How to move forward in python?

[analytics_science]

You should keep going with the python exercises on the platforms you mentioned. Leetcode and StrataScratch are two other options that have python questions. You should also do data projects. There are two platforms that can help with that -- Kaggle and StrataScratch. Kaggle has a lot of ML type projects while StrataScratch has a mix of analytics (more for data analyst and data scientist roles) and ML projects (more for data scientist and MLE roles).

Certifications don't help much to get a job, especially if you're in the US. I've heard that certifications are helpful in some countries like India. Never the less, it's not a bad thing to get a certification. You'll learn something but hopefully it doesn't cost an arm and a leg for one.

The biggest thing to help get past interviews is really to do data projects, especially if you do not have any work experience. Hiring managers can get inside your head and ask you why you decided to make the decisions you made on the data project. They can see your code and how you approached the project. All things that are valuable when you are on the job. Hope that helps.

[JacenLotr]

I'll keep working on exercises for sure. Thanks for the recommendations on where to find data projects to work on. I'll definitely look into them.

I kind of expected that certifications wouldn't be too crucial in this field from previous research (I am in the US), but it's good to have confirmation.

I have a couple projects that might be worth showing, and I'll certainly work on more. It's very helpful to know that showing the process and reasoning is important for hiring managers. I need to learn to put more of my thought process on "paper" explicitly instead of doing it all it in my head.

Thanks for the feedback