Letters to Young Data Scientists

Mr. Bayes, lecturer

I’ve worked in Data Science for some time. Here’s a list of things I wish I knew when I was a junior Data Scientist.

1. Being technically solid will only get you so far in your career

Anything beyond Senior Data Scientists will be a combination of technical expertise, communication, stakeholder relationship and more importantly, being in the right place at the right time (a.k.a. luck).

2. Getting PIP’ed or fired is a matter of when, not if

A junior DS asked me once what kind of companies he should apply to where he will never be fired.

My answer is that no job is guaranteed in today’s tech industry, and that he should focus on improving employability instead of chasing an “unfireable” role, because of binomial distribution.

Here’s an example. Let’s assume that:

• The probability of you getting PIP’ed or fired in any given year is 5%
• You are 25 years old now, and you have another 40 years to work until retiring at 65

You can input the above numbers into a binomial distribution calculator, which shows that the probability that you’ll get PIP’ed or fired at least once is 87%.