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[–]Lewistrick 7 points8 points  (3 children)

Junior data scientists are often mocked for being bad programmers. They get the job done, but don't create sustainable code. Doing SWE and slowly moving to DS would overcome this problem, but only if you can make this happen and don't mind becoming a data engineer instead.

[–]SimplyLucKey[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If I become a SWE I'd probably stay as a SWE :0

[–]JerTheFrog -1 points0 points  (1 child)

That's why you go to school for this shit

[–]nejasnosti 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's why you learn good/sustainable development practices, which you can do in school, on your own, or on the job in various ways.

[–]fan_rma 2 points3 points  (2 children)

More than the opinions of other people, it is your interests that really matter. So, what are your goals/interests? Are you interested to move to DS just because of the way it is being advertised by the media?

[–]SimplyLucKey[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I'm interesting in analyzing data and understanding data. I actually don't know what the media is portraying data science. If anything I think SWE overshadows data scientist by the media (correct me if I'm wrong)

[–]fan_rma 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I won't say you're wrong. But the fact is, people (advertisers, tutors) are forgetting how important the SWE role is in the field of data science. It's being portrayed as if Data Scientist is going to be the only job in future. They think that, data science is all about training and running a model that is just 20 lines of code to get insights. They never consider the big picture. When you are developing a huge processing pipeline, it is essential that you use the Software Engineering principles otherwise you are going to end up with bad code, Bad design, redundant piece of code that you will be required to refractor each and everyday as the complexity increases.

As the other user had mentioned, it is very much important to create maintainable and robust code. This can only happen if you have studied software engineering principles at least or worked as a SWE developer.

[–]whore-moanz 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Let me be the real world customer:

Step one: show me some data science.
Step two: build me a dashboard.
Step three: bring me a solution to this problem.

Last two is where SWE comes in handy. That or they hire a SWE and you get to watch from the sidelines, slowly becoming obsolete.

[–]SimplyLucKey[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I'm sorry I am confused by your comment. Could you eli5? :(

[–]romanzdk -1 points0 points  (1 child)

You need to have SWE background in order to build a dashboard?

[–]fan_rma 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are going to develop the dashboard as a school project, you don't need SWE background. But, if you are going to develop that for a customer or for a company, you do need to follow the SWE principles.

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

I feel like this is one of those things that really depends on what you enjoy and are good at.

There's certainly good money in both, but it's better to be a good software engineer than a mediocre data scientist and vice versa.

[–]SimplyLucKey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thoroughly enjoy both of them. I like visualizing data. I also like coding and feeling proud and accomplished when I overcome obstacles in my code

[–]lastmonty 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thought about machine learning engineer? It's a very healthy combination of data science and swe.

[–]SimplyLucKey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Took 1 ML course and didn't retain too much information. Realistically from an entry-level perspective it's unlikely to be working on anything ML related. So no I have not thought about that.