I left my studies to become a Data Scientist

Making a life-changing decision can make you feel paralyzed. “I’m not yet ready.” “I need one year more, that’s it.” “There’s a bunch of experienced folks out there I will never bull through.” All these thoughts and fears leave you flat-out.

I’m not here to persuade you to become a Data Scientist or a programmer if you never intended to. Otherwise, here is some motivation.

I loved two subjects in middle school — Computer Science and Thermal Physics. When I decided to go for higher education, I eventually picked the latter.

Higher education in Russia is hell for many reasons. It starts even before you enroll. Most state universities hide their curriculum from entrants. They only care about packing the desks with newcomers and getting paid by the government. All you get is a leaflet with a bunch of bold self-advertising lines aiming to strike you. As soon as you enroll, you are not part of the game.

The more I studied the more I observed curriculum inconsistency. Most subjects weren’t in place, most tutors didn’t care about the course. There were some brilliant tutors, but I now hardly remember their lectures. All I did seemed useless. By the end of my bachelor course, I still didn’t feel ready for the job.

I enrolled for a master’s degree hoping it would be better. I even got a part-time job as a power engineer at the same time. When my boss heard about my basic programming skills he decided to assign me to a new project. It was about machine learning applied to engineering tasks.

Meanwhile, my studies were even more useless than before. It seemed like a bunch of random subjects following one another for no reason. It took all my time to follow the curriculum and learn Python and machine learning from scratch. I wrote 3 Scopus articles devoted to my work. I spent 80 hours per week working. I felt so enthusiastic about machine learning it empowered me for a year straight.

My boss was proud of me. But all I was getting in exchange is $200 a month. No raises, no rates. I knew nothing would change after my graduation. I won’t be able to even pay the rent. I took a month off, prepared my CV, and started applying for Data Scientist positions.

I felt I wasn’t ready each time I hit the “Respond” button. But it turned out to be exciting. Nothing helped me that much as failed technical interviews. It’s like free advice from an experienced friend who spots your weakness. A dozen missing topics I learned along the way brought me to a single interview I passed.

My first months at a new job passed like a single day. I plunged into the new field. I was productive as never before, as it was no more need to waste the time on useless things. My skills grew up tremendously thanks to my colleagues.

I’m still a beginner and it keeps me motivated. If you are at this point of crossing the Rubicon, I hope this post will motivate you too.

As usual, thanks for reading, see you in the next post.

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