[ithilglin909]

I'm just curious -- where do you think the puck will be? I've had a number of younger acquaintances ask for career advice. Pursuing some kind of data science seems like an obviously smart direction now, but I've wondered if this, as well as traditional CS career paths, may be in danger of becoming over-saturated areas, now that everyone views them as sure paths to a job that pays well.

[itronitron]

By its nature data science work is very undefined. There is not yet a widely established design path for data science as there is for software development. The risk for someone starting their career in data science is that they will end up in an organization that doesn't know how to data science. So I'd recommend steering young folk to larger teams that have PhD level Statisticians.

[proverbialbunny]

On the tech side front end or data science both seem like good options.

Companies are need a store front, so front end work will continue for a while, until it is super easy for any joe to make a professional website.

Data Science looks promising too, because it is automating and solving problems that previously could not be done.

However, outside of tech the world still needs skilled blue collar workers. For example, I don't see carpenters being automated away any time soon. I hear some of those jobs pay better than tech work too.

[oculusthrift]

i think there is a natural barrier for these paths being too hard and too mathy for most people. people have known for decades that engineering is a good path.

[resolaibohp]

Yep, a lot of the people who want to get into it run away when they find out you need to know how to code and understand the math. For some reason there is this idea that it is easy money.

[jamestimmins]

I simply mean in terms of the availability of online courses. Eventually there will be harder CS courses online. While there's been enormous movement in this direction in even the last 2 years, there's still a lot of room for growth and improvement.

[domnomnom]

math is the secret weapon here. Cybersecurity, data science, programming