Making a mid-career change to Data Scientist

I studied Business and Accounting at Florida Southern College and started working in the field.

My first job was for a medium size manufacturing company in the Accounts Payable department. Working in accounting, I became focused, organized, responsible with strong work ethic. Over many years, I learned many aspects of the business and began volunteering in other departments. I enjoyed learning about all the different aspects of the company, how it worked and how the parts made the whole better.

When I was offered a position at a small software company with all of the accounting responsibilities, I jumped at the offer to grow and learn. This small company offered me a lot of flexibility, learning opportunities and the freedom to set up the accounting department. Working as the head of accounting taught me time management, executive presence, the importance of financial reporting to the stock holders. The attention to detail required for accounting really paid off when the company was acquired. During the acquisition the Comptroller said the financials were immaculate and they didn’t normally see this from small businesses.

When I relocated from Florida to Seattle I decided to pursue working with startups and smaller companies, because I felt me experience would really help them for their future growth and possible acquisition. At this point I felt that I wanted to do more to drive impact within these companies than just helping them with their books and investment strategies. I knew that numbers were my super power, but I didn’t know how to apply the numbers to the business. I understood that numbers were powerful tools for executives, things like financial forecasting is always in high demand for accounting.

After leaving my last position, I was searching for a way to use my strengths in a new career path. I didn’t know that data science was even a thing at this point. I was researching what else do people do with numbers at companies and had a very interesting conversation with a VP at Microsoft. He suggested to me that I look into Data Science as it was a very up and coming field that he was relying on more and more for his decision making. I left that meeting with him determined to learn what Data Science was and how I could enter that field.

I spent many months researching Data Science and was worried my math might be rusty. I went back to community college to take classes in calculus, statistics and intro to Python. I have never written any code before, and I knew this was going to be required for this new field. I was very intimidated by the process, but I found that a number of sites helped me with structure programs. Data Camp really gave me a large boost by working through their Data Science Track. I eventually finished their Data Science and Machine Learning tracks and decided this was my new career path.

I decided I learn best when I work with teachers that I can ask questions. I started searching for Data Science programs in the Seattle area. I attended a number of open houses, spoke with other students, instructors and then chose General Assembly.

After choosing General Assembly I put myself to work on learning Data Science and preparing to enter the school. COVID 19 happened just as I was supposed to start in person classes. We tried to work online, but I really felt since it was new to everyone, we didn’t have a great start to an online adoption of the in person class. With a lot of thought I decided to defer, feeling I would do much better in a classroom setting.

After entering the deferment, I set a schedule for myself to work every day on being a better coder, better data scientist, and a better researcher. Now that I am back in school full time, I really feel that the time off for me was time well spent. This is the third week of school and I am so happy to be working towards my goals.