What am I doing wrong: Tech/data applications

[ShinyNewStart]

Wise women of MN, I turn to you for careers advice. I'm trying to change careers but I'm not even getting interviews. I'm hoping you'll be able to point out somewhere obvious that I'm going wrong. Do I need to suck it up and do some internships or training, or is there a job title search I've missed?

The job I want: something data driven and analytical, but not pure code engineering. I want to contribute to developing larger scale concepts and solutions, rather than just coding. I'd consider almost any field. I'm good at data visualisation, hacking together complete programs quickly, public speaking and coming up with concepts to solve problems. I've tried searching for data analyst, researcher, machine learning and data scientist on LinkedIn.

My background (a nightmare): I'm leaving academia after 10 years. I was working with machine learning and statistics in the physical sciences, but I don't have a degree in maths or computing. I'm really smart (I know, I know) and would be able to learn any new coding language or process within a month, but because I generally work on scientific stuff, I don't have clients, don't use cloud based systems (although I understand the theory) and don't have experience with all the latest gizmos, but know I could learn it. I do have a really solid understanding of the statistics and algorithms underlying data science and I'd be able to find a way to solve almost any problem.

I'm getting rejected from graduate jobs for being too old and experienced, but rejected from more advanced jobs for not having 3-5 years of technical corporate experience. I don't really want to spend 5k getting a diploma for machine learning or business intelligence because I can already do everything offered on the courses, but I can't prove it.

Any advice or experience would be massively appreciated!

Do you have any experience with PowerBI, Tableau, Python or R?

I've got experience in Python and Matlab, therefore I'm confident that I would pick up R and PowerBI very fast, but I can't prove it

I'm missing SQL and AWS which seem to come up for almost every job. I can follow a course, but without a dataset, it's really hard to actually get useful experience.

A business analyst role might suit you?
Have you tried civil service jobs? There’s a lot of need for data analysis skills combined with a knack for policy/communication, so this could be a good fit for you.
www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi

SQL, excel, Stata, SPSS?

What band NHS (or school, insurance company, county council Sport England, university) data analyst or business intelligence jobs have you applied for already?

where have you job hunted besides LinkedIn?

I'm pretty sure you can have a play with PowerBI in Azure either free or cheaply so you could do some basic learning to get it on your CV.

There are decent free courses in SQL, using toy datasets. Enough to get the ideas. I got a job doing BI with NHS with very rudimentary SQL experience (ie, free courses & another RDMS).

You aren't sending academic cvs, are you? They won't give a shiny about your publication list.

R must be similar learning courses although I Fing hate R

AWS offer a pretty extensive list of courses, a lot of them free. I believe you can also get a basic AWS cloud instance for free, so you could have something to play around with.

I'm not actually in the UK, which adds a whole other layer of complexity. I speak the local language but the civil service isn't open to me because I don't have nationality. I'm trying to convince myself that being an immigrant and woman of childbearing age aren't a factor because otherwise I'll have to give up in despair!

Thanks for the tip about BI in Azure! I didn't know that.

Have a look at jobs in GORS - civil service. I'd brush up on SQL a bit though. Also any knowlwdge of text mining.

@MedSchoolRat don't worry, I have a nice single page CV My relative lack of publications is one reason for quitting academia. The long list of short postdoc contracts is maybe working against me too. I've changed country and employer every year for 5 years, so I look like a disaster employee

Are you getting interviews? I suspect you are getting sifted out at the HR CV filter stage by not ticking the boxes. Invest in some SQL and Cloud experience.

Data science is a hot skill. Being female is probably an advantage due to diversity drives, particularly in public funded employers like the civil service, BBC, councils. Quangos etc and large corporates. Those employers will also have a large CV shifting hurdle though.

What country are you in if I may ask? Local rules and attitudes in the job market (eg openness to people with a non-corporate background) may be different.
Also it might still be worth looking in the UK as digital roles especially are now often open to wfh arrangements.

I bet the problem is your CV. Get some advice from the many resources on Linkedin. Or join a professional body like the BCS and ask them for help.

The way CVs are written can also vary hugely by country (as you probably know if you’ve lived abroad a lot). It can be confusing when a lot of online advice is US/UK centric and not necessarily tailored to the country where you’re applying…

Thanks everyone!

I'm in the Netherlands. I've been through a lot of careers advice pages and am fairly sure my CV is ok in format. I don't have many corporate contacts here though. They're traditionally keen on people being 'gediplomeerd' for absolutely everything, but there's also a strong start-up culture. I think not having the buzz words on my CV is certainly a problem. Brexit might also be an issue for consultancies because I'm not certain that I'd be allowed to work for a client at their office in Germany or France.

I've registered for a Coursera SQL course. I didn't realise that it was so cheap. Everything I'd looked at before was the Dutch NVQ equivalent, which was really expensive for stuff I was certain I already knew. Are there any other providers that are particularly well thought of?

What about GCHQ/MI5/MI6?

Sounds like you have an ideal background. Though I seem to remember you start off at a pretty low salary, and there weren't fanatastic progression oppurtunities.

Oh, just seen your update, ignore my post then! But maybe similar institutions in the Netherlands if you're a citizen?

I'd love to work for GCHQ or MI5 Those jobs you have to have been in the country for a set number of years before applying and hold the relevant citizenship, so I'm out in both the UK and the Netherlands. Plus I couldn't keep a secret even if they're paying me...

If you are currently in the Netherlands look for companies based there or in Germany rather than the UK.

When I have read CVs from people with a strongly academic background I didn't get a sense of their story so far - all a bit stilted - wrong decisions made and ignored and they apply to us ignoring that they had no commercial industry experience that we have asked for - instead they have 10 years in academia - which is of little use and little awareness of what they were lacking in as a consequence of their background.

I think you'll have a spiky profile - will be really good at some stuff but very inexperienced in others - if you have an ego and sensitivity about your smartness and lack of commercial experience that could be especially tricky to fix - consequently you're a bit of a risk - if you can get on a grad training programme they can help you identify and fill in the blanks with a good coach/mentor - I'd try to find one of these outside work - a friend who works in industry might be good. Alternatively an intern programme is not a bad idea - if you feel positively about learning and growing - lots are paid - we use them as a low risk means of assessing a potential grad for future roles.
I'd be honest in your covering letter about why you want to make a shift in career and what you're prepared to do to get there - we need the story to believe you and understand your motivations ignoring the elephant in the room will do you no favours, I've read too many CVs from candidates with 5 Masters, a PhD and 6 fluent languages and no coherent story - I have no doubt they can pass a degree or two but I have no idea what makes them tick, why they needed so many, what made they feel that was enough and why they decided to apply to us - they never, ever answered the exam question posed by the job description - they answered their own question - and who knew what that was?

I'm intrigued hairyMH --can you find / link to an example of a cv that 'tells a story' in the way you mean?

@lljkk What I mean is that everything you have done in your life has led up to this point - it all makes sense how they arrived at your door looking for a job in your company.
It's tailoring your CV properly - instead of your CV looking like a random list of jobs, it reads like you have purpose and you've made great decisions - you weave a common thread through everything you've done to reflect the job you are applying for. If feels like destiny, almost like you read it and say of course you applied to us we were meant to be together! I don't have examples - because they very closely match the job description - the two documents reflect each other closely - I have helped several people write professional CVs like this (a favour, it's hard work and I don't enjoy it - other than the please of helping a close friend get an interview) and it works and now I do the cv sifting for our company I feel the same way when I see one - it's all fallen into place - I understand where these people want to go because it all makes sense.
A well written authentic story will cause us to sit up - change our red lines in recruiting - it'll get you to the interview. (But don't make it a list of excuses and sad stories about how hard your life is - that's not the story that will erase those red lines)

I work in this area, I’m a non-technical techie and have an arts degree- I don’t code exactly but I work with a lot of data.

For these type of roles, CV-wise people are usually more interested in your skill set than your career history. So put that at the forefront of your CV, eg have a dedicated skills section. On mine this is above my Education and Career History.
Online courses you can do are valued, from places like Coursera/Udemy, also Microsoft courses etc. The prestige of them doesn’t matter so much, more showing your aptitude to learn- in these kind of roles technology products change, so maybe they will decide to use tableau but that switch to powerbi after a few years and you need to be able to adapt. I took a few Python and data science courses and they are always the most discussed points at interviews, beyond my more prestigious university degree/big name workplaces.
Business analyst, reporting analyst type roles would be a good way in. Financial services have a lot of jobs which need those skills even in a more generic/business type role.

A good way in is to have tip top excel skills and then grow from there. Excel maybe sounds basic, but it’s still the backbone of a lot of work and you can do a lot with it.

Maybe a cover letter or a section at the top of your cv explaining your career motivation? , eg after a successful career doing XYZ, I am moving into analytics due to my interest in XYZ and previous experience doing XYZ.

I'd have a look at technical business analysis as well