What do you do that you earn six figures?

[u/fidgit86]

It seems like a lot of people make a lot of money and it seems like I’m missing out on something. So those of you that do, whats your occupation that pays so well?

[u/HeavyFuckingMetalx]

This is what I’m aspiring to be.

[u/AtomicKitten99 → u/HeavyFuckingMetalx]

ML engineering and research scientists do what data scientists did 10 years ago. A lot of “data science” positions were business analytics positions 10 years ago.

[u/r5d400 → u/AtomicKitten99]

this is so correct lol
I work with engineer and research but we're definitely a minority. almost every DS is actually an analyst these days

[u/proverbialbunny → u/r5d400]

It's actually going in the other direction in very recent years. There are so many ML Eng jobs out there today with the title of DS, just because DS pays less than ML Eng and DS is a sexier job title. This muddies the water.

I'm on the eng R&D side myself, not ML Eng, but startup space figuring out how to solve problems no one in the world has figured out. It's tons of fun!, but not for the faint of heart. ^_^

[u/r5d400 → u/proverbialbunny]

why does everyone want to take over the same words. like, get your own job title, people! lol

[u/proverbialbunny → u/r5d400]

Data scientists are supposed to be experts at classifying, yet DS is the worst classified job title.. lol.

Before I had the DS job title I was a Research Engineer. I actually do mostly the same work today just with newer tools (notebooks in R or Python instead of Excel and Perl). I find it arbitrary. Oh, companies want to call what I do DS now? Okay. Whatever works.

[u/AtomicKitten99 → u/r5d400]

Because of the salary and perception. Facebook initially called their analytic data scientists “decision scientists”, and a lot of them still put data scientist on their resume and squirmed at the new title.

[u/BinodBoppa → u/proverbialbunny]

The sad part is, every word of paragraph 1 is true😢. Was interning at a startup with a job desc of basically applying GBMs and then analysing the results to eliminate bias but those bastards lied and forced me to do OCR+Bert fine tuning on a worthless dataset.. and then didn't even pay me those $100. Good thing is, their plan backfired in front of the investors and ig those VCs tore these guys a second asshole.

[u/dbirdflyshi → u/r5d400]

My favorite explanation between data analyst and scientist these days is this: analysts focus on the why is the data that way and the how did the environment get this way and scientists focus on the what

[u/SEA_tide → u/AtomicKitten99]

I've had to explain to many people that if you're talking to someone in the field who got their degree more than ~5 years ago, chances are their degree program was not technically called data science. For the longest time, it seemed like data analytics was going to be the desired name, even though many people were majoring in things such as economics, statistics, mathematics, management information systems (MIS), and computer science.

[u/AtomicKitten99 → u/SEA_tide]

I’ve had to talk to all my recruiters that those programs are complete trash if you’re targeting a core role. If somebody has a master’s in data science and a completely unrelated undergraduate, don’t even screen them. Those programs are all about vanity, name-dropping, and generating a shit ton of cash off the ML buzz. The fact that the name of the program doesn’t actually indicate an area of study, is that subject to opinion, and the fact that nobody offers a Ph.D in data science should indicate that the degrees are empty.

Considering this is about financial independence, I can’t think of a better way to be living paycheck-to-paycheck with a respectably high-paying job than to get one of those degrees @ $70-100k. Not only is this price high, but it’s for online instruction with C team instructors (e.g. Berkeley’s program runs through the school of information and not the stats, engineering, or CS departments).

UIUC and Ga Tech’s MS in CS programs can be done part-time for a fraction of the cost, and their material is legitimate and hireable.

[u/SEA_tide → u/AtomicKitten99]

My "data science" master's is technically in applied economics as data science programs didn't really exist a decade ago, even though many of the courses are similar. My undergrad majors are very closely related and I've been employed in analytical positions my entire professional career since. I'm reasonably sure I've not gotten interviews because my degree doesn't say data science.

I've considered going and getting another degree, but am amazed at the cost of some programs and don't want to duplicate what I already know with a degree similar to what I already have. Georgia Tech has been on my radar for years and a number of managers seem to really prefer MBAs, but I'm just not sure.

[u/mwedzi → u/AtomicKitten99]

I'm now a 'data scientist' but until recently I was a 'research scientist'.

[u/shameOnDandD → u/HeavyFuckingMetalx]

Just want to say that a data scientist is really downstream from many other data jobs - data architecture, engineering, augmented insights. Data is a big thing right now because it's the new oil. I guess data is a big deal if it can get presidents elected.

[u/HeavyFuckingMetalx → u/shameOnDandD]

So are you saying don’t search for jobs with just “data scientist” as the title?

[u/catdog918 → u/HeavyFuckingMetalx]

I was searching for jobs with business analyst in the title but ended up getting one without that title but doing the same stuff

[u/HeavyFuckingMetalx → u/catdog918]

What’s the title you have?

[u/catdog918 → u/HeavyFuckingMetalx]

I’m technically a collections analyst. When I searched analyst instead of specifying business/data analyst this job listing popped up.

[u/dumpsterthroaway → u/shameOnDandD]

Yeah its importance became really evident to me especially in 2004 and even more in 2008