Data Science First Steps

With the popularity and demand for data scientists, and the well-documented shortage of skilled labor, more people are interested in data science as a career. Over time, I’ve gotten an increasingly large number of questions regarding how to start out as a data scientist. Like many other roles, landing the first job is typically the hardest, as having some experience under your belt is mandatory for many employers. This can create a vicious catch 22: how do you land your first job if they all require prior experience?

In this post, I’ll try to give you some advice — based…

At Riskified, we have an extremely capable data science and research department, composed of over 30 data scientists and analysts. As a fast-growing startup we take a practical approach, measuring ourselves based on the actual business value delivered every quarter and how effectively we interpret data (more about it in my previous article). We use the Agile methodology and our own adaptation of Scrum to keep things moving at a high pace. Additionally, much of our team has grown in the fraud domain and we have a keen understanding of the business. …

Have you ever witnessed a presentation where slide after slide of 10pt font tables were flipped through, supposedly ‘answering’ a business question? Alternatively, the product manager might receive a report with 50 interactive graphs, including every imaginable slicing of the data. To avoid missing anything relevant, presenters who are less experienced opt to deliver everything to their stakeholders. No filters. Data can be beautifully presented or horribly slaughtered, but however you decide to visualize it, it rarely stands on its own. Data needs interpreting.

At Riskified, we use Rmd’s to deliver reports to stakeholders. We’ve created some useful internal packages…