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!

A quick update: I've spent the last week on Coursera, learning SQL, Tableau and PowerBI. I've rewritten my CV to make it look more like I had a career, rather than a series of unfortunate jobs. I'm applying for jobs that come up when I search 'analyst' rather than 'data analyst', so that includes more consultancy roles and some where they're advertising for econometricians, and I'm looking at entry level positions and not bothering with ones that ask for 2+ years of experience. It will mean quite a pay cut, but better than unemployment. Something seems to have worked, because out of the 10 applications sent this week, I've had 2 interview invites, but still 4 immediate rejections. The rejections have switched from 'not enough experience' to 'interesting experience, but you're foreign', which could possibly be considered an improvement...

Darn if you were in the US we would interview you. I work for a data analytics company and we always pick up good people by considering people with non traditional backgrounds. Definitely try and get properly good at SQL, our analyst interviews are very SQL heavy and I think this is quite standard. If you want a mock interview or me to look over resume PM me.

@ShinyNewStart

A quick update: I've spent the last week on Coursera, learning SQL, Tableau and PowerBI. I've rewritten my CV to make it look more like I had a career, rather than a series of unfortunate jobs. I'm applying for jobs that come up when I search 'analyst' rather than 'data analyst', so that includes more consultancy roles and some where they're advertising for econometricians, and I'm looking at entry level positions and not bothering with ones that ask for 2+ years of experience. It will mean quite a pay cut, but better than unemployment. Something seems to have worked, because out of the 10 applications sent this week, I've had 2 interview invites, but still 4 immediate rejections. The rejections have switched from 'not enough experience' to 'interesting experience, but you're foreign', which could possibly be considered an improvement...

OP well done! Do you need a tier 4 visa however? That’s what I’m on and it severely limits the range of companies you can apply to. There’s a list you can look up online however.

Thé Big4 accounting firms’ consultancy arms are always looking for staff in things like ‘tech consulting’ and sponsor visas. Worth setting up alerts and biding your time

Also to add I understand the visa frustration if that’s the issue. I’ve been headhunted for a few firms that I want to work for but sadly - a no go because of the visa….

That's really positive OP!
As an alternative, I work in HE and we're big on data analysis, so is there a chance to either get some sql/tableau experience at your current uni, or look for jobs in HE where your background and understanding of what's important to the sector and what the user wants would make you stand out?

@ShinyNewStart We recruit consultants - we fail people most frequently on their soft skills. They don't prioritise the team, collaboration - they seem excessively keen to demonstrate that they managed a team or a project without understanding that by focusing on this, they have neglected to demonstrate their team skills, personal leaderships - how you organise yourself (competing deadlines) and your career, self awareness (where you are genuinely weak and how you are working on fixing it, open minded flexibility, relationship building within teams, within the whole company and outside the company - value in the diversity of those relationships and what you learn from them.

That's us anyway - hope it helps!

Build a project library showing your skills.

Thanks @Lizzy12, I'll take a look. It's a bit of a pain with taxes working cross-border though.

It's not a visa issue, I'm OK there. It's that I learnt the local language as an adult so naturally I'm not completely flawless and often write things a weird way even if it's not technically incorrect. Jobs where they want lots of reports writing in beautiful language therefore aren't open to me. I can do 'We did A B C, results are X Y Z, please pay invoice before ...' just fine, but flowery government policy language is beyond me . I'm sure it would be the same for a non-native speaker in the UK or US.

If you are still reading @ShinyNewStart how did you get on?

I found a job as an IT management consultant, which I honestly sucked at! I didn't believe in what we were selling so did a terrible job of it, and my boss was an arsehole to boot. Thankfully an amazing role came up in a research consultancy which has a perfect combination of commercial and technical which lines up with my scientific background. The management consultancy failure at least taught me a lot about running a business and myself, all of which is useful in my current job!

That's amazing, glad to hear about your success and perseverance 🙂