Learning Data Science: Is a Mini Bootcamp Right For You?

You know you want to make the jump to data science, but when you search for “data science bootcamps” and “data science courses,” you find tons of results like “I quit my job to join a bootcamp” and “How to become a data scientist in three months to a year.” If that were an option for you, you wouldn’t still be reading this article. In ideal circumstances, you’d quit your job and move to a bootcamp. Barring that, you’d throw yourself into online courses. In the real world, however, you can’t always uproot what you’re doing to follow a dream, and the online space doesn’t solve every problem you have. One intriguing compromise in this dilemma is the idea of a condensed bootcamp. It’s a highly specialized course designed to jumpstart your career through heavy-hitting, thoughtful teaching, and immersive instruction. Here are two reasons you might want to take the bootcamp route instead.

You Can’t Quit Your Job

It’s not always about the money, but let’s go there first. When you quit your job for three months to a year to go back to school, it’s not just the cost of the program that gets you. It’s the adjacent costs of having to pay rent (or mortgage), eat, pay insurance, and you know… survive. Sure, you might be able to get away with eating ramen for a year. Still, there’s only so much you can cut.

You could save up the entire cost of living for an entire year, but that means you’re postponing your future career for as long as that takes. And what if you don’t find a job right away? You’ll need a safety net for that, too. Data Science is a hot market right now, but you may not have precisely what companies are looking for right off the bat.

Aside from the money, there are other reasons you may not want to quit your job just yet. Some of you dream about making the jump to data scientist within your existing company, for example. You can’t jump ship just to try to hop on later; it doesn’t look good for your employment record.

A condensed bootcamp could give you the skills you need to get started without having to cut your safety net to pieces. You get immersive instruction first. Then, you can work on projects on your own while you’re waiting for the right time to quit your job. A jumpstart in education plus experience later equals better chances of finding the right job in data science, not just any job.

You’re Not Sure What Niche

A 5-day mini data science bootcamp is an excellent way to get exposure to the fundamentals of data science without having to stress too early about your focus. The Data Science field will continue to produce a growing number of jobs. However, the umbrella term as a job focus is quickly coming to an end.

Just like you don’t look for jobs in “business” after business school, you’re not going to see jobs in “data science” that get you where you want to go. Companies have spent a lot of money on the job search and on-boarding process, not to mention the salaries required in the field. They get burned having a person with the wrong skill set or focus in the position, so positions are changing.

The job market is evolving. Consequently, an excellent way to ensure you get a top position is to unravel what companies are looking for. All those aspiring to a data science job won’t have or need the same credentials.

A traditional bootcamp or even school course could take time away from you getting to the job-specific skills you need. Data engineers will need a different toolkit than a machine learning specialist. Spending months or a year in the same training may not be the right choice for you.

That said, there are some core skills you’ll need to get started on your journey. A mini-bootcamp could provide intensive instruction in the fundamentals. Then, you can customize your own learning plan later to the specific position you want. It may even give you a nudge in the direction you’d like to go in the first place.

Attending a Mini Bootcamp with ODSC

ODSC West’s data science bootcamp is one of the first of its kind. In less than a week, you get access to over 50 hands-on training sessions to boost your skills in ML, DL, and NLP. The ODSC West 2022 training sessions will help you learn an important, tangible skill in the shortest amount of time, meaning you can go right from learning about data science, to being able to talk the talk in less than a week!