time for over a decade and the only thing I understand is buy low, sell high srs

Don't feel bad about it - there a gazillion ways to skin a cat.


Just throwing a career-focused thread discussion for self-improvement


I believe it is relevant as anyone can have multiple failed/successful side hustles that you can work on, but while you do you need a so-called "base" career. And this thread showcases a few options for a base stemming from a common groundA base can be as simple as deciding you like architecture and becoming a career architect.