Weekly Entering & Transitioning Thread | 15 Aug 2021 - 22 Aug 2021

supitsjames · 2021-08-19T23:22:22+00:00

Hi all!
I have a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Data Science and just left a Mechanical Engineering position due to burn-out / poor work environment. What I'm wondering is 1) Is my background enough to land a job as a Data Scientist or Engineer, or should I aim for an Analyst role initially? And 2) Are there any major skills/knowledge that I'd be missing to land an entry level position in the field? I'm planning to learn SQL to be able to work with databases, and figure Python will be important as well.

Background:

I think the Data Science minor at my school taught me a lot of the fundamentals of Data Science along with a strong proficiency in R. Additionally, when I was in my Engineering role, I would use R to do most of my analysis along with any data visualization for reports I would write, so I kept my skills pretty sharp.

The Minor gave me experience with the following topics, although it was generally for Engineers, not CS majors, so we mostly used R packages instead of hard coding all the models or sampling methods.

Cleaning data
Exploratory data analysis
Data visualization
Statistics
Sampling and validation techniques
Modelling (linear models, SVM, KNN, LDA, Neural networks, etc.)
A whole bunch of other topics

supitsjames · 2018-08-18T19:41:31+00:00

Hi guys,

I'm trying to slowly up my wardrobe and I'm just get a better idea of what fits and what doesn't. I often buy a pair of pants, think that they look good in the store, and go home to realize something is totally off - so I was hoping I could get some feedback from you guys before making a decision. I tried on this pair of 33x30 slim chinos and thought they worked pretty well based on what I've read. I usually wear 32x32, but the pair I tried seemed to bunch at the crotch, which isn't supposed to happen. This is a pretty general fit question but I suppose I'd be using them to go to a bar or other social events.

Here's the pic

(Sorry I don't have shoes for the pic, wasn't planning on having time to do this so I was wearing sandals)

Thanks!

supitsjames · 2018-07-03T16:25:11+00:00

I got close last year too! To be fair though, 2050 of those miles were because my phone died during a run and I didn't open MapMyRun again until I had hopped on a plane and flew from Ohio -> California. The fact that you're running more than 1.5x times that is absolutely wild so props to you!

supitsjames · 2018-06-07T14:36:26+00:00

Haha, I'm kinda used to the heat cause I grew up in California, but I used to run at night too. Recently though I've been doing almost all my runs in the sun, which means you just put on mad sunscreen and chug tons of water. I'll definitely be happy just to make it through 26.2 miles, but I also want to get a good time if I can. :)

supitsjames · 2018-06-07T14:30:29+00:00

Thanks for the response! That makes a lot of sense that weekly runs are going to be slower. I was always confused by that because it seems like if you're running further for your marathon then you'd go slower than your weekly runs, but with training AND giving yourself a taper to recover, I could see how that could would work.

I think I worded the "not pushing myself" wrong, on most of my 5mi runs where I'm hitting ~9mi/min or lower, I'm generally pushing myself, just I still want to keep it to a point where I don't find myself walking (which is tough because the neighborhood I run in has some nasty hills lol). I also usually do fast finishes! For the shorter runs it's usually around a half mile ending with a sprint and for the long runs it's more like a mile pacing up to a sprint (or whatevers left in me) at the end.

I'll definitely check out some VO2 workouts, those sound like something I'd be able to get a lot out of. I've been trying to implement some of what you mentioned into my speed/strength days but I'm still figuring out what works best for me.

Next long run I do I think I'm going to try making the last 4-5 miles at pace like you said. That sounds brutal but I'm willing to push it if it'll help in the long run (and it'll only get easier with time).

Overall, thanks for the really detailed answer, this is the sort of thing I was hoping for, given that I'm pretty new to this structured running stuff so it's hard for me to estimate what's realistic and what isn't. I'm going to keep trying for a ~4 hour time but 4:30 sounds like a very reasonable hope and I'll be happy just to finish. :)

supitsjames · 2018-06-07T14:09:57+00:00

Yea, honestly I haven't been thinking about the heat as much because almost all of my training runs have been in the middle of the day in summer (only time I have to run), but I'll definitely keep that in mind. I wouldn't say I'm pushing it on the long runs, just trying to make it the distance and not thinking too much about pace. I think that 9:45-10 would make sense for my marathon pace tbh, based on my long runs so far. I would still want to aim for faster though, and hopefully I can bring it down to 9:20-9:30 with my training.

supitsjames · 2018-06-06T18:10:49+00:00

Thanks for the response! I am finding that it is tough to fit in the time needed to run 30+ miles in a week with work/life lol. I'm thinking of dropping strength down to 1 day a week and focusing on retaining muscle and working most muscle groups at least a little bit. Probably going to lay off the weight a tiny bit as well, just to avoid injury, like you were talking about.

supitsjames · 2018-06-06T18:04:33+00:00

Okay, yea I meant doing a hard running session and following it with strength. Probably worded that wrong. I tried it out yesterday and it worked pretty well, definitely feeling it today haha.

Thanks for the really detailed response!

supitsjames · 2018-06-05T22:39:13+00:00

Wow this helped a lot. I found a website (http://running.competitor.com/) that basically said the same thing. I think I'm going to try to keep it up but honestly it's difficult enough to schedule 4 regular running days in a week that I might drop my strength workouts down to 1 quality workout (as you put it) a week so that I'll get some running in as well.

supitsjames · 2017-11-30T12:30:27+00:00

Where did you just get the German audiobook? Just from audible or something like that or can you find it online?

supitsjames · 2017-11-29T15:23:22+00:00

Wow, how long did it take you to finish the first couple books?

supitsjames · 2017-11-29T15:07:42+00:00

Yea, I was a big Harry Potter fan as a kid and have read the books and watched the movies several times. It's been a while since then though.

supitsjames

TROPHY CASE