How to Become a Data-Scientist/Engineer
Maybe everyone who lives foreign country could feel similar. I have lived in Germany for 7 years. In Germany, I am obviously a foreigner. I can not understand everything what people talking about and explain 100% what I want to express. When my family visited Germany, my sister-in-law asked me ‘From when do you feel comfortable to live in Germany?’. My answer was ‘I have never felt comfortable’. She said, ‘But I feel you are already like a German’. My identity is getting ambiguous. If somebody asks me who I am, my answer is ‘I am 70% Korean and 30% German.’
I am an ambiguous person. I studied physiotherapy in Korea and studied business economics in Germany. And now I am preparing to be a data scientist. When I started learning programming, it felt like my identity was directly projected into coding.
“ the variable ‘I’ is ambiguous”
My laptop seemed to ask me ‘Who the heck are you exactly man? If you don’t even know what exactly you want, I will give you an ERROR!’
It has been 5weeks since to learn coding in BootCamp. And I slowly get in used to errors. when I run the code, sometimes I knew already that I would get an error. And this feeling was never wrong. Because I even could see that my coding is ‘ambiguous ’.
To be a Data -analyst, -scientist, -engineer, or whatever worker with computer programs is to clarify your purpose. Furthermore, you should have a clear sequence and structure for the outcome in your brain. Sometimes sitting in front of a computer and trying to code over and over doesn’t help at all. Even in these cutting-edge times, there are times when you need paper and a pen. I write down what my end goal is and in what order I should write the code for it.
Of the 5 weeks, personally, the last 2 weeks were the most difficult. It was a period of learning data engineering, and the battle against errors continued until yesterday. Web scraping was so unstable that it felt like walking a single tightrope. I spent a lot of time converting dictionaries, which are stacked layers of data extracted with API, into data frames. Amazon Web Services, which was unfamiliar to me, gave me a hard time choosing the right one among numerous functions and catching errors. Now, looking back at the things I’ve been doing, I could feel that I was struggling with the unfamiliarity of trying things that actually weren’t difficult.
metacognition
Intelligence is not having the ability to memorize many foreign words in a short time or can solve a difficult math question. A smart student is in knowing exactly how much he has learned and how much he can solve problems through it. Computers require you the ability. Accuracy is far from human. However, computers require precise cognition, correct grammar, and precise goals.
Don’t worry, we have Google
Don’t worry if you don’t have the personality a computer requires. A friend of mine who is a web developer said, he spends time 20% googling in his work. Googling is one of the most important skills for developers. You need to ask specific questions about what to ask and find answers to similar questions.
Sleep! Take a rest!
I don’t like to sleep. Because it feels like a waste of time. However, on the day that I suffered from errors for a long time, I finally fell asleep without being able to solve the errors. But the next day I experienced that the error was solved too easily. Our concentration is limited. It is better to take a rest and get some fresh air. And while we sleep, the brain organizes the day and sorts the knowledge I shove into.
Make it hobby
I am normally on the computer until 23–24:00. Because it gives me fun! Maybe your data from work or school is too boring and heavy. How about making your database or searching for an interesting dataset from Kaggle?
I am not only learning coding
I feel like I’m learning life’s tools while learning to code. Modern people need a lot of tools. Among them, the logical way of thinking is the most important tool for living in these times. What I want to give you is not a specific skill but more about what kind of mindset you have to have. It would be also better to develop yourself by applying what you learn through computers to our lives?