This book is meant to be a guide to career questions in data science, following the
path that a person will take in the career. We start with the beginning of the journey:
how to get basic data science skills and understand what jobs are actually like. Then
we go through getting a job and how to get settled in. We cover how to grow in the
role and eventually how to transition up to management—or out to a new company.
Our intention is for this book to be a resource that data scientists continue to go back
to as they hit new milestones in their careers.
Because the focus on career is very important for this book, we chose to not focus
deeply on the technical components of data science; we don’t cover topics such as
how to choose the hyperparameters of a model or the minute details of Python packages. In fact, this book doesn’t include a single equation or line of code. We know that
plenty of great books out there cover these topics; we wanted instead to discuss the
often-overlooked but equally important nontechnical knowledge needed to succeed
in data science.
We included many personal experiences from respected data scientists in this
book. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find an interview describing how a real,
human data scientist personally handled dealing with the concepts that the chapter
covers. We’re extremely happy with the amazing, detailed, and vulnerable responses
we got from all the data scientists we talked to. We feel that the examples they provide
from their lives can teach much more than any broad statement we might write.