My journey to Data Science did not start too long ago.. about a year now.
Though before we being that portion of the story we should begin with the ‘lost’ state after graduating college. When I finished college I had no idea what I wanted to do, I had graduated with a degree in general engineering because I couldn’t quite figure out what area interested me but I wanted to continue down a path into a field that would grow and expand. The problem with graduating with this degree is that employers saw me the same way I perceived myself ‘lost’. So I began searching down some other paths like Sales and Finance but still nothing clicked for me, so once my wife had graduated with her law degree and asked me if I would be interested in moving to Reno, Nevada I though screw it I have nothing keeping me up here maybe a move will give me clarity for a new path.
Thus brings us to Reno. On arrival to Reno I had no clue what was going on with the city but I had heard on the radio that Tesla had just built a new factory and it was supposed to eventually be the biggest factory in the world and they were hiring. Excited as I was I went back to the Air BnB we were staying at and applied to every position they had available and I heard back the next day. AMAZING! But the position they had called me about was one of the most basic positions at the factory a production associate, requirements: graduating high school. The thing is I was broke, so I took the interview and before I even left the building they asked me when I could start, I took a second to think about it and then asked if I started in this position what kind of route I could take through the company, they responded that after six months I would be allowed to apply to what ever position I would like on the internal system where they would also take your reviews and knowledge of the company into consideration. So I took the position thinking I could easily separate myself from everyone else with my work ethic, education and inclination to learn about every system. So began my work at Tesla.
At this point you might be wondering ‘Well did you get moved up based on your reviews and knowledge of the company? Or did you separate yourself from everyone else?’. Yes and No. The thing with starting in a company that is still building a process is that things change ALOT. I made it through my first six months without a single review due to either getting moved to a new developing line because I learned quickly or a change in who my manager was while they tried to divide the departments (The longest I had a manager in my first six months was a month and a half), but the time finally came where I could apply to other positions. Again fill out all the applications for the different positions and see what the lottery gives you. Soon after I was interviewed and for and accepted a position as a Process Technician.
Moving forward in the next year I got promoted multiple time, survived a cut of 80% of the people in my position and became really good friends with the Process Engineering in my area.
The Process Technician role can pretty much be broken down into three things:
Increasing Yield
Reducing Headcount
Increasing Throughput
In order to do this you have to use a ton of data about what is going on in your area to really understand where the issues are. This becoming my introduction into using tools such as MySQL, Tableau, Postman and Ignition.
A couple months after starting this position was the first time I had heard of Data Science from a couple of coworkers at Tesla, while I was talking about how much I was enjoying working with SQL and Tableau. They asked me why I didn't just do Data Science. So as I questioned them further they let me know what little knowledge they had on what the career was then introduced me to a Data Scientist they both had worked with at lunch. We immediately took off in conversation and (he told me how he had graduated college as a history major but had been unable to find a job he liked so he taught himself how to code and built a small portfolio which had gotten him a job in Data Science. He then introduced me to some resources such as Github and Kaggle and told me a bit about what his job entailed but pretty much left me there, as he had to disappear back into his work. So began my journey into discovering what these mystical 'Data Scientists' did.
After hours upon hours of googling 'Data Scientist' and trying to figure out what credentials you needed to become one, I started searching through job postings. The funny thing I noticed was that none of the postings had a requirement for a Data Science degree but instead asked for projects and in some cases listed a suggestion for Data Science Bootcamps.
So I researched some bootcamps and ended up selecting Flatiron School, was accepted and here I am today, preparing to start off on a career in Data Science.
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