Career advice - NLP, software eng & data science

[UniversalMamma]

Hi MNers, posting for traffic here 👋 Thank you in advance for any insight anyone might be able to share!

I have the opportunity to take a (funded) 16-week skills bootcamp in either data analytics or web development / software engineering, with an entry-level qualification at the end.

I’m currently a translator with a degree in linguistics and knowledge of SEO and marketing principles. I’ve been interested in doing a masters in NLP / Computational Linguistics for ages, and am also now interested more generally in potentially pivoting into a different career. (Various reasons including the increasing sophistication of generative AI and disillusionment with freelancing more generally - I’m interested in working on a team and doing something that feels more meaningful).

I am wondering at this point which bootcamp course would be the most useful foundation, with a view to moving towards NLP / AI. (Be it research or entry-level roles in industry). Data feels the more obvious, however I’m also weighing up that the elements to do with programming might benefit more from mentorship/guidance as a relative beginner.

Beyond that, I’m also interested in what broader application the respective skills mentioned might have. Again, data analytics skills I imagine will be useful in any imaginable role, software dev/engineering I understand to be more specialised skills, however I’m wondering if there might be less obvious options or niches I’m not aware of where a combination of these skills (mine and the bootcamp skills) might be useful. One thing that struck me having a browse of Junior SD/SE roles, is that I didn’t recognise many of the requirements. So am wondering if there are any areas where the skills I already have might intersect (and the combination of skills is in demand).

There might be other things that I haven’t considered here. This seems to be a great opportunity to gain useful skills and I’m keen to make the most of it. Any thoughts much appreciated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

"Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development and psychotherapy...

There is no scientific evidence supporting the claims made by NLP advocates, and it has been called a pseudoscience. Scientific reviews have shown that NLP is based on outdated metaphors of the brain's inner workings that are inconsistent with current neurological theory, and contain numerous factual errors. Reviews also found that research that favored NLP contained significant methodological flaws, and that there were three times as many studies of a much higher quality that failed to reproduce the "extraordinary claims" made by Bandler, Grinder, and other NLP practitioners."

I was interested in the 80's - it's long since lost any credibility.

I believe OP is talking about NLP natural language processing which is a very legitimate subset of AI with many industry uses. Nothing to do with physiotherapy.

Psychotherapy not physiotherapy! .

Great opportunity.

Are there any pre-requisites for the boot camp listed? Could you talk to the bootcamp provider about your background?

Have a look at the Masters courses that you’re interested in doing and reach out to the course director there to see if they could advise on what could be good preparation for the syllabus that they cover.

I’d also be looking at strengthening your coding skills before your masters. Python skills and Intro to ML (the Machine learning/ AI courses by Andrew Ng on coursera for example) are very accessible. Most people that I’ve recruited in this area are definitely supplementing formal taught courses with additional online learning in some areas.

I did a data analytics skills bootcamp. It was heavily biased towards learning MS Azure and most of that was learning huge amounts of very dull stuff about the vocabulary of Azure and cloud computing. I hated it, I loved the advanced Excel part, but the Azure was appallingly badly taught (think 8 hours of someone reading slides to you at a rapid rate and no opportunities to apply what you'd learned in the way the exams ask you to apply your knowledge) I withdrew and did not complete the course. This was with Firebrand.

That is extremely useful, thank you!!! I just emailed them yesterday!

I wondered about the heavy focus on Azure in their courses.

Sorry I think you’re mixed up, I’m talking about Natural Language Processing

Yes spot on :)

Are these firebrand ones? Mine was SO weird! And pointless. And very unprofessional X

Exactly my experience too!

Weirdly, they replied this morning and told me they won’t tell me the course dates until I complete the full application including a video of myself etc. WTF? 😆 What a waste of time if it turns out the dates aren’t even convenient.

I’ve noticed with these government funded courses you get a real mixed bag of providers and I’m sure a lot of these companies just pop up to get the funding. The tender process obviously isn’t very thorough as I’ve come across a lot of hokey providers. Hyperion Dev was the first one I came across and they kept putting the start date back by a month at a time because “they kept getting new applications” (I was signed up on a second email and couid see they were still urging people to apply - doesn’t even make sense). And read some shocking stuff about them on trust pilot and Reddit!

The one I’m leaning towards at the moment is Skills city, which seem to do a comprehensive course and focus on building a portfolio and working on a live client project. Is a minefield trying to find someone decent tho!

Skills City is part of In4 in Manchester, so if anyone happens to have used these and has any insight that would be really useful! They have positive trust pilot reviews for recruitment services, but there are not many and they are all very similar and extremely positive… but at least there are no negative reviews (unlike a lot of the others I’ve seen!)

Oh my days. Well Firebrand made me watch an introductory presentation and it was full of dodgy spelling mistakes. It had serious Del Boy vibes. Almost scam like. I wish the Government would only "approve" providers with good content.

I haven't looked at Skills City but am keen. Desperate for a careers change into data analytics (not SEO! Proper stuff)

Personally I would always err towards software engineering. A good basis of software engineering allows you to branch out into other areas of tech which I would describe as specialisms, such as AI/NLP.

Most of these areas of tech rely on fundamental software engineering skills even if you don't end up using the exact tech stack which you originally trained in.

I can't speak to the specifics of the courses you've suggested though.

The only caveat I'd given it that there's often a big difference between a web developer and a web engineer/software engineer. If they're teaching how to be a web developer (literally just making websites) then I'd pick Data analytics and supplement with learning software engineering principles and a programming language separately as required. But if they're teaching software engineering/web engineering then I'd pick that.

I say this as a software engineering manager who originally was an entirely self taught web developer who then did a lot of additional learning to build the missing software engineering skills and eventually move to describe myself as a web engineer/software engineer. I've been in industry for 12 years now but have had very little to do with other disciplines like mobile, data or AI. I work somewhere large where we have departments / teams that focus on those areas and allows us to remain in our specialisms. So I work work a lot of services engineers and data engineers (different to analysts). I've also done a fair amount of infrastructure engineering and architecture as that's one of the big things that separates web developers from web engineers.

Incredibly useful! Thank you so much for the insight!

Seems similar to the days of the covid testing testing companies called things like ‘covid test 4u’ that popped up during the pandemic. One never even bothered sending a test and had dodgy terms including that they weren’t responsible for either the 3rd party testing or shipping and didn’t issue refunds. I got a chargeback from my bank.

Lots of these are much the same by the looks of it, and I suppose the learners who do the course for free are likely to be less vociferous in complaining (and who to?)

So, so glad I’ve swerved firebrand, thank you! It’s the wasted time and opportunity to take the course elsewhere. It’s 20+ hours a week! (And do they fine if you don’t complete as they miss out on the full funding?)

Note to self - don't write replies at 2am.

I think the neuro linguistic programming acronym is more widely recognised, so when I say NLP I normally mention which one I mean as a lot of people assume I mean the other! (Which is embarrassing for me 😆)

It looks like you rejected the same 2 companies I did. I'll have a look at Skills City.
Good luck, I hope you'll find a right course/bootcamp.