Ask HN: BI/ML transferable to other industries

1 points by anarchimedes 8 years ago | 2 comments

I wanted to get other BI/ML folks input on how transferable their abilities and knowledge is to other industries. It seems that a lot of the insights into the data and impact come through understanding the business and it would be interesting to hear if that has presented a significant roadblock to getting hired and/or being effective in a new industry.

I am pushing 7+ years in a BI/ML role with my current company and I want to make sure I am not locking myself out of getting employed elsewhere.

mlthoughts2018 8 years ago |

Companies usually only pay lip service to the value of "insights" or the use of forecasting or rigorous modeling for business intelligence. They will require much fancier-sounding experience to appear on your resume than they will ever allow you to focus on for real work projects once hired. The value of "insights" is an ever-shifting political problem.

In that sense, whatever job skills you develop to be good at the political metagame being played between managers who supposedly wield data science or business intelligence will be transferable and help you survive in corporate culture.

But any authentic skill you have in statistics or modeling won't be valued except for the brief period when you need to use it to satisfy arbitrary and capricious credential signalling requirements during the interview process.

anarchimedes 8 years ago | |

Thank you for the feedback.