Debugging the Data Science interview, Job Hunting, and Portfolio Projects | Remote Students
Members of the Remote Students Community had the opportunity to meet Nick Huo and Kevin Singh this week and ask them questions about their experiences in data science. Apply here to join our community and meet our amazing lineup of guest speakers, including people like Kevin and Nick!
Kevin Huo and Nick Singh are co-authors of the upcoming book: Ace the Data Science Interview.
Kevin currently works as a Data Scientist at a Hedge Fund, and previously worked at Facebook as a Data Scientist on Facebook Groups. He’s also the founder of DataSciencePrep.com — a program that’s helped hundreds of students with the data science job hunt.
Nick previously worked at data startup SafeGraph, and before that was a Software Engineer on Facebook’s Growth team and an intern on Google’s Nest Labs Data Infrastructure team. His monthly email newsletter on technology careers has 40,000 subscribers, and his career advice on LinkedIn has been read by millions of people.
What is your advice on getting internships as a freshman or sophomore?
Nick: My biggest trick for landing internships as a freshman or sophomore, would be to not tell a recruiter my year, until after they had gotten to know me. First, tell them about all of the things you are great at, and then let them know what year you’re in, so they might just accept you anyway.
My second tip is to have a portfolio of projects ready to show a recruiter. This is honestly a secret weapon to show initiative and gain experience, without a lot of courses or internships under your belt.
How can I build an interesting data science portfolio?
Nick: The fundamental thing is to work on something you’re passionate about. For me, it was hip hop music, and I was able to make a game where you could buy stocks for artists depending on how well they’re doing. This was really important for me to work on, because when I explained my project in an interview, my passion for hip hop music almost translated to passion for their company.
The second thing I’d like to mention is to actually finish these project: put them out on the internet, and get users that actually see the product. There’s a lot of people that can make a project and store it as a Github repo, but there’s a lot less that can actually create value out of it, and that’s essentially what companies are looking for: you to create value from their product.
One really cool project I saw was using basic sequel to pick out keywords in rap songs in 2019. It doesn’t require a lot of knowledge, but is still a really cool way to show your skills in a topic you care about.
How should I build out my project?
Kevin: If you’re brand new and have no ideas, find what other people are doing in the space you’re interested in and take inspiration from that.
The steps for building out a project go like this.
1. Data generation: finding data or scraping it from a website.
2. Do something with the data: analyze it, testing a hypothesis, etc.
3. Build some kind of service, like saying, “I just made this API that does XYZ with this data and can be used to do XYZ.”
4. Present the project in a way that conveys its value to people and during interviews.
What are recruiters specifically looking for in your projects?
Nick: The cold hard truth is that recruiters aren’t super technical. In the case that you made something really amazing, it can be pretty hard to convey that to a recruiter. That’s why recruiters mainly look at if the project is completed (has a link, isn’t just open source code) and if the idea is really cool. For this, a cool youtube video or image that describes the functionality and best parts of the application can be really helpful. Also, having a blurb, like “hey, I made a stock market for rappers. It has 2000 monthly active users at its peak and 16,000 trades have been done in the game,” makes it really easy for the recruiter to see the strength of the project.
Most recruiters aren’t super technical.
Kevin: One important part if the recruiter grills you on a project is to know exactly what you did. If you worked on a group project and they ask about something you are unsure of, it’s best to be honest, rather than falsely convey that you did everything by yourself. For the most part, recruiters are just looking for basic intellectual curiosity.
What do you suggest people with not much experience do to catch up on interviews?
Depending on the role, you might need to know a lot about a lot of different things, or be an expert on just a few. If you’re starting from scratch, I would recommend thinking about an ideal company, or part of the company you would want to work in. Most companies will ask questions related to their product, so figuring out what kind of role you are applying to helps narrow what you need to study. If you’re looking at a generalist role, it’s best to learn all the basics of coding, product, and statistics. Working on a personal project can be easier to learn all of these, instead of churning out LeetCode questions.
What does the recruiting and interviewing timeline look like? When should I start preparing?
Nick: Interviews usually happen really early, from August up to springtime. My earliest one was for Uber, and that was in mid-July, while I was still interning at Microsoft. My thoughts on preparing for an interview really depends on how strong your data science fundamentals are. It’s a short-time optimization to cram knowledge of interview books, like ‘Ace the Data Science Interview’, but in the long run, it’s better to spend time on really learning the core concepts of data science.
Kevin: Preparing for the interview shouldn’t happen two months before the interview, or when interview season rolls around. This should be almost a lifelong process of understanding the fundamentals needed to ace the interview.
How do I get better at describing my projects and acing product questions?
Nick: This might be a little weird, but one of my hobbies is to read interview prep books for other fields. These books are kind of like crash courses, and a are a quick way to learn a lot about a different field. I’ve never been a PM, but I read Cracking the PM Interview, and that helped me explain my projects, answer product related questions, and get a stronger grasp of marketing within SWE.
Kevin: One of the most important things to do is to communicate with the interviewer. If you are answering a question, feel free to speak your thought process and to make sure you are heading in the right direction. It is also pretty valuable to ask questions about the question, which can give you a fuller understanding of the problem and demonstrate your way of thinking.
How do I look for new-grad positions when many jobs ask for X amount of experience?
Kevin: Forgetting the years of experience that they ask for, if you feel comfortable with interviewing for a role, I’d definitely say go for it. If you have all of the skills they need and really smash the interview, there’s a great chance that they will still hire you, irrespective of what your years of experience are. Referrals can be helpful too.
Don’t be afraid of applying to a job even if you don’t have the required years of experience.
Nick: Cold emailing is the secret weapon for delivering value from portfolio projects. Even if it means contacting someone through LinkedIn, or something like shooting an email to a recruiter saying “I’m big into social media. Fun fact, I actually did a data science project modelling XYZ: check it out in my GitHub repo right here.” This isn’t a sure way to land a job but can definitely lead to some great opportunities; this is how I landed interviews at Snapchat and Airbnb.
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