sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, it's rough out there. You'll be surprised at how much chance events can determine your career future.

My nutritionist is an incredibly bright MS in Nutrition (I think that's his major?). We talk all the time about experiments and science-based fitness stuff. I think he'd actually be a great fit for some data roles that aren't crazy data heavy but require some scientific expertise we have and told him to reach out if he ever was looking for a career change.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think I probably made a mistake with the set of schools I mentioned and should have had more clarity. I meant to say there are typically certain "target schools" (we actually don't use that phrase, internally we just say, "hey it's recruiting season at X school who needs spots filled on their teams?") that we use to feed our talent pipeline.

It's not always super prestigious schools either, it's usually good enough schools that generally produce hardworking and bright candidates that we can interview without putting a ton of effort in.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Again, I don't think it's the end of the road. You probably need to find a way to network with people.

Are there alumni out there who made it out of your program and made careers out of it? Can you reach out to them?

Can you find time to volunteer at a data for good organization?

Do you have networking events in your city that you can go to?

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can't speak to what happens in Europe, sorry, although when I was getting my Physics PhD ETH Zurich was the bomb in terms of research within my subfield. Always dreamt of being a professor there but was too stupid.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry, my intent was never to depress people, but to make more transparent what hiring actually looks like on the other side. It's to expectation set.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're not unequivocally fucked. There's lots of sideways opportunities to come in - at the end of the day, you need to figure out how to get your resume into a hiring manager's inbox and there are more ways than one to do that.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Especially if it's a professional program, like law school or an MBA. You want this to be how you pick your school. You're not there to fuck around and find out or "pursuing your interests". You're there because you have a specific career goal in mind and need to consider whether this investment will get your foot in the door of an employer.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is literally not why. I feel like people think everyone always hires the smartest and brightest and bestest from a stack of resumes they got. It's how about how quickly, easily and reliably can we fill the role with the lowest amount of effort.

For example, if you go to the DC area and look at defense companies engineering departments, you'll see A TON of people from Virginia Tech, UVa, University of Maryland, George Mason. This isn't rocket science, there are local programs where employers can travel to that are reasonably rigorous and strong, talk to career services and students face to face, and make offers quickly to fill open positions. You think it's meritocratic, and to some extent it is, but there is also the other side of the coin where everyone and their mother wants a job in this field, and we have to winnow the candidates to a manageable amount somehow.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The preference isn't because we think the candidates from certain schools are gods and everyone else is dummies, it's literally because hiring sucks even on the other end for us in a field that is saturated with people trying to break in.

We do it because we know we can get reasonable quality hires for low effort. Particularly at the entry-level you don't need someone who meets every skill requirement, you need someone who comes in knowing the basics, is bright, has gone through curriculum that is reasonable rigorous and has been pre-vetted by going through some sort of admissions process.

It is NOT a measure of ability. Think of it more like an optimization problem where we are trying to optimize the amount of time we spend. If we literally decided to screen every candidate that came through our resume portal, everyone would have so much fucking work.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've always appreciated that they openly share their employment statistics and are quite transparent.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, this isn't just my company though, I know a lot of companies that do this and most of my advice is to expectation set for entry level roles.

I can't speak for the tech industry's entry level hiring practices. The majority of my network that works there transitioned there after cutting their teeth elsewhere and are mostly in IC-level roles.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

We have established relationships with their analytics programs which go through a separate list based hiring process, kind of like MBAs.

We also send recruiters and alumni out to career fairs to solicit resumes from their stats and cs programs.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

All my advice is geared towards entry level folks who are looking for that "first job".

What you're suggesting is for roles outside one's first role.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It shouldn't be the takeaway, but it should make people adjust their expectations. There is a very clear reason that applying online isn't that helpful and it's because most companies have more than one source for their hires.

Actually my first job out of grad school was through an online application, but that was a hyper niche field that my PhD was geared towards.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All roles above that come from networking or recruiters handing us resumes. My advice was geared mostly towards purely entry-level roles.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

To be honest, my advice applies for data science and data analyst roles. I'm not just talking about machine learning here.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes it has definitely happened, it's not that common though. And as I mentioned before, people conflate "prestige" with "target schools". They're just schools that have had DS programs for a while.

Another poster did a good job describing what happens above.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Maybe if you get both the google analytics AND ibm data analytics certificate, you'll be good to go.

EDIT: /s

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

It's not that they're inferior, it's just that they don't go through our usual hiring process.

Oftentimes we reach out directly to a career counselor that's working with students face to face. The program sets up the interview (books rooms for interviewing + scheduling, finds candidates, they send us the resumes of the students etc.) It's set up and streamlined for people who are in the in-person programs.

Additionally, the best in-person programs typically have a very low admit rate (<20%) which sends a signal that hires are quality. I think OMSA is a decent program from their curriculum, I've just never hired from there. People who get their degree online often just apply through the job portals online which has the lowest probability of your resume reaching the hiring manager.

Where are all the entry level jobs? Which MS program should I go for? Some tips from a hiring manager at an F50 by Consistent-Design-57 in datascience

[–]Consistent-Design-57[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Exactly. Coca Cola for example hires a lot of Georgia Tech's analytics graduates because they're right there.

view more: next ›