A Career Pivot

From Astrophile to Data Scientist

Let me tell you a story.

Imagine that it’s nighttime and you are far away from the city. Look up — what do you see? Yes, you are looking into the past. But, take a step back and look…stars! Perhaps the Milky Way, and maybe a planet or two. The ISS? The moon? Now imagine that all the stars, planets, and objects that you see are radiating with information — their object type, distance from earth, the main color, and more. What about the things you can’t see? Black holes and dark matter, for example?

There is so much we can learn about these celestial bodies.

I studied Astrophysics in college. There, I wanted to learn everything I could about the cosmos (exuberance of the youth, you might say) which involved topics in observational and theoretical astronomy. Not only did my classmates and I learn to use research telescopes to answer questions, but we also reduced and interpreted data.

Fast forward to 2017. The magazine Sky and Telescope published an article discussing machine learning (ML) and data-driven astronomy. I had heard of ML and big data before, but after reading the article I had an ‘aha’ moment. I realized how powerful the methods and tools a Data Scientist uses; they can be used to solve diverse problems and can be applied to many fields.

Alright, enough of the romanticism. Let’s talk about the hard truth of life. Although I am fascinated by clustering, random forests and transfer learning, I need money, resources, and support. A career as a data scientist can meet both needs.

Let me end the first chapter of this story.

I have taken a huge step which will lead to my new career. I enrolled myself in an Immersive 15-week Data Science program at Flatiron School in Seattle, WA. After just two weeks my cohort has learned about basic tools and methods that are used to explore and visualize data. Each new topic we learn reminds me of different applications in industry and science.

I am currently on an amazing journey. Stay tuned for the next chapter…