After finishing her Masters in Information and Service Management, Huyen Vu approached finding a career quite practically. She saw that Finland had a demand for talent in the data science field, and she had some training and interest in business analytics. It seemed like a good fit, but there was a problem.
Huyen’s educational background was in business. “I wasn’t even studying technology or computer science,” she said. When she started looking at job descriptions, she saw that data science programming skills like Python and SQL were in high demand. She knew she needed to beef up her technical and programming skills to make herself a more attractive job candidate.
That’s how she found Dataquest.
Diving into Data Science
Searching for ways to learn data science online, Huyen had come across some other resources, but none seemed the right fit for what she needed to learn.
“I think I found out about Dataquest on Facebook,” she said. “Some of my friends were following Dataquest, so I went to take a look. I saw that you have Python and SQL courses, exactly what I was looking for, so it was as simple as that.”
After trying out one of the free introductory courses, Huyen jumped in and started working through the data analyst path.
Committing to Dataquest was an easy decision, she said, because the platform was working for her. “You get small lessons, the practice, and the skills right away on the platform. It’s so convenient.”
“Also, I really liked the writing, the written instructions on the site. It’s very, very easy to follow. I prefer reading rather than listening or watching video tutorials,” she said, “so [Dataquest] meets my needs.”
After completing a handful of courses and earning the Python and SQL certificates, Huyen began looking for jobs in the data science industry — specifically jobs requiring her recently-learned data science skills.
“I put my new skills on my CV and I feel like I got more interest because many companies in Finland are looking for Python and SQL,” Huyen said.
She ended up landing a job as a data management specialist with a procurement analytics firm. In this role she works to classify, consolidate, and validate data, and she says that the skills she learned from Dataquest have been useful.
“SQL skill is very useful for my work,” she said, “so my experience with Dataquest is helpful.”
Perhaps more importantly, Huyen is excited about the future. While her current position is entry-level, her data science skills have put her on a promising path, and she says that at her company she will have “a lot of opportunities to grow and move to other teams with more advanced responsibilities.”
Learn skills based on the job you want
As someone who’s successfully navigated the job search landscape and gotten her foot in the door of data science, Huyen recommends her approach to other learners looking for find employment.
“I look at the companies where I’m interested in the jobs, find the job descriptions, and take note of the list of skills that they are looking for,” she said. “Then I will, for example, go to Dataquest or some other learning site like that, and take the course and take the certificates and show that to the companies who are looking for talents in this field.”
“Really, self-study the skills that the market is looking for,” she advises.
And of course, Huyen recommends studying with Dataquest! “I actually already recommended it to two of my older flatmates,” she said. “They are studying with the site, with Dataquest, now.”