| | Gary | The term "bridging the gap between X and Y" is certainly an overused one but the ASI fellowship did exactly this for me. Coming out of a PhD in statistical physics, I was constantly being told I would "have no problem finding a great job" but I found that the interview process, especially within the relatively new field that is data science, was in no way gauging the skills I had developed in my PhD or my ability to develop into a great data scientist but rather just testing my knowledge of various fairly rudimentary technologies (of which I had no knowledge because they are not commonly used in academia/physics).
8 weeks later and I was confidently presenting an actual data science project I had completed with a FTSE100 company in which I had demonstrated my ability to generate real financial value. Before the fellowship, I had all but given up on pursuing a career in data science and was beginning to think about other career options, eight weeks later I was reinvigorated and applying for data science positions with confidence (I also received multiple offers).
Everybody on my fellowship who decided they wished to stay in data science had a job within a month of finishing the program, and many of us have stayed in touch since, forming a socially and potentially professionally valuable network.
I cannot overstate how highly I recommend the ASI Data Science fellowship to anybody who wants to transition from quantitative academic research to data science but is finding that the recruitment process is failing to value their skill set. |
