![Success is an Iceberg
Don’t worry if your portfolio is perfect,
just show that you have experience,
share how you think, and you’ll be well
on your way to impressing [fill in the
blank]
Source: Instagram @orysya.stus.art](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/buildingadatascienceportfoliothatrocks-210411025720/85/Building-a-Data-Science-Portfolio-that-Rocks-54-320.jpg)
Building a Data Science Portfolio that Rocks
- 1. 2.3.2021 Building a Data Science Portfolio That Rocks!
- 2. About Me ● Current: Developer Relations at Anyscale ● Previous: Data Scientist at Scripps Research Current: Writing about Distributed Computing Previous: Understanding Fitbit Data Have taught Python/Data Science/Analytics at Stanford Continuing Studies, UCSD, LinkedIn Learning, YouTube, etc.
- 3. 1. What is a Portfolio 2. My Portfolio 3. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio 4. Portfolio to help networking 5. Portfolio for interviews/take home challenges 6. Resume Advice 7. Social Media Advice Building a Data Science Portfolio that Rocks
- 4. What is a Portfolio? ● Public evidence of your data analytics/science skills. ● You have Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat so why don’t you have public evidence of your skills? ● Consider making a professional online presence. Job Life There is some overlap between the different types of social media sites
- 5. Goals for Building a Portfolio ● Show people what you can do instead of telling them you can do something ● Help you get interviews ● Networking ● Help you with interviews (take home challenges) Job Life There is some overlap between the different types of social media sites
- 6. Portfolios can consist of things like ● Resume (how people find your portfolio) ● GitHub ● Kaggle ● Tableau Public ● Blogging ● LinkedIn ● Twitter ● Various Forum Accounts ● Stack Overflow ● Open Source Contributions ● Podcast appearances ● Giving Talks Job Life There is some overlap between the different types of social media sites
- 7. Importance of a Portfolio The more public work you do, the higher the chance of a freak accident like that: of someone noticing your work and pointing you towards a job opportunity, or of someone who’s interviewing you having heard of work you’ve done. Tweet offering an interview for answering a question well on Stack Overflow David Robinson Principal Data Scientist at Heap
- 8. ● How do you get experience if you need experience to get your first job? ● If you don’t have any experience as a data analyst/scientist/programmer/anythi ng, then you should do independent projects. Portfolio to get around an Experience Requirement Get around ridiculous requirements
- 9. 1. What is a Portfolio 2. My Portfolio 3. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio 4. Portfolio to help networking 5. Portfolio for interviews/take home challenges 6. Resume Advice 7. Social Media Advice Building a Data Science Portfolio that Rocks
- 10. My Portfolio (notice its not all just my profiles) GitHub Tableau Public Medium/Blogging Stack Overflow Online Courses Personal Website
- 11. My Portfolio YouTube LinkedIn Twitter Google Scholar Kaggle (Working on it!) Podcast Appearances This lecture
- 12. My Portfolio Organizing/Attending Events This Talk Resume
- 13. Employers/Hiring Managers can find you online ● LinkedIn -> Opportunity ● GitHub-> LinkedIn/Resume ● Tableau Public -> LinkedIn/Resume ● Blog -> LinkedIn/Resume ● Stack Overflow -> Google Search ● YouTube -> LinkedIn/Resume ● Kaggle -> LinkedIn/Resume ● Everything else -> LinkedIn/Resume Job Life There is some overlap between the different types of social media sites
- 14. Employers/Hiring Managers can find you online ● You don’t need to do everything. ● An online presence can lead to more opportunities. Job Life There is some overlap between the different types of social media sites
- 15. 1. What is a Portfolio 2. My Portfolio 3. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio 4. Portfolio to help networking 5. Portfolio for interviews/take home challenges 6. Resume Advice 7. Social Media Advice Building a Data Science Portfolio that Rocks
- 16. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio Microsoft Data Scientist Job Posting ● Design a portfolio to fit with your career goals ● Look at job postings at companies and industries you want to work at. ● Will give you some idea of what to learn and incorporate.
- 17. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio Maybe understanding and using these concepts in a project can help ● Glassdoor interview questions can also give you an idea of what to include. ● Note with big companies, interviews vary drastically as there are many different teams, but still useful to look up.
- 18. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio Similar things as before ● Glassdoor interview questions can also give you an idea of what to include. ● Note with big companies, interviews can vary drastically as there are many different teams, but still useful to look up.
- 19. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio Projects are a usual question ● Data Science job postings and interviews vary drastically, but a lot of them want ask for projects.
- 20. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio Projects are a usual question ● Data Science job postings and interviews vary drastically, but a lot of them want ask for projects.
- 21. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio ● If you don’t know have any clue which companies you want to work for, you might want to showcase your skills through blogging, code on GitHub, or by taking part in a Kaggle Competition Traffic Cruising Data Science for Social Good Project (https://github.com/uwescience/TrafficCruising-DSSG2017)
- 22. Types of Projects to Include in a Portfolio I love projects where people show that they are interested in data in a way that goes beyond homework assignments. Any sort of class final project where you explore an interesting dataset and find interesting results… William Chen, Former Data Science Manager at Quora Traffic Cruising Data Science for Social Good Project (https://github.com/uwescience/TrafficCruising-DSSG2017)
- 23. Sometimes you need to gather, organize, and clean your own data. Types of Projects to Include in a Portfolio Webscraping can sometimes be an option
- 24. 1. What is a Portfolio 2. My Portfolio 3. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio 4. Portfolio to help networking 5. Portfolio for interviews/take home challenges 6. Resume Advice 7. Social Media Advice Building a Data Science Portfolio that Rocks
- 25. Portfolio to help networking ● A lot of people approach networking/job hunting as “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” ● Networking is about establishing real connections with a person or company. ● Real connections are about authentic two-way relationships. ● This means that your network should consist of people that you can help, not just people who you think can help you.
- 26. Portfolio to help networking ● If you have helped someone out, they might think better of you and be happier to see you succeed and potentially help you when you need help. ● Small example: If you post a blog on LinkedIn, people in your network might share it to a broader audience. ● Medium example: If you brought value to your data analytics/science community, they might be more receptive to referral requests. ● Large example: It’s possible someone in your network might reach out to you about jobs to see if you are interested, instead of the other way around.
- 27. Portfolio to help networking ● Note that even if you have a referral, you still need to get and pass and interview (which portfolios can help with). You can learn how to ask for a referral here.
- 28. Normal ways to build your network (portfolio helps with this too) ● Attend conferences ● Join data related meetup groups ● Participate in college or bootcamp alumni groups, ● Connect with people through LinkedIn and Twitter.
- 29. 1. What is a Portfolio 2. My Portfolio 3. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio 4. Portfolio to help networking 5. Portfolio for interviews/take home challenges 6. Resume Advice 7. Social Media Advice Building a Data Science Portfolio that Rocks
- 30. Take Home Challenges ● Interview processes often have case studies ● Companies often send you sample data analytics/science problems to work on ● Idea: Give challenge that resembles the work you would be doing on the job. Image Source
- 31. Take Home Challenges ● Instructions might be ambiguous (intentionally). Day to day work can be ambiguous as well. ● This means you have to make some assumptions with the data. ● There might be a use case for a machine learning model or analysis, but won’t specify what you should do. ● These are similar to portfolio projects. Not saying this specific job will ask you to do a take home challenge, but it can happen in a lot of interview processes.
- 32. Take Home Challenges ● Instructions might be ambiguous (intentionally). Day to day work can be ambiguous as well. ● This means you have to make some assumptions with the data. ● There might be a use case for a machine learning model or analysis, but won’t specify what you should do. Project Take Home Challenge Choose your own data You often have data given to you You need to figure out what to do with the data You need to figure out what to do with the data Might have incomplete or dirty data Might have incomplete or dirty data You can communicate your results through a blog or some other way. You might be asked to give a presentation or writeup your results.
- 33. Take Home Challenges ● If they ask for a discussion of your results, know that communication of your results is important. ● You might be asked a question like “how good are your results” Project Take Home Challenge Choose your own data You often have data given to you You need to figure out what to do with the data You need to figure out what to do with the data Might have incomplete or dirty data Might have incomplete or dirty data You can communicate your results through a blog or some other way. You might be asked to give a presentation or writeup your results.
- 34. Take Home Challenges ● Having a portfolio can make these challenges easier. ● Often with a portfolio project, you have to take data which may or may not be clean and try to solve some problem. ● They both usually require you to communicate how your analysis works. Project Take Home Challenge Choose your own data You often have data given to you You need to figure out what to do with the data You need to figure out what to do with the data Might have incomplete or dirty data Might have incomplete or dirty data You can communicate your results through a blog or some other way. You might be asked to give a presentation or writeup your results.
- 35. Project Take Home Challenge Choose your own data You often have data given to you You need to figure out what to do with the data You need to figure out what to do with the data Might have incomplete or dirty data Might have incomplete or dirty data You can communicate your results through a blog or some other way. You might be asked to give a presentation or writeup your results. Take Home Challenges ● Major difference is for a case study you might be asked to give a presentation. If you can figure out the kind of people you are presenting to, you can adjust it accordingly.
- 36. Project Take Home Challenge Choose your own data You often have data given to you You need to figure out what to do with the data You need to figure out what to do with the data Might have incomplete or dirty data Might have incomplete or dirty data You can communicate your results through a blog or some other way. You might be asked to give a presentation or writeup your results. Take Home Challenges ● I recommend you spend time researching the industry and job you are interested in and trying to get familiar with the problems they are trying to solve before you start a take home challenge.
- 37. 1. What is a Portfolio 2. My Portfolio 3. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio 4. Portfolio to help networking 5. Portfolio for interviews/take home challenges 6. Resume Advice 7. Social Media Advice Building a Data Science Portfolio that Rocks
- 38. Resume Advice List your technical skills in a skills section in your resume (get past an applicant tracking system) This could not only help your chances for a job you applied for, but also help in recruiting searches for future positions. Kaggle’s CareerCon (video, resumes reviewed)
- 39. Resume Advice Particularly technical skills that the job description mentions (if you have the skills) Kaggle’s CareerCon (video, resumes reviewed)
- 40. Resume Advice Don’t list common projects. They don’t help distinguish you from others. Titanic (A), MNIST (B), and IRIS (C)
- 41. Resume Advice Don’t list common projects. They don’t help distinguish you from others. Titanic (A), MNIST (B), and IRIS (C) Kaggle’s CareerCon (video, resumes reviewed)
- 42. Resume Advice List relevant coursework that is applicable Kaggle’s CareerCon (video, resumes reviewed)
- 43. Resume Advice Show results and include links. If you participated in a Kaggle competition, consider putting a percentile rank. Kaggle’s CareerCon (video, resumes reviewed)
- 44. Resume Advice In projects sections, there is always room for links to writeups and papers. Kaggle’s CareerCon (video, resumes reviewed)
- 45. Resume Advice In projects sections, there is always room for links to writeups and papers.
- 46. Resume Advice Use a resume template if you don’t like your current resume https://github.com/sb2nov/resume
- 47. 1. What is a Portfolio 2. My Portfolio 3. Identifying what to put in your Portfolio 4. Portfolio to help networking 5. Portfolio for interviews/take home challenges 6. Resume Advice 7. Social Media Advice Building a Data Science Portfolio that Rocks
- 48. LinkedIn An important part of LinkedIn is their search tool and to show up more often it helps to have relevant keywords in your profile.
- 49. LinkedIn You can put keywords in the “About” section of your profile as well as the “Skills”, “Experience”, and “Recommendations” areas.
- 50. LinkedIn Udacity has a guide on making a good LinkedIn profile. There also have a good YouTube video on this.
- 51. LinkedIn LinkedIn is also great for getting your content/portfolio out LinkedIn Post
- 52. GitHub A lot of data science is about communicating results, so be sure to include a README.md file that clearly describes what your project is, what it does, and how to run your code. README.md
- 53. Blog A former Head of Data Science at Medium said that doubling the time spent drafting an article corresponds to an 89% increase in Total Time Reading. Image from post by Mike Sall
- 54. Success is an Iceberg Don’t worry if your portfolio is perfect, just show that you have experience, share how you think, and you’ll be well on your way to impressing [fill in the blank] Source: Instagram @orysya.stus.art
- 55. Questions?
Editor's Notes
- #2: The title got shorter when I realized How long it was
- #3: Fitbit data
- #5: Keep in mind that things change over time, technology and society moves fast. The standards of the past and present aren’t the standards for getting a job these days. You will notice we have twitter accounts and such. There is even overlap in professional development in social media accounts these days (you will notice people even talk about knowledge and concepts over social media platforms)
- #6: Keep in mind that things change over time, technology and society moves fast. The standards of the past and present aren’t the standards for getting a job these days. You will notice we have twitter accounts and such. There is even overlap in professional development in social media accounts these days (you will notice people even talk about knowledge and concepts over social media platforms)
- #7: Keep in mind that things change over time, technology and society moves fast. The standards of the past and present aren’t the standards for getting a job these days. You will notice we have twitter accounts and such. There is even overlap in professional development in social media accounts these days (you will notice people even talk about knowledge and concepts over social media platforms)
- #8: Before
- #9: Before
- #14: Keep in mind that things change over time, technology and society moves fast. The standards of the past and present aren’t the standards for getting a job these days. You will notice we have twitter accounts and such. There is even overlap in professional development in social media accounts these days (you will notice people even talk about knowledge and concepts over social media platforms)
- #15: Keep in mind that things change over time, technology and society moves fast. The standards of the past and present aren’t the standards for getting a job these days. You will notice we have twitter accounts and such. There is even overlap in professional development in social media accounts these days (you will notice people even talk about knowledge and concepts over social media platforms)
- #17: Before
- #18: Before
- #19: Before
- #20: Before
- #21: Before
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- #24: Before
- #49: Don’t overthink it-- it doesn’t have to be perfect, just show that you have experience, share how you think, and you’ll be well on your way to impressing any potential employer
- #50: Don’t overthink it-- it doesn’t have to be perfect, just show that you have experience, share how you think, and you’ll be well on your way to impressing any potential employer
- #51: Don’t overthink it-- it doesn’t have to be perfect, just show that you have experience, share how you think, and you’ll be well on your way to impressing any potential employer
- #52: Don’t overthink it-- it doesn’t have to be perfect, just show that you have experience, share how you think, and you’ll be well on your way to impressing any potential employer
- #53: Don’t overthink it-- it doesn’t have to be perfect, just show that you have experience, share how you think, and you’ll be well on your way to impressing any potential employer
- #54: Don’t overthink it-- it doesn’t have to be perfect, just show that you have experience, share how you think, and you’ll be well on your way to impressing any potential employer
- #55: Don’t overthink it-- it doesn’t have to be perfect, just show that you have experience, share how you think, and you’ll be well on your way to impressing any potential employer