In this post, I would like to discuss 5 tips I have used to navigate the grid of available data science positions. I hope these tips will help you navigate your own path to new and exciting challenges, whether that be within your current company or with a new one.

Because I am all about that list-life, here is what I hope you can take away from this post:

• Key 1: Navigating your career in data science (and likely other professions) is a grid; it is not a ladder.
• **_Key 2: _**Force yourself to have conversations that may seem (and perhaps even be) uncomfortable.
• **_Key 3: _**Know what you want, and make sure those who help you navigate your career know what you want too.
• **_Key 4: _**Track your accomplishments — both individual and team-based accomplishments.
• **_Key 5: _**Be willing to make hard decisions that you know you deserve.

If you are just getting started in your journey towards becoming a data scientist, I suggest you start with my earlier post 7 Steps to Landing Your Dream Job As A Data Scientist. However, if you have already landed your first gig as a data scientist — first of all, congrats! Second, I hope this post can help you as you navigate up the ranks.

Key 1:

Navigating your career in data science is a grid; it is not a ladder.

Once you have the big questions about your career figured out (see The 6 Big question you need to answer when navigating your career), there are still several avenues that you may choose in navigating your path as a data scientist.

Let’s start defining the grid of paths with the different teams you might be a part of as a data scientist. There are many teams that you might work on — research, product, marketing, strategy, and many more. Within any of these areas, you might decide to take a path of management or a path of an individual contributor.

Both paths start with the same base levels:

Data Scientist I → Data Scientist II → Senior Data Scientist

Then for the manager path, you may move up in the following way:

Manager DS → Senior Manager DS → Director DS → Senior Director DS → VP DS

And for the **_individual contributor _**the next steps are:

Staff DS → Senior Staff DS → Principal DS → Distinguished DS

An example scenario an employee might look like**:**

**_Data Scientist I: (Product) _**You are performing A/B tests in the product.

**_Data Scientist II: (Marketing) _**Then you go on to perform media mixed models for marketing.

**_Senior Data Scientist: (Product/Engineering) _**Next you are tasked to a heavier engineering role where you build in new features into an A/B testing platform support different A/B test scenarios.

**Staff Data Scientist: (Research/Engineering) **Given your background with A/B testing, you are tasked with leading research related to building a platform that incorporates multi-arm bandits for both marketing and product testing environments.

In matrix form, this looks like:

Let’s consider a second scenario that is also possible.

**_Data Scientist I: (Product/Research) _**You are tasked with determining how the company can utilize new deep learning technologies to improve existing recommendation services.

#careers #software-engineering #data-science #data analysis