How to get started with Data Science?

Today, I decided to answer one most asked question to me. “How to get started with data science?”. Yep. This is that one question which is asked to me by many people.

Firstly, what is Data Science?

Data science is an art of exploring data(structured and unstructured) and extracting knowledge and valuable insights from the given data. Data are mere facts. By applying data science techniques, valuable information can be derived from the data. One of its major application is to drive businesses and scale up their revenue.

Do you want to jump into the field of data science? Think of precise reasons. Do not jump into it just because it’s a buzzword and it is trending. If you love to learn more, fond of statistics, data-driven applications, and if you are willing to work harder to learn new stuff daily, then you can choose this field without any second thought! But be sure that you love data science before choosing the field.

How to get started with data science?

Okay.. I’m not going to answer it in a universally acceptable way; but from my perspective.

1. Just start doing research work on the subtopics of the field. Choose the tool you are going to use!

There are many languages that can be used for data science purposes like python, R, SQL, Tableau, et cetera. Choose any one from them. I chose Python because I love Python since I started coding and it has high community involvement. In my point of view, knowing either Python or R language is of much importance to step your feet towards data science.

2. Start learning from the basics.

After you have chosen which programming language to use for data science purposes, start learning them. Doing some course is good but it is not a necessary factor to learn. You can choose to learn from online forums, youtube tutorials, data science blogs, and MOOCs.

: Hey, I see many people posting a number of certifications. Don’t you think certifications are necessary?” Me: “Yeah. Certifications are important but skill is much important than that. Having 2 to 3 certifications in your specific domain will definitely add value to your profile. However, showing your skills through projects will help you a lot much more than certificates.

3. Learn by practicing!

While you are learning from sources, be sure you practice it side by side. This makes whatever you learn to stick to yourself. Once you complete learning a subtopic like data visualization using matplotlib, be sure that you do a project, even a small project is enough. The point is to practice what you have learned and show it through your projects.

TIP!!

If you don’t know where to find datasets for practicing your skills and developing projects, do not worry! Just google “python datasets for data science”, you will end up in a lot of websites. Some of the preferred websites include: reddit/r/datasets, UCI datasets, FiveThirtyEight, Google Public Datasets, Kaggle, data.gov, KDnuggets, Analytics Vidhya and so on.

4. If you are stuck somewhere while doing a project, do not panic!!

If you are stuck somewhere while doing the project or have some doubts regarding how to do the project, ask our information warehouse :p GOOGLE. If you are able to google correctly, then all the information needed by you will be given precisely. When you google the doubt you are having, a lot of blogs having the precise answers shows up which includes Analytics Vidhya, Towards datascience, medium, and so on. Also, the most important and my most favorite stack overflow website clears all your doubts. Still, if you are stuck, you can see the documentation of the library you are using, for example, pandas.

5. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from your previous experience.

When you start doing many projects, even if you are stuck, you can learn from your past projects. So do not worry. Just start learning and do practice it.

6. Practice. Learn new things. Practice. Repeat!!

Keep on practicing because the knowledge that is put into use sticks to us forever!

7. Last, but not the least. Engage in data science communities!

Engaging in communities helps you to know the stuffs which you don’t know. Most importantly, you can learn from many people!!

What are you waiting for?!!

Go ahead and start building your empire!

All the best everyone!! I hope my answer helped.