Science to Data Science

I have recently completed the virtual data science course S2DS with Pivigo and I would like to share my experience with people who are curious about this program. Before going to the details, I would like to first give a brief summary about my self and... Read More why I joined to this program.

My background includes astronomy and physics where I obtained a PhD and continued working as a Postdoctoral Researcher. Since the early days of my education I was always enthusiastic about science and astronomy and never imagined myself doing something else. I was lucky enough to live in three different countries and being involved with very interesting projects and travel around the world. However as the time passed I was faced with the reality that the astronomy field was very competitive and even the very bright people were having difficulties surviving in the system. With a very sad heart I had to stop my Postdoctoral adventures.

At that point I was quite lost as I had no idea how to find a job outside of academia. As many people, I googled anything related to "data", "data science", and "analysis". I saw that there were many job advertisements which looked for data analysts and data scientists but I couldn't really understand the job descriptions nor saw my self fit for them. I also realised that I wasn't good in writing CV for non-academic jobs and didn't know anything about the job industry. Then I started to look for courses, read other people's blogs, and talked to former colleagues who have been working in the industry. I found many interesting courses and one of them was S2DS, which caught my attention. The reason I was interested in the S2DS because it offered to work directly with a real company and real business case. I found an acquaintance who joined a previous S2DS program and heard positive comments from him. Then I started to follow S2DS and Pivigo in Linkedin and on the web and joined couple of webinars. Finally I applied for the virtual program and was accepted.

I was part of a team of four people whom I never met before. We started to work with a big company on a real business case. There was no warming up nor pre-classes etc. From the first day I was exposed to daily meetings with my team members, with the mentors from Pivigo and my "employers" in the company. In addition to this, I had to follow webinars two or three times per week, had to spend at least 15 minutes everyday with the other participants and meet everyday with all the participants from other projects: It was a very intense 5 weeks.

What did I learn and how did this program contribute me? I learned a lot about the data science community outside of academia which I had no idea about. In the webinars I had the opportunity of listening people's journey who attended the S2DS. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, expect different things from a job and go through totally different journeys in their search for new carriers. It was really helpful to listen all the different experiences, learning some tricks and details and asking questions personally. Also in the webinars there were more senior data scientists who have been working in either big companies or do their own jobs for quite a long time. I learned from first hand their perspectives and opinions about the industry and the future of the data science. We also had sessions about how to write a good cv, motivation letter, tips for interviews and job hunting. They were all useful informations for me as I learned certain details and important points that I haven't think of before. Moreover all the virtual social activities with other participants helped me to learn about certain meet-ups, organisations, tools or softwares that I didn't know much about. Also talking to 15 people from different countries and backgrounds was quite mind widening.

Overall experience with the actual project was quite good too. It was like a real life simulation. In five weeks I had to finalise a project and present the results, and I had to achieve that with people I have just met. I gained real experience about what does it mean a business case and experienced a very different type of team work than I was used to. Everyone has a different approach to solve a problem and convey their opinions. Those are the very important aspects that you should master to deal with in the business world, and for me S2DS program was successful in introducing me those points. Another positive point is that S2DS continues to support you in case if you need to update your CV or online profile and give advise in applying jobs.
As a final note I recommend this program to anyone who wish to learn about data science community outside of academia and gain experience with real business cases.

The virtual science to data science program was an excellent experience overall. Although there are a few lectures at the beginning, the main feature of the course is that you work with a company on a commercial data science project in teams of four.... Read More We were thrown in at the deep end, but there were always technical mentors available to help us if we got really stuck.

The biggest benefit of this format for me was that it gave me a real sense of what it is like to work as a data scientist, both the good and the boring elements. Progress felt very slow at the beginning of the project and I spent much more time looking up things on Stack Overflow than writing code. My team and I also came to realise that a large part of a data scientist’s work is data cleaning and data engineering, not to mention the initial struggle to understand the data! We did, however, create a model with commercial value to the company we were working with by the end of the project, which I found very rewarding.

The careers advice provided during the program is also excellent and Pivigo makes it clear that their support doesn’t end once the course ends. I would recommend this course to anyone from academia who is struggling to move into data science or who wants to find out what it’s like to work as a data scientist.

I participated in S2DS online virtual program in March 2018. It was an online program in which you teamed up with other fellows and worked with a UK company to solve their problems with data science techniques. The program is scheduled around UK time... Read More zone. I am based in the central time zone in the US, so it means that I had to wake up at 3 pm every day for 5 weeks in order to participate in the program. I wanted to put this information out there- it is doable if you are like me, who is not based in Europe, and it is totally worth it.
Unlike other virtual boot camps (or probably any other boot camps), S2DS has very minimal classes for their fellows. We spent 90% of our time working with a client to solve their problems. We had to learn how to communicate with our clients about their needs from business perspectives and how to work as a productive and efficient team together. For the former part, we have gained business awareness, but more importantly, we learned how to diplomatically find a middle ground to meet our client's need within our capability and resources. For the latter part, we have learned how to work as a team in industrial settings with both soft skills and hard skills. All of these provided us a very realistic view of what a career in data science would be like. After my 5-week program in S2DS, I am more confident than ever that I know what I am looking for and what I am signing up for. I am aware of the pros and cons of this career (yes, there are cons for the sexiest job in the 21st century), and I know how to spot the right position for myself from the sea of companies that do not know what they are looking for.
I would like to explain why I gave 3 stars for job support. S2DS is not like some of the boot camps that make money out of your commission from an employer, and that could be both a good thing and bad thing. The positive side is that you don't have to sign a contract for waiting period with the boot camp (those boot camps usually requires you to not look for jobs on your own for 2-3 months), and there are no constraints for you to look for a job. The negative side is that you are kind of on your own. S2DS does provide support for reviewing your resume and writing reference (if necessary) all over the course of your career, and there is a platform for job postings exclusively for the fellows, however, most of them are UK/Europe based, so it is not particularly helpful in my case. Anyways, I will be actively looking for a job in approximately 3 months, and I would love to update my review by then for the job support part.

After hesitating between S2DS Virtual and S2DS London, I decided to try the virtual programme, with some slight apprehension as I had never done this type of remote working before. The support form Pivigo was excellent though and there were lots of discussion... Read More sessions with the whole cohort, some 1-1 chats to help bond with the other attendees and a meeting in London .

The project itself was interesting and gave me the opportunity to work in the media industry, which was quite new to me but very exciting. The technical content of the work was challenging as well as it required learning SQL to extract the data and then applying some machine learning models to create predictions for use by the customer. Fortunately, there was good technical mentoring provided by Pivigo which helped to successfully complete the project.

So all in all a positive experience, which highlighted the fact that scientist already have a lot of the skills required for a career in data science. As for the business skills, Pivigo did a good job of putting the emphasis on these and providing useful insights through webinars with a range practising data scientists.

As a final note, I was also very pleased with my team and had a lot of fun working with them.

I would highly recommend Pivigo's virtual S2DS programme - for me, it was the perfect opportunity to put all my online learning into practice on a real data science project.
I worked in a team of four on a project for the Food Standards Agency. We had... Read More a lot of ownership of the project and flexibility to explore options, but also received strong guidance and technical support from our company mentor and Pivigo's technical mentors.
Prior to the course I was worried about not having as much technical experience as my course mates. However, I shouldn't have worried as the teams were well balanced and we received strong support to ensure smooth teamwork so that everyone had to opportunity to use their current skills and develop new ones.
I thoroughly enjoyed the virtual format of the course - Pivigo gave us all the tools we needed to ensure strong communication and I loved the flexibility of working where I wanted.
Overall, my experience was fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in a career in data science

I had a great experience taking part in S2DS Virtual this year. I worked in a team of four doing project work for Notting Hill Genesis, which involved exposure to all areas of data science (using databases, data cleaning, exploratory analysis, statistics,... Read More machine learning, predictive modelling, presentation etc). Although it was a virtual program, we had a lot of interaction with other teams/projects, which gave use a chance to learn from their experiences too. I feel like it was invaluable experience of a real life project, which is something you cannot get by doing other online courses and lectures.

The program was very well organised, and the use of virtual tools meant that everything ran smoothly, and I believe made it just as valuable as doing the London course. All of the mentors and Pivigo staff were incredibly supportive, and helped to make it a thoroughly enjoyable 5 weeks. I highly recommend S2DS to anyone looking to get in to Data Science!

This school offers both on-location and remote versions of the course. I had to take the remote version for logistical reasons, and was a little worried that it would be difficult working in a team remotely. I had no need to worry: the organisation was... Read More simply excellent.

In addition to the good organisation, I had a very interesting project to work on. We had a good company to work with, and our company mentor was very involved with our project. On top of this, the school had several technical mentors who could help us with technical issues in a flexible manner. We also had webinars including those to teach us about good coding practices, soft skills and to give us insight into the data science job market. All in all the content was everything I wanted.

The staff at the school are very friendly and sociable, which really helps when you want to ask about something you're unsure of, or need help. The community aspect is also very strong, everyone really wants to work together and stay in touch after the course. Daily tea-time discussions strengthened that community feeling and were good for motivation.

A1

Being in the S2SD programme was a great experience for me. During the 5 weeks that it lasted, I worked full time with a team of 4 people in a real data science project, in which we were able to help a company and provide business insights for them. Apart... Read More from the technical skills that I acquired or improved (Python, SQL, machine learning libraries, natural language processing...), I gained a lot in terms of communication, team-work and remote working. The mentors from Pivigo were very helpful in keeping the team united and solving all sorts of technical issues. To sum up, being in the S2DS programme helped my career by improving my key skills (technical and non-technical) and giving me more confidence when facing new data science projects and meeting recruiters for interesting jobs.

I have experienced the S2DS programme as an excellent opportunity for any scientist who seeks to get hands-on experience on a data science project. If you are interested in such a transition and are somewhat proficient in the general set of tools used... Read More (python/R, a bit of machine learning, ...), you have good chances to be chosen for this program. In the virtual S2DS program, you will be working on an interesting data science project in a team of four with the help of supervisors and mentors from both pivigo and the project company. The environment is truly motivational, the peers are great, and the project itself is labor-intensive but very rewarding, in terms of both results and skills learned. You expand your horizon in terms of technical skills, your network, and your sense for business value. Especially the latter two things are not to be underestimated and usually important for transitions

I graduated a few days ago from Pivigo's Science to Data Science (S2DS) 5-weeks virtual program. I wanted to write this review now while the details of my experience are still fresh in my mind. I applied to the program back in December 2017 after I read... Read More several recommendations on it online. I had then just finished my PhD in Communications Engineering and was looking to transition to a Data Science industry role. The fact that the program was centered around a real industry-project with a company was the main reason I chose to apply.

The application and selection process was simple and straight-forward: I filled an application and submitted a CV and then I had a short interview that was basically a chat about my academic background and my motivation to transition to Data Science. Two weeks later, I was informed I made the cut. I had also applied for a fellowship (I needed a separate application by email) and I received a 50% discount off my tuition.

One month before the program started, I received the pre-program material, which is a long list of curated (mostly free) on-line resources and books about Data Science. We were instructed to choose what interests us to study, with the underlying assumptions that all participants must be already able to program in R or Python. I was personally already working my way through a machine learning with Python online course and used that list sparingly.

The 5-weeks virtual program itself exceeded my expectations: it was well organized, the projects were very interesting and the technical mentors were very helpful. The communication with my team (we were grouped in teams of 4 with 3 technical mentors taking turns in helping us) went smoothly, and I was pleasantly surprised we were able to cooperate on coding for the project even though we only communicated virtually. We ran many times into problems with understanding and cleaning the data, coding and modeling, however we were always able to either find a solution, sometimes with a little guidance from the mentors. Overall it was a great experience, mainly because it highlighted that we possess the core technical skills required for this type of job and the learning curve was not so steep as imagined.

In terms of job support, it is a bit tricky for me to evaluate. I live and want to work in Berlin whereas the vast majority of job support resources from the program is currentl targeted towards participants who are seeking a job in London.

I would definitely recommend this program though just for the industry-project experience, which I provides a valuable industry experience to an academic looking to transition into Data Science.