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What They Don’t Tell You About Working in Data

Many people became Data Scientists because they wanted to have fun training models and modeling the world with data.

The sad truth is:

  1. “Data Scientist” as a role barely exists anymore. (See more on this in the post I published last year.)

  2. Working in the data domain is like being Cinderella before you get to enjoy the party (i.e. playing with the model), there’s a ton of housekeeping to do. And it’s not just EDA or data cleaning —it’s sorting out permissions and access, understanding the use case, clarifying the problem you're solving… It might not sound like much, but depending on the size of your organization, this can take weeks or even months. It’s exhausting and often deeply frustrating.

  3. Being a Lead in Data is even tougher, especially for first-line managers You rarely get to go to the party anymore (i.e. touch the modeling part). Instead, you're constantly busy with the behind-the-scenes work: trying to get the house in order, so that the next project your team tackles doesn’t require quite as much prep.


So why are so many people still dreaming of working in data?

 
 
 

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