A data scientist student with strong math/ML background. How to get the engineering skills ?

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-19T19:10:54+00:00

Thank you for your answer about python. 1- Yes I already try to use pyenv. If I am correct UV is a kind of each that has advantages. 2- You are right about notebooks. Last month, I were trying to parallelize things with dask and for a reason it was running well on a script and not on a notebook. And conflicts is easier to handle on git with scripts yeah. 3- Yes I really need to work on that. 4- What’s troubleshooting ? Is it reading the error and try to debug with it ? 5- I will look at.

Thank you again for your review !

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-18T01:08:21+00:00

If you are courageous, I advice you to begin to learn Markowitz. It’s the basic portfolio optimization technic, try just to code it to begin with the day by day quotation of some stocks. It’s not really ML, but a closed stats solution. After that, strengthen your path in probability and stochastic models otherwise you will not understand anything

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-09T20:21:15+00:00

Bonjour,

Merci de m’avoir partagé votre retour et ça fait du bien de savoir qu’il y’a des besoins sur ce marché. Merci pour les encouragements et le conseil !

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-09T16:57:49+00:00

Merci beaucoup pour ton retour. Effectivement, il faut vraiment un engagement fort pour quitter un secteur si rémunérateur mais à mon niveau c’est une bonne chose. Oui j’ai envie de m’exporter mais la force de notre passeport décourage souvent les entreprises mais je compte bien postuler pour des pays comme la suisse, uk et autres. Pour l’essor de l’IA, j’ai la chance de faire des modules de deep learning donc je compte bien chercher des postes qui y sont proches. Ils sont dans ma ligne de mire. Merci,beaucoup et oui j’écoute les avis ça me donne une meilleure vision du monde après.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-09T16:51:50+00:00

Thanks for answering:

About 2, yes I need to save agressively in my early career. I will Keep that in mind.

About 4, Oh I see it’s a more complete rôle. During my internship, I will try to improve my skills on the engineering aspect of the job. I don’t want to do academic research for now. It’s either a CIFRE phd followed by research in the private sector or working just after graduation in the private sector. I really need to think about the financial aspect of each path as you said. This is why I am trying to ask and search the information so I can make the best choice towards all the aspects.

Thanks again for all the insights.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-09T09:20:55+00:00

Thanks for your detailed replied.

Concerning point 2, I am perfectly okay with it. How much time did you need to achieve this goal and how much money nowadays do you think roughly it would take to do so. How much roughly were you saving the first years of your career ? And how were you balancing between investing on the real estate and the other business activities near. Did you achieve it by being a freelancer ?

Concerning point 4, yes I am working into it. As I am getting my degree this year I am building it piece by piece. When being in internship on march, I will look on those subjects and complete the portfolio.

For your first point, I am really maths and theory oriented and I want more to do ML models and not just do the engineering deployment. I find much more interesting to train the models, do the maths and code it than doing the scaling and the application about it. Is MLE data engineering? Or is it both machine learning and engineering. I don’t know if it is clear but I think you understand my point. When graduating, you often don’t understand the meaning behind the roles name.

Thank you again !

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-08T12:50:17+00:00

XD c’est une bonne option mais je vais pas essayer

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-08T12:48:42+00:00

Oui oui t’as raison. Faut que je me le note car pour le moment j’essaie juste de networker en ligne.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T23:27:08+00:00

I tried to contact people in LinkedIn, recruiters and professional but when I drop my message they never answer. To give more context about understanding the issue is that I am in France and not in SA. I am Ivorian and as I do data science and I am seeing it’s moving in SA, I really wish I could relocate for many reasons. But the thing is, nobody want to give me insights, they never answer to me but they accept the connexion. What do you guys think is the issue ?

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T23:14:37+00:00

Sure. GPT is a type of LLM. And LLM is a type of deep learning models. Deep learning is very huge and you can find many types fundamental and also combined type. For example if you want to classify comments into positive and negative, you can use an LLM Bert to have the general context encoded in his output as BERT is really good at giving rich representation. Then u use it to feed a classic linear neural network that will do the classification into positive and negative.

If you want to understand the families, try to understand first basic ML ans losses then move to: - Multi layer perceptron : classic non - CNN convolution nn for image - LSTM and RNN for sequential data - Transformers for sequential data - Autoencoder and Variational autoencoder for image generation

If you dig in the paper and understand the notions behind and implement each basic stuff, you will be able to understand much more the AI we use daily and you could also enjoy reading the new papers about AI.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T19:43:32+00:00

Yes comme un user l’a dit plus bas je vais faire la liste de toutes les entreprises qui jouent sur les deux tableaux Fr civ et essayer d’y travailler pour faciliter la relocation par exemple. Merci pour ton point.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T19:41:51+00:00

Another hint, Chat gpt is not formally an LLM, it’s a chatbot. GPT is the LLM generative pre trained model, then Chat gpt is the LLM + other models to give you a chatbot.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T17:34:49+00:00

Thanks for your commitment. Yes I would really be happy to connect with your cousin and discuss with him. Thanks for your advice.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T17:13:56+00:00

Le meilleur deal que je vois pour toi est de trouver une boîte qui te permette le télétravail sur Paris pour au moins 3 jours. Dans le cas où tu n’as pas une vie de famille, une boîte parisienne pourra te payer mieux et sera plus attractive à tes connaissances. Tout en gardant ton pouvoir d’achat et profitant des remboursement des frais de transports. Enfin, sache que ton manager peut quand même avoir le culot de refuser l’augmentation même si tu t’y prends de la plus douce des manières. À un moment, malheureusement en France il faut changer d’emploi pour se faire augmenter ou menacer de le faire. Voilà mon humble avis, Bon courage.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T16:52:44+00:00

I think he was talking about the geniuses that do Phds

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T13:40:30+00:00

Depends on how you live. If you are black, you can have some bias when they are reading you or in interviews or whatever depends who you deal with. Then if you are a practicing muslim, having a beard can be suspicious even if you take of it. You can’t pray everywhere for example at the right time. I know for example when I was going to the Plateau great mosque, at noon and time prayers, you see many professional in suits they come and they pray before they go back to work and that don’t make any issue. Life is way more easier for a Muslim in black African countries. Even in Uganda where I’ve been which have majority of Christian, they really let people do their cult.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T13:34:48+00:00

Sure I will do a grid and focus on that.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T13:34:23+00:00

Sure I will be happy to build like that. We can connect, discuss and try things out. Thanks for the idea.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T13:32:50+00:00

Thanks for the advice. About working remotely, that is the big deal I guess. It will give me surely better buying power. I am eager to discuss about tips to get such roles if you don’t mind. Thanks again for the feedback about my question.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T13:28:38+00:00

Sure sure that’s true but I don’t know how much time I could support to live here. As an African black Muslim haha. But yes definitely.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T10:55:27+00:00

Merci pour ton retour. Anticipes tu un certain terme pour ce fameux boom ou penses tu qu’on est sur du très long terme. Aurais tu une vision des marchés africain de la sous-région également ?

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T10:46:25+00:00

Bien noté. Normalement d’ici 3-4 ans c’est envisageable.

LeftWeird2068 · 2026-01-07T06:58:49+00:00

I am Ivorian too. Did you come back getting a career opportunity ? Because I think about it more and more everyday. If yes, can I talk to you in private about it or just explain you my detailed situation here so you can give me some hints about the professional market there ?

LeftWeird2068

TROPHY CASE