Topic: Career Advice

Here are my writings on my career, and advice I have for those just starting out.

A pencil drawing of three Landsknecht mercenaries playing dice on top of a military snare drum.
A Career Involves Luck: My Annotated Resume
My career has been a great success so far and a lot of that success has been due to luck. In this post I catalog all the lucky breaks I can remember in the form of a resume.
A painting of the Great Sphinx with two pyramids in the background.
The Pyramid and the Spire: Management and Individual Contributer Tracks
Data science has left the era of the Unicorn and entered the era of the team, but that means there is now a whole spectrum of data science jobs. Here is what they do.
Painting by Josef Wagner-Höhenberg showing a late 1800s farmer signing a contract at a wooden table while a notary gestures to the two bankers at the other end of the table who have a pile of gold and silver coins in front of them.
Data Science, Compensation, and Asking for Money
Advice about data science salaries and examples from my career of negotiating your offer.
A triangular prism breaking white light into its components.
The Data Science Spectrum:
From Analyst to Machine Learning
Data science has left the era of the Unicorn and entered the era of the team, but that means there is now a whole spectrum of data science jobs. Here is what they do.
Gene Kranz sits at a console in the NASA Mission Operations Control Room. He is wearing a single ear headset and flipping a pencil back and forth.
The Data Science Split:
From Unicorns to Teams
When data science started the job covered everything from setting up databases to running experiments to making models. But finding Unicorns was impossible; something had to give.
A black and white photo of Henry J.E. Reid, Directory of the Langley Aeronautics Laborator, in a suit writing while sitting at a desk.
Data Science Interview Practice: Machine Learning Case Study
A common interview type for data scientists and machine learning engineers is the ML case study. Read on for an example of how I solve them!
A black and white photo of four women sitting at desks with typewriters, stacks of papers, and card catalogs.
Data Science Interview Practice: Data Manipulation
I often get asked how to practice data science interviews, so here is a practice dataset with a set of questions to answer. Good luck!
Colorful sticky notes arranged in a grid on the window of an office building.
Get Things Done by Tracking Them
As I've gotten more senior as a data scientist, I've found I have to keep track of more and more things. This is how I do it!
A painting of coins on a table by Josef Wagner-Höhenberg.
The Gender Pay Gap in Data Science Salaries
How do the salaries of woman data scientists compare to those of men? This month we explore pay by gender and location.
A painting of coins on a table by Josef Wagner-Höhenberg.
Data Science Salaries
How do data scientists salaries vary by experience and location? Read on to find out!
A painting, 'The Dunce', by Harold Copping from 1886 shows a boy in a suite sitting alone on a bench. He is surrounded by books, and he holds one in his right hand loosely as if about to drop it. He hangs his head in sorrow or shame.
My Academic Bully at CERN
Getting my PhD was mostly a great experience, but one woman made my life hell for a short time at CERN. It's tough to write about, but I thought I owed it to myself and others.
The Stanford Dish, a large radio telescope, in the early morning light. The sky is purple and blue, and the dish is a white metal-lattice structure glowing softly pink in the light. At the top of the dish is a red light.
Should I Go To Insight Data Science?
Insight promises an easy transition from academia to a career in data science or machine learning, but is it the right program for you? I have a few words of advice offered from experience.
A black and white photo of male students sitting on the steps of Wheeler Hall on the University of California, Berkeley campus in 1940.
The Typical Successful Career Starts with Rejection
When I applied for graduate school I was rejected, not by a few good grad schools, but by all of them! But thanks to a little kindness, I was able to continue onward.
A black and white photo from the 1913 Columbia University Commencement featuring a group of men in doctoral gowns wearing mortarboards. Nobel Prize winner Alexis Carrel is amongst them.
Should I Get a PhD?
In 2009, having little or no money in my purse, I thought I would go to graduate school in physics. But was it the right idea? And should you follow in my footsteps?