SDS 416: My Advice for Career Success

(00:14):
Welcome back to the SuperDataScience podcast everybody. Super excited to have you back here on the show. Today when I’m recording this is the weekend of DataScienceGO Virtual, our online virtual conference, basically our virtual conference which we’re running, and we’ve got speed networking rounds. And so yesterday I met up with quite a lot of people. It was very exciting. 

(00:40):
And I often get asked the question, what advice I have for somebody who is starting out their career in data science, or is in their early stages, is speeding up their career or growing their career in data science? What advice do I have? Frankly, yesterday I think I got asked that question at least two times, maybe three times, by different people. And I’ve been asked this question many times before over the years. 

(01:13):
And as you can imagine, there’s no one answer to that question. There’s no one answer that will help and serve everybody in every specific situation, in every circumstance. Rather, everybody’s situation is unique and everybody has their own path. Nevertheless, I thought I’d record an audio today with my thoughts on what is something that all successful career stories I’ve heard of, I’ve seen or witnessed develop even, what do they have in common? I think I’ve found something that they have in common. I’ve been thinking quite deeply about this for the past maybe day or so. Maybe less, maybe about 12 hours, not 12 hours in a row, but for quite some time over the past 12 hours. And I’ve come up with an interesting, I think, framework, which might be helpful. 

(02:17):
So if I had to boil down my advice for a successful career, and I’m specifically saying here career, because success is measured differently for everybody. We get caught up in this false vision of success that it’s lots of money. It’s a great job. It’s recognition. It’s fame. Everybody’s definition of success is different. Success can be just peace and quiet in your life or having a happy family or waking up alive in the morning. That’s already success for some people. In fact, that’s already success for everybody, not just for some people. But people define success differently. Anyway, today we’re talking specifically about career success in the sense that you enjoy your career and it’s growing and it’s going somewhere exciting. That’s how I would define career success. 

(03:20):
And so looking at some of the examples I witnessed, I’ve come up with a formula. It’s probably a bit crude to say formula, but three key ingredients that are necessary for career success, for a fun, exciting, fulfilling career. And the first ingredient is to be curious. And the second ingredient is to work hard. Where do these two ingredients come from? Well, there’s a saying that luck is when opportunity meets preparation. 

(04:08):
Again, luck is when opportunity meets preparation. And often it’s easy to look at someone who’s got a successful career and say, “Well, they were lucky. They were in the right place at the right time.” In fact, probably in most cases, without knowing the story of what was actually going on, it’s easy to look at that and say that. Even looking back at your own life, if you’ve experienced a breakthrough, in some respect, and some time has passed, you might look back at it and say, “Oh wow. I was so lucky then that this happened to me.” But because time passes, we forget how much effort and what was put into that happening, how much work was actually put into it, what were the circumstances. Of course, sometimes things just happen. There’s no question about it. But in many cases it is this formula. Luck is opportunity meeting preparation. 

(05:14):
And so being curious is being open to those opportunities and seeking them out or not going past them when they come up. Asking yourself, giving things a try. Working hard is the preparation. It’s putting in the hours, putting in the time, putting in the effort. And the way I can confirm this from my personal experiences, for instance, when I was going for an interview at my job at Deloitte, the place where I found out about data science and got into the space, I wasn’t going to miss that opportunity. In any case, I was going to do anything to make it happen. So I looked at what they were asking about, and one of the things that they wanted you to know was SQL. 

(06:12):
This was actually after the interview. This was for my internship at Deloitte. I knew, okay, I’m going for an internship at Deloitte, and they need me to know SQL. We’re going to be using SQL. So was I going to wait and get there and get them to teach me SQL? That could have been an option, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. So I remember, I found a website where I could learn SQL. This was a long time ago. This was 2011, I think, or early 2012, when online education wasn’t that big yet. But still I found a website. Not even a video course. Oh no, maybe it was a video. It was a video course. So I could learn a skill. 

 (06:57):
And I spent two weeks learning SQL. I had a whole notepad. I wrote out a lot of stuff. I was actually writing out the code that was supposed to be written in SQL, in the in the SQL code on the computer, I was writing it out on papers. Writing on the computer, of course, and was writing out on paper. I was going to make the most of this internship, because only one person would get the offer for a full-time job after the internship. So it had to be me. I had to. I wanted it so much. I worked really hard for that. 

(07:38):
The same thing happened when I was ready to move on to leaving Deloitte two years later, and also starting my own business. I was just, “I need to learn programming. I specifically need to learn Java.” And I was learning Java. I was putting in a lot of work into learning things and taking on education. And that actually showed me a lot about the world of education. And I didn’t even realize at the time that I was going to end up in online education, but that’s what ended up happening. But I was prepared, because I had put in so much time into learning, my online education and learning programming. I was prepared when the opportunity came to teach those things myself. So again, it’s working hard to be prepared, and being curious about opportunities to not let them just pass by. 

(08:45):
It’s not just about my example. I’ve seen this many times, for instance, Ben Taylor, who’s been on the podcast. Pretty much with every podcast guest, there is a point in time in their story, or many points in time, when you can point out, this is where their hard work and curiosity came together to create something unique. If you look at Ben Taylor, for example, he has been on the podcast several times. A huge inspiration to me. His company was recently acquired by DataRobot. Big company. It’s a dream of many entrepreneurs to end up in a situation where DataRobot makes your company that size… Makes you an offer for your startup. And it might seem like luck, like, “Oh yeah, he knew some people from DataRobot. They connected well. He’s got a really cool personality that gets people engaged, and so on. He’s just lucky.” 

(09:44):
But really, if you look at Ben and if you listen to the podcast with him, the amount of hours he’s put into that startup, the amount of times he was waking up at 3:00 AM, 3:00 or 4:00 AM to start working, and he’s got three kids at the same time to look after. A family, and he’s got other commitments as well. And the amount of time and hard work over the years, how much gray hair the guy has now, it’s crazy. So it’s not just luck. He was curious and he was open to these opportunities, but he goes working really hard, working his butt off to be prepared for when the opportunity came. 

(10:30):
Another example, Josh Hortaleza was on the podcast a few episodes ago. A young guy, I think he’s 22, in early twenties. He’s still doing his, I think, bachelor degree, but he’s in Canada and he has done so many internships. He’s done, I don’t know, three or four internships. Each one of them, he does three months, then he quits and he moves on to the next. Three months. He’s got a rule. He only does three-month internships. And he has done so many internships that I just actually met him again at DataScienceGO Virtual… So this is the second DataScienceGO Virtual we’ve been matched in the blitz speed networking rounds. So cool to chat again. He’s done so many internships that his friends had an intervention for him to stop doing internships. 

 (11:27):
Just think about that. His friends had made an intervention for him to stop doing internships. The reason is… I didn’t understand it as well at the beginning when he told me. The reason is that in Canada in his university, while he’s doing internships, he can’t continue studying. Internships are full-time work, so you can’t study and do internships. So he’s been postponing his graduation more and more and more. And his friends are like, “You got to graduate, man. It’s time to graduate.” So you can tell that he is preparing himself. When the right opportunity comes, when the opportunity comes, he’s going to make the most of it. 

(12:05):
Another example, Rico Meinl has been on the podcast as well, put in a ton of work into learning AI, teaching AI, being part of the AI community. Then opportunity came up to start an AI fashion business in Los Angeles. That ultimately failed, but he got the experience. He went there, he did it. And that’s a one-off, one-of-a-kind opportunity. And you can say, “Oh, he was lucky.” No, he wasn’t lucky. He prepared. He put in the work. So he worked hard. And he was curious, he was open to these opportunities. 

(12:46):
Another example, final one for today, Kate Strachnyi has been on the podcast before. When we talked, she told me she was shy at the start to share her story on LinkedIn or her learnings. But she was curious. She was like, “Let me try it out.” She conquered her fear. She acted on that curiosity, and then she put in the work. And then people liked it. She liked it. She liked sharing more. And then she puts in the work. She constantly replies to people on social media. She’s always there. She’s always helping. Result, she’s one of the top influencers, with over a hundred thousand followers. Success isn’t measured in followers, but she’s helping over a hundred thousand people, or a hundred thousand people are interested to hear what she’s saying. And so you could say she was lucky, but no, she was working really hard. 

(13:46):
And moreover, if you’re lucky and you’re not working hard or you’re not open to that, that will pass. That’ll be a more like a fleeting moment. So they’re just five examples, including of course my story, but take any podcast on this episode or any person you know or even yourself. You can find these situations. So those were two of the three guidelines. Be curious and act on that curiously and work hard. The third one, I’ll leave you with this, is work… We already had work on there. The third one is have fun. Above all, if you’re not having fun, you’re going to burn out. You’re not going to enjoy it. You’re going to give it up or you’re going to hate yourself. Or you’re just going to feel resentful to the amount of time you’re putting into it. 

(14:40):
Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, said that in his podcast with Joe Rogan… You can check it out. That one of my favorite podcasts ever. Joe Rogan, Naval Ravikant, I think there was only one appearance he made there. He said that when you’re playing 14 hours a day… I’m going to tone it down, because I think work-life balance is important. So if you’re playing for 8 to 10 hours a day, it’s really hard for others who are working 8 to 10 hours a day to compete with you. If you’re having fun and work doesn’t feel like work but feels like play, then you’re in a whole different race. Or not even a race. You’re in a whole different dimension to those who are curious and who are working hard for 8 to 10 hours a day, but they are working. They’re sweating. They’re gritting their teeth. They’re pushing through it. You want to be having fun, right? So above all, find something where your curiosity is fun. It might be a bit scary, but it’s fun, and working hard is fun as well. And do that. 

(15:57):
And on that note, I wish you best of luck of those things, being curious, working hard and having fun, and success in your career, however you define that. And I look forward to seeing you back here next time. Until then, happy analyzing.