3 secret mantras nobody knew to woo hiring data science managers

A Crisp and Effective CV

Many hiring data science project managers have reported that data scientists don’t know what companies are looking for and hence send a CV, which is not effective. While there are a lot of things to jot down in a data scientist’s CV, most of the data scientists end up writing a 4-5 page CV. That is a big no. Truth be told, nobody has time in today’s world to go through such an in-depth CV. So, the trick here is writing crisp CVs with necessary details.

You should focus more on highlighting your knowledge of data science in project management and your solutions for real-world use cases. Employers [hiring a data scientist] would want to know how capable you are of bringing up creative and innovative solutions. The majority of the data scientists mention their skills and the programming languages they know. However, when you write more about your product management in data science, it’s quite evident that you’re well-versed with necessary programming languages. So, it’s more like hitting two targets with one arrow.

If you are fresher, [you would want to highlight] your research projects and activities. Data science managers will definitely try to find how capable you are to carry out independent research. Your Ph.D. degree is evidence here or any individual project you have worked on.

Communication Skills

While this may seem like the most common skill across all job roles, to be honest, it is one of the crucial skills a data scientist should have. If we look at core elements of data science, it is about programming, maths and science, and business acumen. Here, business acumen implies knowing the business or the industry you wish to work for. Moreover, every [data science hiring employer] has a different agenda and objective for hiring data scientists. Some may want to drive data-driven decision making whereas some may wish to solve a business problem.

This implies you really need to know the bolts and nuts of the industry and company you wish to apply for. How well you communicate with your hiring data science manager is proof of your capabilities to work with different non-technical teams and help them understand objectives, problem statements, solutions, etc. You can likewise highlight while communicating how you involved stakeholders and/or collaborators and managed everything in order to deliver the projects you mentioned in the work experience section. This will be a plus point as it shows that you are effective enough in handling your team and decision-makers to get optimum results. It will also highlight your confidence and knowledge, which will definitely impress your hiring manager. A bonus here is – it will effectively prove that you are an awesome team player. Here, communication skills are not about how you talk but more about conveying important features about yourself that will impress your hiring data science manager.

Right Product Knowledge and the Ability to Learn

If you are applying for a data science job you must know that the hiring manager will throw some use-cases to test your product knowledge and problem-solving skills. Well, of course, a hiring manager would do that because one would want to test and see if the projects and your work experience is written in the CV are true or bluffed. Hence, you need to do thorough research on prospective company’s products, services, and solutions, try to understand from the job description what they are looking for, and frame your answers accordingly.

Be prepared that the use cases might be related to the company’s products or the problems they wish to solve by hiring a data scientist. If you wish to get everything right, make sure you brush up on your necessary programming, statistical knowledge for the interview. One should be prepared for anything that the prospective employer can ask. It also shows how effective you are at handling complex situations. And don’t worry, if you don’t have an answer to some questions during the interview. You can always say that this is new to you but you are eager to learn about it. A new job will have a new set of responsibilities and job requirements. So, your ability to learn new things is an attractive selling point to hiring data science managers. This is important for freshers out there!