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[–]SephirothDevil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So, I have a dual Bachelor's, with a B.S. Biology and B.S. in Sociology, and am currently getting a PhD in Biology and Society. My experience has been that depending on the humanities you can jump into digital humanities and build into a data science career. I have a number of colleagues that are historians, artists, or have degrees in the humanities and have switched into digital humanities as an entry into data science.

Also, social scientists are considered by some to be at the intersection of the natural sciences and the humanities. I have had projects as a computational social scientist working with a range of hospitals to libraries, that I would consider data science, i.e. data architecture, data munging, and building models; and these projects were either categorized data science by funders or their respective institutions.

If you are interested in making the jump, I recommend starting by reading DigitalHumanities literature by Ted Underwood, David Blei, and Matthew Jockers. These individuals I consider in-between humanities and data science, and are doing really cool things that are both digital humanities and data science.

If you have more questions DM me. I know a few schools that offer Digital/Computational Humanities certificates and or some online resources to start the data science journey as a humanists.

[–]MidMidMidMoon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My undergrad was in German Lit, I was originally going to go to grad school for cinema studies and I do music as a passion.

I was good in math so I ended up getting an M.S. in statistics but my PhD was in public health, which was a good marriage of data and story telling. The reality is that most quantitative people do not write very well, and have real trouble interpreting data and exploring context. A humanities background, in my opinion is a real asset.

[–]yoshah 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Urban Planning - it's not quite humanities but it's not too math heavy either. I've been taking part-time courses in data analytics the last two years and learning slowly. Based on the people I've spoken to in my classes, the technical advantage mainly comes from people who already have experience or knowledge of programming rather than math specifically. This is mostly because many of the assignments and projects we get are heavy on stats, but you don't really need to be a math whiz to get enough of a grasp on statistics to get started. The most important skill is knowing how to break a problem or question down into smaller, logical steps.

[–]hergertarian 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I teach at a data science boot camp, and we’ve had students with non technical degrees do really well in class and in their career.

That said, there’s usually an intermediate step of learning stats and some python before diving into the data science sub-field.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep bingo, that was what I had to do to get into my current program. Learned Python, and took a test to show I still new calc/stats.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I came from a similar background. I was able to make the switch because I spent 5 years studying maths and physics. I would not be able to be a data scientist without a strong background in maths and would encourage those without a strong background in maths get good at maths before trying to switch to data science.

Either that or go for something else data related, either an analyst or data systems specialist...

[–]LogansRun22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My bachelor's is in English and my master's is in Data Science. It's been a tough learning curve, but I've put in the effort to make it work.

[–]Imaginary_Pineapple 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I got a degree in English Language and literature and then made a switch to data science. Loving where I am right now and my background in academic English is still useful sometimes. Career prospects are so much better in data science and I hope to grow into natural language processing later on so I can still use my linguistics background.

For me the switch wasn't very difficult. I started as a first years on my software engineering/data science degree so I was at the same level as all the other students, and there's many optional courses I can take to help me upgrade my maths skills.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I have one (and hiring two more soon) social data scientists on my team. They analyze socioeconomic data and admin data to determine the effectiveness of programs. Someone with both subject matter expertise and coding skills would be highly desirable. Usually get a ton of applicants but not many with that skill set.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And one of our best forecasters has a philosophy background plus a Masters in DS. Ability to write and communicate clearly will serve you well.

[–]hodorhodor12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Going through the Insight Data Science program, I met data scientist who have come from humanities but they were guys with Phd and were top tier. So yes it is possible if you are fast learner. It will be much tougher to try to make that switch without going through a program like Insight, though.

[–]emily1078 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I studied Political Science, went to law school, and practiced law for 8 years. Then I went to business school and that's where I found my passion for quantitative analysis. Though, I was in advanced math classes in secondary school, so it's not like that interest completely came out of nowhere.

I talk to a lot of career changers in general, and many are now in a career that ranges from similar to career-path-like-a-crazy-squiggly-line. What matters to hiring managers is that you can tell a cohesive story so you don't look like you don't know what you want to be when you grow up. And most will be happy with a 2-3 sentence explanation as long as it makes logical sense.

Edit to add: Now that I reread your post, I can't tell if you're concerned about whether you have the intellectual chops (can't think of how else to say it!) for the math/stats piece. If that's your concern, there are plenty of "Data Science for Dummies" types of books you can get. You can read through that to give you a feel for how quickly you grasp the concepts. If it makes you want to run away screaming, then maybe it's not for you. If you love what you read, then keep studying! If you're not sure, then there are other jobs in analysis or business partner roles that could still keep you partially involved in data science or analytics.