
When in doubt, go for data.
Choosing a career is tough, uncertain, and most of all it is a long term bet.
Very often, when you choose a career you are young and you don’t know what you like, what your interests are or what you are good at. Research is generally tough, boring and subjective, you are asking opinions to people who are 20 years older than you and didn’t have as many options.
Let’s not even talk about passion.Nowadays it seems to be obvious that you should follow your passion and dreams. Passion is something you find along the way, once you have tried several things. The idea that you have to know right away what you like and what your goal in life is, is absurd. The only way to know what your favorite food is, is by trying all the other foods, it’s not something you know when you’re born.
So what should you do until you find your passion? Our advice: get into DATA & AI. Why? For diversity. It’s a new terrain that goes along with every industry and is present everywhere. At first it can be difficult, you may have to learn several new skills and some technical issues (SQL, Excel, PowerBI, Tableau and others). Next, talking to engineers isn’t always easy or fun. But once you have the basics, the world is your oyster.
Why choose to work in data?
Data reaches all industries, some more evident like finance, management or supply chains, but others less obvious like poetry, music, art and anything you can imagine. DATA and AI give you the opportunity, if you have enough imagination, to create new worlds. You only need a push. Additionally, data is a field where there is always high demand and scarce resources. If you make an effort, you can easily enter a company in the industry and, once you’re there, you can easily move around.
Another fact about working in this industry is that people respect and value freedom. Those who work with data know that when people are allowed to use their own creativity, better results are obtained. Obviously, this will be tied to results, but in general, being a new industry, you learn by doing and making mistakes.
How do you get there?
Our answer: Knock on doors and bring something to the table. Companies are eager to hire talent. But it is really hard to come by, and matching is really tough. You need to find the right kind of talent. So perhaps you are not the right stuff for the first company but you will be the perfect fit for other one.
You don’t need a silver bullet, you need a lot of lead bullets (great comment from Bill Turpin to Ben Horowitz on “The Hard Things About Hard Things").
Secondly, understand your strentghs and weaknesses, these can always be worked on. It’s important to show your strengths, and bring them to the table. It might not be math, coding, physics or any of the things related to IT.
You might just be good at thinking outside the box, or copywriting, designing things or even asking questions. But you need to show how it relates to the job or the company you are applying. As Mark Andressen said, “markets that don’t exist, don’t care how smart you are”.
Thirdly, stay tuned. Knowing where the world is going is a great skill, it just takes to read a few blogs from time to time. If you stay informed and talk to people about the subject, you will eventually be working in DATA & AI without realizing it.
To sum up, be curious, be eager and knock on doors. Most of all, enjoy, it’s a brave new world.

By Minimalistech´s editorial team.
Minimalistech has more than 10 years of experience in providing a wide range of technology solutions based on the latest standards. We have built successful partnerships with several SF Bay Area, top performing companies, enhancing their potential and growth by providing the highest skilled IT engineers to work on their developments and projects.
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