Introduction

Based on this article, I have almost decided to take up Data Sciences. With this blog, I hope to find and justify the use of a particular course.

What am I looking for

I am looking for a course on which I can spend ~6x20 hrs (120 hrs) to learn DS. I just want a course where I can follow said material in an ordered way to get a grip of the basics of DS. This is how I want to start. I hope this is enough to already start applying for jobs in DS.

To get an entry-level job you usually need basic familiarity with a statistical programming language like R or Python, statistics, basic machine learning algorithms, database systems and data communication and visualization. - 80k hours career guide

I will find courses and run it by my DS friend.

Roman Duda of 80k suggests this coursera course for ultra beginners. It is the same as the 10 set capstone project suggested in quora, and looks like a good to start. Costs are about 40€/ month. I hope to finish it in less than 2 months.

There is a coarse CS109 for DS by Harvard. Surprisingly all the lectures and slides are available. The Assignments from 2013 and 2014 along with solutions are available as well (bottom of the page). There are some videos here made by cs109 for tutoring on some small parts like git etc… This seems to cost 0€.

A course by udacity known as the Data analyst nano degree costs about 550€ for a 160 hr (30% off with code UMQXGK87482XHCN, So the cost should come to 385€).

This quora answer on DS resources seems to be very informative, regarding where to learn basics, where to get data from. The same question has developed an answer wiki which also contains multiple sources for doing things. The way the answer is formed is that we quickly learn some basics and get into doing projects and learning from there.

Should I just start with projects? What projects do I do? Or which course do I then take?

As per the suggestion of a friend in DS I take the Courseera course and finish it and see where it takes me.

References

80k-hours guide to DS

80k-hours-wiki-sources

Skills checklist to get your first DS Job

Quora answer suggesting a free course era 9set course with capstone project by the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Business

Some more interesting sources for references in DS within Quora

Some suggestions were to look at Kaggle and statistics content on Khan academy.

Pre-study for joining Galvanize bootcamps

8 skills you need to become a DS Udacity

Hiring trends in DS Udacity

References for later

I think this kaggle link is like a project with a summary submitted for a competition, something which I should hope to achieve as part of my training.

Dump

  • Ask Friend (body)
  • 80k website
  • google

Later

  • Look at bootcamps
  • Look at jobs in finance or in ASML or klm or banks

If applying for DS Scholarship

Why financial aid?

I earn 40k euros, I pay a lot of tax and have a huge loan from studies to pay. In addition to this I give 10% of my income (4k Euros/year) to Effective Altruism Charities. My budget is so tight that I am able to spend on things like vacations as I also need to have some runway, in case I lose my job. I want to do this course over 1-1.5 years as I have a full time job (~10hrs per day) and also need to work on a project related to Effective altruism. I do not have 600-900 $ for the course. My current job is in a startup and I am not sure this job is going to last long, so I want to move to DATA Science by next year. I am also moving into Data Science as the skills I get there are the ones needed by Effective Altruism Organizations such as Give Well and 80k hours. I hope to work in those organizations within the next 5 years.

Align with career goals?

As said above, I see this course offering me a road into the life of Data Science. There are a lot of jobs I see available and I hope to get a stable job in Data science and gain lots of flexible career capital by improving in statistics, critical thinking and programming with which I want to move into Effective Altruism Organizations over a period of 5 years. I am very keen on the Effective Altruism Movement and I am positive this course will align me in that direction.

Loan?

I don’t mind getting a loan, but I am not stable enough right now to pay it. I don’t know if I would be in the future as well. If you suggest starting the course and paying once I successfully port to DS, then I am very much interested in the loan. Thank You for considering my application.