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ASK DT - Recommend a path to become data engineer/scientist?
2 points by beginner775 3313 days ago | 4 comments
Background - web developer for a looooooong time, totally bored/depressed making stupid websites and dealing with CSS, not too keen on mobile dev. Love databases, playing with data, maps etc. Have decent aptitude for Math. Late 30's and have limited time because of work and family commitments.

Give the constraints above, can someone suggest a path to get into data science/visualization etc? Should I start with something easy like Tableau so I can support myself while learning complex topics?



1 point by ende 3309 days ago | link

You're probably not going to pick up a ton of stats and algos right up front, but if you already have good web chops then you could build off that to get into dataviz and dashboarding. That would immediately make you able to contribute in a data science team, and from there learn more of the analytical skills as you go. Don't bother with Tableau, products like that are targetting people and companies who want to build data visuals without any technical skills. It may be useful as a set of examples to emulate however. You can leverage your existing web stack skills instead to learn things like D3 and more specialized frameworks. Be able to do build interactive visuals using common datastores (mongo, postgres, etc) and you'd make a fine addition as a Data Engineer somewhere.

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1 point by rajeck 3311 days ago | link

Instead of starting with a tool like Tableau, try the book "Data Smart" by Chief Data Scientist at MailChimp, John Foreman.

It talks you though all sorts of data analytics problems step by step - and you only need Excel (or the excellent free Libre Office Calc) to do most of the examples.

Good luck!

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1 point by beginner775 3310 days ago | link

Thanks, ordering the book now.

My problem is that I also need to keep earning at the same time I am learning :( That is why I wanted to start with Tableau, as it seems it is possible to pick up some contract work with Tableau?

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1 point by praveer13 3311 days ago | link

I also suggest this roadmap http://www.metacademy.org/roadmaps/cjrd/level-up-your-ml

It starts with "Data Smart" and suggests next steps after reading that book.

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