My path to Data Science

Hi…I’m an analyst working across a few industries at the moment. Job titles can be limiting when defining what I do but Data Analyst, Business Intelligence Analyst and Data Scientist might cover it (though sometimes I feel that the latter I will constantly aspire to).

The path I have taken to get here has been a long and winding one. Interestingly, I seem to have come full circle from university days where I couldn’t decide on one career (statistics, mathematics, zoology and art history majors — obviously no career counselor involved there!).

I feel the most valuable skills and experience I’ve gained are those I use at the beginning of a project. Asking the right questions, listening, understanding the problem and taking the time to think about optimal solution design and implementation. Of course, we all want to dive into the business of complex coding and analysis. There is nothing better than writing an elegant solution to a complex problem…but at the end of the day we get paid to enable informed decision-making, achieve efficiency and provide solutions that improve business. The most simple solution is often the best.

Having worked in the traditional corporate world for much of my career, I now find myself working at a tech startup on the Gold Coast called Enhanced Society. Here I am surrounded by talented and inspired individuals with a noble goal — to provide innovative technical solutions enabled by blockchain technology that solve real problems. With an emphasis on open-source, collaboration, healthy lifestyle and shared learnings this is the future of empowered workplaces.

Reading through posts on Medium (Towards Data Science) and Kaggle I am so inspired by the quality work others are doing. If I could only find more hours in the day to delve into these exciting projects and solutions kindly shared in the supportive community that is Data Science!

I will endeavour to make time…