What Major for Career in Data Science/Analytics?

[Anonymous]

I have hired in this space directly. We've had great grads from VT across a few majors - the most important thing is having open source or publicly available projects to show that you can do the programming piece - in several types of courses they should be able to create those projects.

I don't think "business analytics" is as respected as math, stats, econ, or even poly sci with an applied bent. I don't think CS is as important to the data analytics/data science roles - the tools folks will be using are tools like R and python - and yes, the future is AI-driven coding. CS spends way more time on programming skills that isn't going to be as relevant for most roles that are data-focused. Our interview process for new grads is a lot more about core data analytics skills, strong stats background and intuition plus having examples of actual projects in one of wide range of coding languages. Several CS kids have not done well in our interviewing process because they don't have those conceptual/stats/numerical intuition skills. Would also recommend taking some writing -heavy classes - doesn't play so much in getting that first job, but in terms of who does well - poor writing skills from otherwise very talented students are a pattern I'm really noticing for new grads. We're trying to think about how we hire for good writing skills, but it's hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have hired in this space directly. We've had great grads from VT across a few majors - the most important thing is having open source or publicly available projects to show that you can do the programming piece - in several types of courses they should be able to create those projects.

I don't think "business analytics" is as respected as math, stats, econ, or even poly sci with an applied bent. I don't think CS is as important to the data analytics/data science roles - the tools folks will be using are tools like R and python - and yes, the future is AI-driven coding. CS spends way more time on programming skills that isn't going to be as relevant for most roles that are data-focused. Our interview process for new grads is a lot more about core data analytics skills, strong stats background and intuition plus having examples of actual projects in one of wide range of coding languages. Several CS kids have not done well in our interviewing process because they don't have those conceptual/stats/numerical intuition skills. Would also recommend taking some writing -heavy classes - doesn't play so much in getting that first job, but in terms of who does well - poor writing skills from otherwise very talented students are a pattern I'm really noticing for new grads. We're trying to think about how we hire for good writing skills, but it's hard.

Hire from LACs where critical thinking and writing are built into the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have hired in this space directly. We've had great grads from VT across a few majors - the most important thing is having open source or publicly available projects to show that you can do the programming piece - in several types of courses they should be able to create those projects.

I don't think "business analytics" is as respected as math, stats, econ, or even poly sci with an applied bent. I don't think CS is as important to the data analytics/data science roles - the tools folks will be using are tools like R and python - and yes, the future is AI-driven coding. CS spends way more time on programming skills that isn't going to be as relevant for most roles that are data-focused. Our interview process for new grads is a lot more about core data analytics skills, strong stats background and intuition plus having examples of actual projects in one of wide range of coding languages. Several CS kids have not done well in our interviewing process because they don't have those conceptual/stats/numerical intuition skills. Would also recommend taking some writing -heavy classes - doesn't play so much in getting that first job, but in terms of who does well - poor writing skills from otherwise very talented students are a pattern I'm really noticing for new grads. We're trying to think about how we hire for good writing skills, but it's hard.

Hire from LACs where critical thinking and writing are built into the curriculum.

+1. It's how I got hired into a technical field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have hired in this space directly. We've had great grads from VT across a few majors - the most important thing is having open source or publicly available projects to show that you can do the programming piece - in several types of courses they should be able to create those projects.

I don't think "business analytics" is as respected as math, stats, econ, or even poly sci with an applied bent.I don't think CS is as important to the data analytics/data science roles - the tools folks will be using are tools like R and python - and yes, the future is AI-driven coding. CS spends way more time on programming skills that isn't going to be as relevant for most roles that are data-focused. Our interview process for new grads is a lot more about core data analytics skills, strong stats background and intuition plus having examples of actual projects in one of wide range of coding languages. Several CS kids have not done well in our interviewing process because they don't have those conceptual/stats/numerical intuition skills. Would also recommend taking some writing -heavy classes - doesn't play so much in getting that first job, but in terms of who does well - poor writing skills from otherwise very talented students are a pattern I'm really noticing for new grads. We're trying to think about how we hire for good writing skills, but it's hard.

It's very much dependent on schools.