I got zero hits. Not a single phone screen.
Honestly I was pretty lazy about it, and didn't write cover letters or anything. That might be a contributing factor. That, or remote jobs are far more competitive.
On the other side, last time I was hiring, I was shocked at the low quality of a lot of applications. Applications that weren't complete, didn't have a resume, cover letter and work samples of some kind got immediately sent to the trash.
Every applicant that included a cover letter was way above median quality, and worth interviewing.
I might miss some decent people this way, but it’s been a very helpful first-level filter of applicants.
When I look at a CV ahead of a 2nd or 3rd stage interview I take it for granted that they are serious about the role and qualified for it.
Some of the worst companies I ever worked at didn't value communication skills for senior positions, and I couldn't leave those roles fast enough!
The other area is that DS means something a bit different at each company you could work for. Some may want SQL experts, others want SWE's with some ML and still others expect 100% modeling all the time. You may get filtered out if you don't have the appropriate buzzwords/skills listed on your resume e.g. AWS, BigQuery, Java, python, Tensorflow etc.
CS is easy: Do you know the languages they want, know some algorithms, are you familiar with the same tools and libraries, how's your experience working with people on big projects?
DS: The field is so broad and so deep, you need know everything and if you don't, be prepared to be shredded. Your interviewer may have a PhD in physics, or a master's in economics, or maybe they're just a math major that did a bootcamp course. Do you know NLP and how to build a pipeline? I feel like I get whiplash when I look at DS job postings they're so all over the place.
Check out what people in other industries go through, for context:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/b5sfbh/my_...
Cover letters are a waste, and rightfully ignored.
YMMV
Call it what you will a cover message or note perhaps.
And they contradict each other, constantly. This is what the difference in culture between companies is.
We can't even globally define what a resume/CV is.
You need the LinkedIn profile to look good both to humans and to robots, and a worthwhile recruiter will give you substantial help tuning both that and your resume because these will both help them place you, which is how they get paid. Make sure a new recruiter clearly understands this and is happy that you clearly understand it, too. Those who fail this test are not the ones you want to work with.
It will be harder to work with top-tier recruiters if you're working your way up and not yet established. That's not fair, but it's the way of the world, and as always you mistake the ought for the is at your peril. If you're smart and capable, just not yet tested and proven, the ideal is to find a recruiter who will invest in helping you develop. This is tricky and I lucked into it. The best advice I can offer there is, bigger firms with deeper pockets are more likely able to support that.
The unequivocally good news is that there is a lot of interest, money, and good roles sloshing around the market right now. While that's less good for a newer junior than for a proven senior, it is still good for us all.
Don't wait. The article compares the tech industry labor market to the housing market, which I think is accurate. It also compares now with the boom before the 2000-2001 crash, and I think that is accurate too. We can reasonably predict another crash. We cannot reasonably predict when. So get while the getting is good.
I've had calls with recruiters; during the call, I told them "that's not something I'm looking for and thanks for your time" and moved on.
I've also had multiple late-stage interviews that started this way and my current job was found this way.
None of them know tech but a few of them are smart enough to understand that they don't know tech and to focus on mastering the social market.
I'm going to throw my voice into the ring on this specific line; recruiters get a bad name (often deservedly), but I found my current job (coming up on 3 years) through a local recruiter that contacted me. The whole job search once they got involved turned into an incredibly fast, easy process; they were great about finding companies that matched up with my skills/conditions, they even did some salary negotiation (which I am terrible at).
It was a really positive experience. I'm not going to say every recruiter would be like that, I'm sure many (even the majority) are not. But if you're looking for a job and having a lot of difficulty just finding places to apply, think about finding a recruiting firm to help.
Do make sure:
- A) that you aren't required to apply through them for every job. My recruiter let me keep applying for my own jobs on the side while they scouted out.
- B) that they actually have some domain knowledge about the industries you're applying to.
- C) that they're actually meeting with you and putting in some effort to understand what your goals are, not just trying to pressure you into taking every job offer that pops up.
I think if you're already a qualified programmer, recruiters can fill in a lot of the groundwork of finding out who's hiring and getting your resume in front of companies, and that just increases the number of options you have. I expected to completely hate the process and instead I came away feeling like it had made my life a lot easier and a lot less stressful.
In the 90's they scoured every math and science field for people to throw into 'web developer' positions. When the bubble collapsed a few of them had learned a lot and stayed around, the rest had to wander off and find something else to do, often back to what they were doing before, if they still could.
The data sciences growth was not organic, which means it probably isn't sustainable either.
consider setting your linked in to "looking", which might cost money, but this gets the attention of even internal recruiters