I get calls and emails and offers of coffee and lunches from students, young(er) data scientists (because I’m still young, amirite?), folks wanting to break into the data science field all the time. I’m not entirely sure how I became an oracle of knowledge when it comes to career development, but it feels like that’s true. And without much fail, they all have at least one question in common: how do I get a data science job? I assume they mostly reach out to me because I have a data science job, so what they really want to know is: how did you Lindsey get your data science job so I can do the same thing? Also without much fail, I don’t think they like my answer. “I just showed up. Consistently.”
Picture it, 2011. I returned to Vanderbilt to take a post-doc position, partly out of desperation for a job, partly because I knew I just wasn’t doing something right and needed to figure it out. 6 years post-PhD and I was rolling in a whopping $40k/year. That really hasn’t been that long ago when you think about it. As an introverted scientist-type, I knew I needed a new strategy, but didn’t know what it was. After about a year at the science bench and lots of grant writing, I decided to attend a monthly postdoctoral association meeting at Vanderbilt. This was a student-led organization, and I don’t know what made me go. I felt so awkward. They were never super well-attended, so it was hard to hide in the corner. I joke that I wore periodic table t-shirts and chucks and skinny jeans to work every day, and that’s not far from the truth. I never felt like I was part of the ‘it’ crowd of post-docs. I saw people who gave talks in conference rooms lined with pictures of accomplished scientists; they were busy, hustling around writing papers to top-tier journals and making friends with professors. They were the in crowd. I was still getting pimples and struggling to get a fellowship. I was indeed not in.
After about 3-4 months of attending these student organization meetings, I got an email from one of the representatives in the career development office. She wanted to know if I was free the next day to escort a visiting professor from his hotel to his first meeting of the day. I was so taken aback that I read the email 15 times. Was I being asked to do something that only the in crowd does? Am I going to be drifting around the halls of Vanderbilt on important business? Yes! Yes I am! What has changed? How did this happen? Is this really Lindsey doing this? I was asking this in my head while wearing a periodic table t-shirt from my curated collection.
Then it hit me. I’ve been showing up. I’ve really just been showing up.
Over the next 3-4 years, I consistently showed up. I showed up to various club meetings, volunteered for student-let projects, showed up to local meetups, showed up to volunteer my time whenever possible. And bluntly, all this showing up led to my first data science job. Am I over-simplifying it? Maybe some. But showing up is the first step. It took 3-4 years of cultivating professional relationships, volunteering, working with others, loving my craft, and I mustered the courage to ask for a data science job in the parking lot of the Entrepreneur Center. And was hired 2 weeks later at a local start-up and never looked back.
I think it’s often unfortunate that with blogs and LinkedIn, you really only see my highlight reel. What novice data scientists and job seekers don’t see is the literally 100s of times I nervously reached out to someone and they didn’t call me back, was rejected for papers, grants, projects, etc. Was turned down for a job or floated my resume only to get nothing in return. Felt like an idiot when I had never heard of that Python package that everyone is talking about and seems to be an expert in. But consistent showing up helps that process and puts you on a smoother path to more deliberate vertical and lateral movement and finding that perfect spot. I think it’s a challenging concept to work so hard on your portfolio, to spend untold amounts of time and money on education and bootcamps, etc.., only to find out that the way to a job is through showing up (er, dare I say, networking?). But it’s such a vital component. And it gets easier over time as you exercise that muscle.
If you want a data science job, or any job for that matter, start showing up. And keep showing up. Keep failing. Fail over and over again. And don’t stop. And then one day you’ll realize you have a pretty lit highlight reel.
And then repeat.