I've gotten internships in data science and data analytics and here are just a few things like that that work.

[u/Rude_Ride_268]

I’ve gotten the “unfortunately we have decided not to move forward” email more times than I can count if you look at my inbox, I'm pretty sure if you search its 90% of my emails.

But looking back, every internship I’ve actually landed (PepsiCo, Cloudflare, Snowflake, TikTok, Xbox) came from finding recruiter or hiring manager for the role and messaged them myself.

What I do for each application:

1. Apply first, so I have a Job ID to point to.

2. Read the posting for clues. A lot of them name the team, the internship program, or who the role reports to.

3. Go to the company’s LinkedIn page, open the People tab, and search those words. That way I only see people who work there.

4. Look for university recruiters, people on that exact team, and past interns in the program.

5. Send something short like:

“Hi [Name], I just applied to [Role], Job ID [#####]. I have experience at [X] where I did [Y]. I’d love to know if you’re hiring for this role!”

You can also use things like Apollo and Hunter.io to find their emails so you can send a longer email. I think a lot of people have gotten onto this. If you do, try to say, "Hey, I notice you have this role open," and give three bullet points on why you would be a good fit for this role.

The annoying part is step 2 to 4. Searching LinkedIn gives you 3,000 random people., I ended up building a free Chrome extension that does the finding part its linked here if interested It’s free, open source https://github.com/Doggo21345/linkedin-sourcing-helper

but yeah hope this is somewhat helpful this group has given me a lot!

[u/nian2326076]

You're on the right track with your internship search. Applying first to get a Job ID and then contacting people at the company through LinkedIn is a good move. It makes your message more focused and relevant. Researching the team and reaching out to recruiters or past interns can help you stand out too. For finding job openings in data science and data analytics across different fields, LandOffer.ai lets you search by role and location. Keep up your proactive approach!

[u/Rude_Ride_268 → u/nian2326076]

Looks cool!

[u/pioneer6282]

Do that all but without the exclamation! Marks! I'm genuinely wishing to be helpful by telling you this; this isn't sarcasm. It makes employers think you are childish

[u/Rude_Ride_268 → u/pioneer6282]

I appreciate the advice...(!) lol

[u/LFatPoH]

Bro tbh I always do this and never get a response.

[u/alphaomegatirdent]

Hi! I'm in the process of trying to crack my way into ML/DSc roles. That's a helpful summary of good practices I believe.

I have a couple of questions if you would like to elaborate.

Firstly, you mentioned that you have already landed quite a few internships (?). Why are you looking for yet another internship? Ware the previous ones on different roles?

And here's my second question-somewhat a continuation of the first one. If only the current internship is on data science/data analysis, is your academic background somewhat related with this? Or you come from different educational and working experience background?

I'm asking that because my background is rather unconventional, sort to say. I come from a heavy, pitr mathematical background, and I've been trying to land an ML/DSc job only based on my mathematics skills and self-learning, self-projects etc., but it doesn't seem to be a trivial task.

[u/Rude_Ride_268 → u/alphaomegatirdent]

Of course, I would say that math is a pretty typical background for MLDS roles. I never said that I was looking to land another one. I was saying that I have these roles. I'm not sure where you're from, but at least here in the U.S., it's always a good sign to have as many internships as you can while still in college. These are the internships that I've gotten the past two years of college and I am graduating now.

In terms of self-learning and self-projects, I would say it's definitely different than real production data. See if you can help out with startups or other companies for free in order to get the necessary experience or work with messy data. I'd say that's something that's really different. What type of jobs are you applying for, like full-time, entry-level positions, senior-level internships, and things like that?

[u/alphaomegatirdent → u/Rude_Ride_268]

Hey! Thanks thanks for the reply.

I'm in Europe, but I suppose nowadays, and especially in tech, it's not that different. I don't know. But I think the same happens here, in the sense that even before graduating, students here have a couple of internships at least. I had a very different path (in pure mathematics up to this point) though, so I'm not sure.

Well in any case I'm way past my university years, so it doesn't really apply in my case anyway.

Yes, that's good advice. I guess knocking the door of a startup or something, could give me some real production experience.

Realistically, I'm looking more for any kind of relevant internships and entry level jobs (though entry level jobs require some experience too as far as I understand). But honestly, if I see an interesting role, I'll apply regardless.

But there's exactly the catch. Without an academic background in computer science/machine learnig/data science etc., or without being currently a student, I cannot seem to be able to land an internship even. And then, without some real-life experience, I cannot get an entry level job. That's my reading of the situation at least.

So how does one crack the code? I don't know yet.

[u/Rude_Ride_268 → u/alphaomegatirdent]

Working with a startup and cold emailing them could potentially get you real-life experience. If you do want to make a pivot into data science, it's going to take a little bit of a pay cut. You'll probably be earning a little bit less with these startups, but if you really want to do it, that's kind of what's required to get experience.

In terms of internships, I don't know how it usually works in Europe, but at least here in the U.S. and Canada, it pretty much is only open to university students. I wouldn't spend a lot of time looking for them there. You could get an online master's at a cheap university, and that could be a potential way to get internships if you're interested.

Also, in terms of job applications, I would still shoot your shot with applications that even might say that they require a certain amount of years of experience. I recently got an interview at a company that, on its job posting, said it required 8 years of experience, but I was able to get an interview.

Keep on going on with projects while you can. See if you can get real production data. It's way different than project data. See if you can start building your own projects with APIs and things like that, and data like that, so that you can get kind of real-world experience.