My Top 5 Data Science Internship Tips

Key Takeaways

hell everyone can hear back with a new video for you today I'm talking about my five tips related to data science internships a couple of them are related to how to actually get that internship and a couple of them are about how to get the most out of your position if you're new to my channel I produce data science content making the field that's accessible to everyone if you enjoy this video please hit that like button and if you'd like to see more content like this please subscribe to my channel my first tip for getting a data science internship is for you not to freak out over the technical aspects I get a lot of questions and I see a lot of questions and forms about what languages should I learn how much do I need to know should I know this should I know this and should I do you know this for most data science internships you'll probably need a fund a tional understanding of python or r and the ability to do some sequel query I think it's a huge benefit if you have exposure to some of the packages in Python that are used routinely so sicut learn pandas numpy sci-fi etc but beyond that most internship employers are really not looking for too much they're looking for someone that is excited about the position that's teachable and that is energetic with that being said my second tip is to actually really focus on applying to positions that excite you when you're interning you got to explore a bunch of different fields you got to experiment with what you like and the more passionate you are about a field the more you're willing to put in the more you're willing to learn so if you learn data science through the lens of a certain industry through a certain project type to me that's the best way because you're gonna be really engaged especially if it's something that you absolutely love so for so I learned data science through working with sports data for the most part something I'm super passionate about it's something that I am always thinking about and to combine those fields it created a huge surplus for me I would recommend trying to do the same thing yourselves data science internships are a learning experience and you should be trying to get the most out of your position it's not just about having an internship it's also thinking about what type of work you'll be doing when you're you're actually at the company so I've actually had better experience at experiences at smaller companies I've interned a fortune 100 company as well as a couple startups and at the startup so you get to work on a lot more diverse projects you get to be involved in the business process you could have kind of touch everything and to me that's that's a lot more fun it large organizations you get to see how processes work and how data science fits into the bigger picture but in college a younger age or at an earlier level I don't find that quite as useful my third tip is to use the resources that are readily available to you to reach out and to get on people's radar so I most colleges most universities have a job board really check that out I would also use your social network or LinkedIn network to find out what's out there reddit is also a great resource there's plenty of jobs data and science internship jobs that are not on any posting board or that are on very obscure posting boards I talk in some of my previous videos about how it's pretty expensive to put a job posting on LinkedIn so you won't necessarily always see every position there I also think you should reach out to companies that you're just generally interested in to see if they have something that isn't posted or that they're gonna post when I was in grad school I reached out to draftkings it was a company I was crazy about I was using their product all the time and they didn't have an internship position available for me but after some conversation after addressing my skillset and the some of their needs we were able to build a position for me for that summer which I think a lot of people don't believe that's an option and it really is my next tip is don't be afraid to work for free now you might say oh I want to get paid for data science internship usually that's one of the benefits of interning over the summer is you accumulate some cash but there's a ton of benefits of doing free work it's not necessarily always free work for a company but free work in your own time working on makes you a lot more interesting and valuable to organizations hiring for internships if you were to work for free for one of these internships an unpaid internship there's a ton of benefits of that as well you can work on projects that might be cooler you can work in environments more of your choosing and you know for example I did an internship for one of my buddies when I was really early in college and I was able to work on every part of the organization there were no limits on my projects because I had vetted the position I said these are the things that I want to do and they went along with it because an extra pair of hands for free is great you know why not have that person work on really cool and interesting things gives you a lot more control over where you go and what you work on so it's something to consider especially if you're kind of late in the process and you don't have anything lined up my last tip is really the most important one for actually getting a data science internship and it's comes in two parts so the first is showcase your work and the second is to tell really good stories about yourself and about why you want the position so if showcasing your work means that you have to have a github you have to have something on the internet that shows who you are and what you do and it should be well really well manicured you shouldn't have any mistakes in there because whenever I see a new candidate I google them I don't LinkedIn I sometimes even go on Facebook if they're available because I want to get to know that person so we'll make sure that's well manicured but also if I see someone with a lot of information out there on them especially if it's positive information research etc I'm generally really impressed I have good talking points for when I'm interviewing them and just that general sense that someone is building their capital is a really good feeling for me the second part about storytelling is people are always compelled by an interesting story and if you can explain to me why my company is special to you and how you can provide value to my company there's a really good chance that even if you're a little bit lacking on the technical skills or you don't have any experience in the industry I would still consider taking you for that position again the bar is a little bit lower on internships you're expecting people to learn and you're not always expecting them to create a ton of value so if you can explain to me why this position is you know your your dream position and why you think your skills that would be a revenue driver for our company absolutely puts you into the consideration set an example would be that if I was applying to a you know a sports analytics company or let's say a baseball analytics company in general I could talk about how I grew up playing baseball I was gonna play in college and you know I fell in love with the numbers when I took an economics course and why baseball statistics is really important to me is when I was playing I was one of the few players that was actually keeping my own numbers and going forward I'd like to you know the my playing days are over but I'd like to continue that spirit by being able to tackle these types of questions so that is something that gets them interested it shows you're interested and it shows why this unique field is valuable to you thank you so much for watching as usual good luck with your data science journey