[mdorazio]

I'm curious why you want a Data Scientist to show you a portfolio of code rather than a portfolio of data projects & outcomes. The code seems pretty secondary unless you're in a some specific field looking for code-based solutions to a niche problem.

[simonw]

A data project without code is extremely difficult to evaluate.

I haven't hired data scientists but I've worked with them, and the best I've seen by far are the ones who can write well engineered code and who know how to use source control and unit tests.

My personal opinion is that I want software engineers with good data skills, not expert data people who are terrible at the engineering part.

After all, ever experienced data scientist will tell you that 90% of the work is building pipelines and cleaning data.

[mdorazio]

I have hired data scientists, but not in the last two years. I agree that 90% of the work is building a good pipeline and identifying + cleaning data, but disagree that example code is a good way to evaluate either of those skills. I'd much rather see that a candidate knows how to use common tools, understands how to go from real-world data to usable data, and has a strong focus on an end result that's actually business-valuable instead of a toy.

Probably a different focus, though. Most of my projects and hires are for large corporate clients, not smaller niche companies/startups.