| I want to re-frame what you're saying slightly. Yes, the onus is on you to learn the skills you need to show up and produce on day 1. That's 100% true and it is a lot of work. Having a math phd alone and interest is not enough. However, there are still plenty of paths from math phd into data science and adjacent fields. Those courses you mention are things that someone with a math phd can 100% self teach, almost certainly to a level of understanding that is stronger than someone coming out of a DS masters. Learning how to interview on those concepts is important but ultimately they are very easy for a math phd once they know what the rules of the game are. Personally, I spent the last year or so of my postdoc obsessively leetcoding and doing side projects in DS and landed a non-entry level data science position as my first job out of academia at a FANG. This is with a pure math research background totally unrelated to the position. So it is still very possible. I think painting it like you do is a bit pessimistic and will discourage the wrong people. From personal experience, I saw comments like yours over the past year while I was job hunting and found them very discouraging. The most important things are: - have a network of similar people who have also made the transition (recently!) to get good advice and maybe also some referrals. These are the people you met in grad school a few years ahead of you. - know exactly what type of position you want (or converge quickly) and focus on it relentlessly. - understand the value you bring and the value others perceive someone like you to bring. Talking to people in hiring positions for different roles is the fastest way to learn what you have that is valuable. Do that as much as possible. Then you can line up how you value yourself with how a hiring manager values you, which will be the happiest result. - take as many interview opportunities as possible to get that interview experience. - Work relentlessly to interview better than those people from DS masters or whatever other sources they might come from. |