Advice for executing your curriculum.

1. Concepts will come at you faster than you can learn them.

There are literally thousands of web pages and forums explaining the use of common data science tools. Because of this, it is very easy to get side-tracked while learning online.

When you start researching a topic you need to hold your goal in mind. If you don’t, you risk getting caught up in whatever catchy link draws your eye.

The solution, get a good storage system to save interesting web-resources. This way you can save material for later, and focus on the topic that is relevant to you at the moment.

If you do this right, you can make an ordered learning path that shows you what you should be focused on. You will also learn faster and avoid being distracted.

Warning, your reading list will quickly grow into the hundreds as you explore new topics that interest you. Don’t worry, this leads us to my second piece of advice.

2. Don’t stress. Its a marathon, not a sprint.

Having a self-driven education can often feel like trying to read a never-ending library of knowledge.

If you’re going to be successful in data science you need to think of your education as a lifelong process.

Just remember, the process of learning is its own reward.

Throughout your educational journey, you will explore your interests and discover more about what drives you. The more you learn about yourself, the more enjoyment you will get out of learning.

3. Learn -> Apply -> Repeat

Don’t settle for just learning a concept and then moving to the next thing. The process of learning doesn’t stop until you can apply a concept to the real world.

Not every concept needs to have a dedicated project in your portfolio. But it is important to stay grounded and remember that you are learning so you can make an impact in the world.

4. Build a portfolio, it shows others they can trust you.

When it comes down to it, skepticism is one of the biggest adversities you will face when learning data science.

This may come from others, or it may come from yourself.

Your portfolio is your way of showing the world that you are capable and confident in your own skills.

Because of this, building a portfolio is the single most important thing you can do while studying data science. A good portfolio can land you a job and make you a more confident data scientist.

Fill your portfolio with projects that you are proud of.

Did you build your own web app from scratch? Did you make your own IMDB database? Have you written an interesting data analysis of healthcare data?

Put it in your portfolio.

Just make sure write-ups are readable, the code is well documented, and the portfolio itself looks good.

This is my portfolio. A simpler method to publish your portfolio is to create a GitHub repository that includes a great ReadMe (summary page) as well as relevant project files.

Here is an aesthetically pleasing, yet simple, GitHub portfolio. For a more advanced portfolio, look into GitHub-IO to host your own free website. (example)

5. Data Science + _______ = A Passionate Career

Fill in the blank.

Data science is a set of tools intended to make a change in the world. Some data scientists build computer vision systems to diagnose medical images, others traverse billions of data entries to find patterns in website user preferences.

The applications of data science are endless, that’s why it is important to find what applications excite you.

If you find topics that you are passionate about, you will be more willing to put in the work to make a great project. This leads to my favorite piece of advice in this article.

When you are learning, keep your eyes open for projects or ideas that excite you.

Once you have spent time learning, try to connect the dots. Find similarities between projects that fascinate you. Then spend some time researching industries that work on those types of projects.

Once you find an industry that you are passionate about, make it your goal to acquire the skills and technical expertise needed in that business.

If you can do this, you will be primed to turn your hard work and dedication for learning into a passionate and successful career.