I was asked five questions by Alex Woodie of Datanami for his article, “So You Want To Be A Data Scientist”. He used a few snippets from my full set of answers. The longer version of my answers provided additional advice. For aspiring data scientists of all ages, I provide in my article at MapR the full, unabridged version of my answers, which may help you even more to achieve your goal.  Here are Alex’s questions. (Note: I paraphrase the original questions in quotes below.)

1. “What is the number one piece of advice you give to aspiring data scientists?”

2. “What are the most important skills for an aspiring data scientist to acquire?”

3. “Is it better for a person to stay in school and enroll in a graduate program, or is it better to acquire the skills on-the-job?”

4. “For someone who stays in school, do you recommend that they enroll in a program tailored toward data science, or would they get the requisite skills in a ‘hard science’ program such as astrophysics (like you)?”

5. “Do you see advances in analytic packages replacing the need for some of the skills that data scientists have traditionally had, such as programming skills (Python, Java, etc.)?”

Find all of my answers at “The Definitive Q&A for Aspiring Data Scientists“.

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