Views on Goldsmiths online data science Msc

[Nojobforoldmums]

Hi,

I have seen lots of wisdom on here about datascience so hoped to pick some brains.

I am being made redundant following on from maternity leave, and am considering a career break with part time study for a year or so until my youngest is that little bit older and nursery less stressful. I would put him in nursery 2/3 days a week to enable study, but hopefully pick ups and drop offs won't be so time critical.

I am/was a very well paid professional in a field where datascience and business analytics are of increasing relevance. I have a maths/programming background and completed some datascience MOOCS while on maternity leave.

I am attracted to the goldsmiths course due to its modular nature and lack of lead time needed in signing up. I could for example stop at a pgcert or maybe continue with later modules to a full masters when I am back in work.

Does anyone have an opinion on whether this course is any good? Any alternate recommendations, and whether formal study is looked upon more favourably than MOOCs? Also is my career break idea sane, would a gap make it too difficult to get back into very well paid employment?

Thanks in advance

Bumping for you OP.

Thanks Norugratsatall. Having discussed at work I was told a short executive course from imperial would do more for my cv than a masters from goldsmiths. Not sure if that is true, or an isolated opinion. Pretty harsh for the future of less well ranking universities if true.

Think there is an element of truth to it. Data Science and AI are buzz word now a days, so everybody and their dog is trying to get into this field (sorry I don’t mean to say it in a harsh way).

So just getting a degree in the field isnt going to add too much value compared to other competitors. If you already ve a degree, what will help is some kind of postgraduate qualification (postgrad Certificate, diploma etc) from a better known place. So that you get some brownie points for name recognition.

Try looking into online Micromasters in Statistics & Data Science from MIT in the USA. Its shorter, more affordable and will probably serve you better.

I believe academic learning aside, the real and actual learning can only be achieved in a workplace.

All the best

What domain area and level are you looking at (you don’t have to say if it’s outing)? I’d start by looking at job adverts - because then you can see what companies look for. I transitioned from health background to database/analytics team without formal training - there was a program for career switchers. They asked about a joint hobby project I did (I did it with my husband who works in software). They did a coding test - sorting strings (I used hacker rank to prepare).

Are you looking at a technical job - programming? I think there are quite a few data analyst jobs out there - do you know python - you can do some projects with pandas? Or R? You could also do some software jobs if you have a programming background.

Or are you looking for higher managerial level - like product owner?

There is also scrum master - and a technical background previously may help (though I would do this training while in-job as companies would probably pay for the course).

If you want to do a more data visualization or business intelligence type job, then maybe power bi/tableau and excel skills are useful?

Look at schemes for career returners in tech? I haven’t done them, but it might be an option

Thanks for the input. In the end I got a small extension on my redundancy, so am not looking for an immediate change. Had I been made redundant immediately on my return, I had decided to do the MIT course listed above.

I came to the conclusion a number of data science courses offered were not that different to MOOCs in teaching style, support or content and if I want to do further academic study in that area it would be better, for me, to do a more statistics focused course.

I am still considering a career switch in a couple of years, and maybe taking 2 years out to do a masters once the youngest has started school and I don't have childcare costs. This would be because it interests me, and I want a change rather than a prudent career move. In the mean time I am going to try to make sideways job moves more into that area.

@Namenic my domain is financial regulatory compliance. If I stayed in the field I'd be looking at compliance monitoring, maybe fraud detection that kind of thing. The jobs I see require a PhD, but I think I'd have a unique set of relevant experience which could open doors for me.

It sounds like the jobs that might require a PHD are v technical jobs applying data science/ML methods to fraud detection/compliance monitoring?

As you said - as an intermediate step - you could cast your net a bit wider? - and join a data science/analytics/business intelligence team that applies Data science and ML methods on business metrics (eg to forecast revenue or prepare quarterly business reports). I’m pretty sure these don’t require a full masters or phd (I don’t think people at my company have these) - and it might not be where you want to end up, but might be a foot in the door? I’m sure fintech companies would appreciate your domain knowledge and tech background.

Data Analytics & visualisation are not related to Data Science but not the same thing. In the job market, there are a lot of people who are willing to do these tableau type visualisations for not too much money.

DS is more abt apply mathematical/Statistical models on a random pool of data to identify patterns. There a lots of tools out there (alteryx, dataiku, databricks etc) that make it easy to apply these models but for doing that you first need to know what & how…

Hence some theoretical knowledge on the basics of DS concepts is important to ve. I think you made a good choice with the MIT course, i too am thinking of joining it from January.

All the best to you.

Sure - they may not be the same, but I’ve seen people move between jobs in an organisation and also get training while on the job. So I’ve seen people move into forecasting (using ML methods) from web; and people who do the visualization/report writing also go on an ML course with other data science team. People who move from report creation to data engineering. Part of ML depends on cleaning/processing data, so personally I would apply for related jobs while doing courses/personal projects - as hopefully you can get more exposure to opportunities.

Sorry there was a typo in my last msg, i meant to say that they ARE related but not the same.

Agree with the rest of what you said and i ve also heard my DS colleagues saying that data cleansing and harmonization is the biggest part of any DS project.

Thanks.

I was thinking of looking for business analyst roles on data related projects as an interim step.

Studying on the side while working, and focusing on knowledge, skills gained while building a portfolio of work does seem like the logical approach. Some of the MOOCs available look better than some of the masters courses . Just hard with (non sleeping) kids and some how less satisfying then getting a traditional qualification.

Hello. Realise that this thread is rather old now but I'm taking the Goldsmiths masters at the moment. Happy to try and answer any questions if you're still considering it.

My shit advice is to go for it. Unless they make you use R stats instead of SPSS.

😄

That made me smile - or, rather, wince in sympathy, having been treated to DS1 going on about R for the whole year of his MSc recently🙄

In the end I signed up for a different online data science masters starting in September. I'd still be interested in views on the goldsmiths course as potentially I'd look at studying some individual models in the future where they are job relevant and not covered by the course I'm doing. Though to justify the cost, they would need content/cv value to exceed a MOOC.

My course does have a stats modules in R....

We're moving this thread to our Mature Study and Retraining topic at the OP's request. Thanks to everyone who's responded so far.

Sorry to jump on this thread but I’m considering the Golsmiths Data Science MSc and would love to hear your feedback @BrizzleWest

I’m struggling to find any recent reviews.

Thanks!

Hello,

Also expressing an interest to @BrizzleWest . I will likely be finishing up a job - in financial compliance - in a few months and was also considering re-skilling in data science. I did do some programming 20 years ago(!) though I cannot remember any of it. But I'm hopefull it would come back.

I'm excited in particular that the OP is another mum from financial compliance who sees a similar potential in career opportunity through a data science route.

Glad to have found a thread around this.

Personally I’d try a mooc first as they are a lot cheaper. I’d then try and get an entry level business or data analyst job and do additional learning on the job (but it’s mainly to economise as I’d struggle with costs for full time masters)

I also see more job ads mentioning R than spss… so worth having a look at jobs boards

Hello. Sorry for slow response. I've now (almost) completed 3 of 10 modules of the MSc. I have slightly mixed feelings about the course to be honest. I'm enjoying it and learning lots but there are some issues with the organisational/admin side of things. The great thing about the course (for me, anyway) is that you can study it at your own pace (each module lasts for 5 months and you sign up for as many as you choose, so long as you finish within 5 years of starting) and in your own time (as opposed to committing to be in a University on specific days). The cons are that the tutors can be slow to respond at times and there can be organisational issues at times. I've looked at quite a few different Data Science MSc and they do seem to vary quite a bit in terms of what they cover, what the entry requirements are and which departments run them (computer science, engineering, maths). I guess this is perhaps because it is a relatively new area but I do sometimes worry about whether I'm doing the 'right' one.

Re: programming languages, our courses all use Python apart from the 'Introduction to R' module. If anyone is seriously considering the Goldsmiths MSc, I strongly recommend learning Python before you start. They will tell you that it is not a prerequisite but those who had never used Python before really struggled.

Doing some short courses such as MOOCs would be a really good way to get a taster of things. I've done a few courses with Udemy (they often have sales on and you can purchase a course for around £10-15) and found those really interesting/helpful. For learning Python there are lots of free videos on youtube (Corey Schafer's videos are really good).

P.S. The other thing that I like about the Goldsmiths course is that you pay as you go i.e. you pay for each individual module when you sign up for it rather than putting up the money for the entire MSc at once. You can also stop at 4 or 8 modules and claim a certificate or diploma rather than finish the entire MSc (I'm thinking that I might actually stop at 8 modules and just do the diploma).

@Namenic If it's not too personal a question, can I ask which programme you joined? I work in health research and would really like to stay in the same area but doing more big data analysis/applying data science techniques. From having an occasional look at the job market, I get the impression that there are lots of data science jobs out there but all want prior experience. There seem to be very few positions for new people entering the field.

@BrizzleWest - I didn’t do a course. DH is in software so I did some hobby coding with him. I was in healthcare but found it v stressful, so I kept looking on jobs boards for an alternative. A surprise job opportunity came up where they were willing to take on people without a traditional software background - so I career switched - so a lucky break really (I saw lots of jobs which said 1-2years experience… but how to get it?!).

I work in databases now, but would like to move towards something with both healthcare and tech/software (I’m doing some udemy courses and reading - cloud/web stuff). There are quite a few med-tech companies around - and many requesting python (so it’s good that your course involves that). Hacker-rank is a good site to practice coding challenges (in case you get a coding test at interview). Maybe having a GitHub repo to display your personal projects might help? For the ML stuff I think there are some kaggle challenges that you could do (though haven’t tried any myself).