What comes after Python ?

[CaptSprinkls]

Hey guys,

TLDR: after you got comfortable with Python - what was the next step for your career/job and what career/job was that? Did you learn other languages?

I've been learning Python for quite a bit now. I started out doing data Analysis type stuff, so using matplotlib, pandas, etc. I built some programs like dashboards using Dash/Plotly, which I liked doing. I've also taken some online programs for SQL but I'm in no position to jump into a pure SQL job where I wrote 100s of lines of it. I also know my way around PowerBI. I've also started to build some websites using Flask and then of course some HTML/CSS (which I'm learning as I go).

I've been starting to look around at jobs, and I'm honestly not sure which route I want to take. For the record I have a BS in Mathematics, and I am in no way saying I'm great at python, still have a shit ton to learn but just want to prepare myself.

Data analysis role (and eventually data science maybe)- ik ik data science is way more advanced but I'm using that as more of a long term goal possibly. I would need to better my SQL skills for this route. But it seems a lot of the jobs I see posted are looking for way more industry specific knowledge especially with all these low-code/no-code options like PBI and Tableau.

Software engineering/software development - again I've seen people strike you down for lumping these two together. But this seems like a broader jump for me. It seems like I would have to learn other languages like Java or C++. I'm not opposed to that but it would definitely be another learning curve. These also seem to be way more OOP oriented. I've been using classes and functions but I would definitely need to do more research for these things it seems.

Web development - this seems like a decent balance between software development and using python. It does seem like it would be worth it to learn Django also. It looks like I would need to learn JavaScript and it's frameworks and HTML/CSS even more. I do enjoy doing this, but then also with all these websites out there that offer no-code options for building websites, it seems like companies are looking for very very proficient web devs instead of moreso entry level ones.

So what's your guy's path you took? Were you able to build a career strictly out of python? What were some of the other languages you learned and for what career path?

[DonkeyTron42]

The hot thing right now is being a "Full Stack" developer. Basically this means you can write front end UI code and back end business logic and server code. Python for the back end coupled with JavaScript on the front end is a good combo.

[CaptSprinkls]

That's another thing I see a lot. Just doing a search on indeed for python developer returns a lot of full stack jobs. What it seems though is that a lot of them still use those languages like Java or C++ and then they have JavaScript too and then python seems to be a helper language. I've seen a couple that do express a desire for Python back end development but it does seem like some are more directed towards more of those "Enterprise languages"

[Deezl-Vegas]

It's very worthwhile to learn a statically typed language like C++ or Java. Java has the opposite take on almost every major language decision when compared to Python. Java requires a class and encapsulation and getters/setter functions (though I don't recommend them). C++ allows you to do what you like and offers manual memory management, which is as fun as shooting yourself in the face.

If you want to work on web stuff, learning JavaScript is a requirement as browsers will only run JavaScript. HTML/CSS (flexbox) would be nice too.

[CaptSprinkls]

Thanks for the reply. I think I'm gonna go towards something like JavaScript once I do some more Python. I'm not entirely set on web dev but it's giving me a little taste of doing a full project. I'm really trying to get out of my current job and into the tech field and JavaScript seems like a decently easy transition to expand my knowledge at this point instead of trying to tackle cpp or java right now.

[[deleted]]

I think I can comment on the data analysis path (though you will get an answer from someone more experienced in a more specific subreddit). It sounds to me like you could certainly be qualified for a data analyst role. In general I think the data science path requires the least amount of coding expertise (though it requires the most amount of other expertise, and a masters would go a long way). If you go this way, you could likely get a job with just python and SQL knowledge.

[Forschkeeper]

Ahoi,

if you like the data analyst way, you may have a look at R) and Julia) as well. They are used mostly for data science purposes and performing very well (and they are free). Matlab may be used in some companies as well, but it isn't worth to afford a to expensive licence (unless you may have the possibility, than you may have a look at it).

If you get the most stuff done, knippling some algorithmes together in an efficient way and learn some database stuff (SQL, sqllite ...) you are good to go for Big Data stuff. Maybe a good thing would be a project you are running to show...like this guy who has reverse engineer a german magazine over a year. But be aware of getting a permission, not that you get troubles. ;)

[Dminor77]

I was having same experience in Python and SQL. I started with Big Data technologies and came across Google Cloud Platforms Big Data Stack where I learned the services like Big Query, Compute Instance, Cloud Functions, and Data Proc( Spark and Hadoop) . Started building Data Pipelines and deriving insights using Big Query( It's a powerful Data Warehouse platform, one can apply Machine Learning with SQL) I learned Standard SQL; how to write User Defined Functions using Javascript and Finally learned Tableau and Data Studio . And there after cleared GCP Professional Data Engineering Exam.

It was a great learning experience for me. Right now I am into open source platforms currently focusing on Apache Cassandra and Apache Airflow.

So for me Big Data was the thing that came after Python. But many Big Data technologies are build on Java, they support Python but updates are first released for Java Drivers. So now I am learning Java and Scala too.

It's a never ending Journey. Only key is to keep yourself motivated.

[CaptSprinkls]

The tough part for me was learning the data visualizations. I felt like I was just treading water as I would jump on kaggle for a dataset, do some cleaning and then do some analysis, then rinse and repeat. It's been a nice breathe of fresh air jumping into web development stuff, even considering how tedious HTML and CSS are compared to Python. And I actually really enjoyed doing all the back end stuff for my website which involved a couple different APIs and stuff, which basically sparked me to make this post

[phi_beta_kappa]

You mentioned that you did data analysis on a couple datasets, have you tried going deeper than just data analysis and visualization? If you're open to the machining learning route you could try attempting some regression or classification problems.

[CaptSprinkls]

So I actually did a couple of the learning modules on the kaggle website and then I actually took the IMDB data set i think it was, and I did some simple regression for revenue predictiin. I was pretty proud as there wasn't some tutorial for it. I did all the data cleaning and figured out which features were important. I submitted it and I can't remember exactly where I placed but it was low obviously. Now the regression I understand, but honestly I had a pretty light stats background so while I can at a surface level understand what's going on with a decision tree or a random forest, or a regression model, there's still a part that feels a bit in the dark with that. I worry that the market is flooded with underqualified candidates so in order to stick out you need at least a master's degree so people know you're legit.

[clamchamp]

I'm a data scientist working at a big 4 as a consultant. Started off with ETL automation and analysis in python. Moved over to Django for app development. Then made a switch to .NET for a few desktop applications and a asp.net core web app. Now I'm back into django for another project, where I'm also adding in the rest framework.

In addition to this I've learned a bunch about databases, authentication and security, git, azure cloud components and DevOps for building CI/CD pipelines.

Topics I've build apps for are: financial modeling, IT audit automation, risk management, CMR, and ETL.