Why I Left a $150,000/yr Data Science Job to Become an Entrepreneur
The unexpected realities of living the “dream life.”
I was living the dream. Six-figure salary. Working at a great company. And I was endowed with the coveted title of “Data Scientist.”
So why would I walk away from it all? — Storytime.
Background
After finishing grad school, I joined Toyota Financial Services (TFS) as a data scientist. What attracted me to TFS was they had a mature (and growing) Data Science group, which was a big change of pace for me.
Before then, all my “data science” experience came from my grad school research, where I was part of a small research group of about 12 people (mostly grad students like me). At Toyota, however, I came into a group nearing 100 people where most had much more industry experience than me.
This was an incredible way to learn and pushed me to my limits in many ways (which I loved). However, as time passed, unexpected realities of this “dream life” slowly emerged.
