Data science is one of the most sought after fields with applications across sectors–from media to entertainment and utilities to finance. In an economy driven by data, companies are always on the lookout for data professionals to extract actionable insights (from their data) to improve business outcomes. In most cases, a degree is not enough to land a data science job: You have to go the extra mile to jumpstart your career!

So, how do you go about finding your dream job in data science? For starters, it’s important to have a plan in place. Also, the key is to get started early, ideally, while you are still in college. Below, we break down the modus operandi to launch a lucrative data science career.

Go extra-mile

Entering hackathons and working on passion projects are the best way to improve your data science skills and earn street cred. While projects give you hands-on experience, hackathons double as reality checks to track your progress. The best hackathons to check out include: 

• MachineHack
• TechGig
• IBM Z Student contest
• Kaggle
• OpenML

You can also volunteer for data-driven projects available online on platforms like Github, AWS CodeCommit, etc. Insights gained from working on such projects will prepare you for data science jobs tackling real-world problems. Not to mention the gravitas such projects bring to your resume.

Complementary electives & certifications

Learning subjects that call for critical thinking, analysis, and data processing is a stepping stone to a good data science career. But if you have already decided on your core subject, you can choose electives around data analytics, mathematics and statistical concepts to turbocharge your job prospects in data science.

Source: Quora

Programing languages like Python, R, C#, SQL, etc are the key to unlocking the power of data science. Subjects dealing with data mining, data visualisation and pattern recognition can also come in handy if you are looking to get a break in fields like artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Students can also do certification courses across various data science disciplines on the side to understand the basic concepts of data science, AI & ML. You can also explore MOOCs and other free online resources to build data science skills.

Internships

Internships in top companies will help you gain domain experience and get a foot in the door. In some cases, the companies absorb the interns based on their performance. The internship opportunities available in india include:

• Data science team (research intern) – Fractal
• Data science intern – Target
• Autodesk cloud intern – Autodesk
• Machine learning intern – Sony research India
• Software engineering intern – Motorola Solutions
• Software engineering intern – EA Mobile

Build digital presence

Use social media platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Discord to network and build your online presence. Starting a podcast or creating content related to data science are good strategies to get the community’s attention and might lead to job referrals. You will also have a body of work to impress the interviewer.

Besides, attending tech conferences, participating in conventions and presenting technical papers are good ways to gain status in the data analytics ecosystem.