Graduating in mid 40's

[johnnymarrisback]

I wonder if I could get some advice. I am new here so apologies if this is the wrong area.

I will soon complete a Masters in Information Science from a university in Europe. I am looking for work in London and would appreciate any feedback from MN on work in this field. The course has covered a comprehensive range of areas including UX, XML Javascript, HTML5, Interactive Design, Research Methodology, R, Rstudio and for my thesis I looked at Information Theory, ML (python) and visualization of large datasets. So, I feel I have a good grounding in where we are in terms of semantic web, datasets, etc. My supervisors were mathematicians and there has been a heavy focus on quantitative and qualitative issues with data.

Now I am looking for work and I do not know how or what to present myself as. I worked as a teacher (my first career) and for the last year have undertaken lots of voluntary roles (creating websites, researching for web, etc). I am interested in data scientist roles but am not sure I would be taken seriously as 1) my degree is in English 2) most of my digital/ tech work is around websites. I have good analytical skills and this is a recognised Masters from a good institute.

I am hoping that there are some MNetters who can see me through the lens of a potential employer. Perhaps my age would go against me in this field? I cannot shake off this idea that they are all looking for 21 yr olds.

Job websites seem to have vacancies for data scientist roles. Do you have any contacts in the business ? Are you on LinkedIn ? Most big companies and councils, government all use data.

You present yourself as a data science graduate? Out of your list, semantic web is dead and only used in research, if it’s OWL and RDF you are talking about, so leave that out of your CV. Unless ofc you apply for a job that specifically ask for it.

@Xtrah0urzz yes, I have seen lots advertised on job boards. Am building up contacts through volunteering with an organisation that is relevant and am registered on Linkedin where I am developing a profile. Also a twitter acct that I have had for the duration of the course. Going to conferences and workshops too.

Thanks for replying and your suggestions.

@AutoFilled So, you think I could go for data scientist positions?

@johnnymarrisback definitely. There is a shortage in the area, and it's the best time to enter the industry. It sounds like you learned R and Python and some statistics, machine learning and data visualisation in the course? Companies are more likely to take a chance on less traditional experienced staff because of shortages. Apply for some but at the junior, starter level. If you are good, you'll be able to build up your CV. Good luck.

I'm a software dev, and DH is a data scientist. I have a AI and semantic web PhD. I know the kind of thing DH can do and it's a lot of Python, visualisation, statistics and machine learning methods.

Yes, covered Statistics, R, python, Ml - these were quite general courses in terms of what we were expected to know. I had a lot of catching up to
do, maths wise and did extra study to really get to grips with them. Also relational databases. Lots on visualization as it was my thesis topic. Data collection, cleaning, etc.

Thanks, @AutoFilled. Your feedback and encouragement is appreciated. I am a bit alone in this as the rest of my course have gone in a different direction and are also scattered across Europe.