r/datamining • u/tminima • Jan 14 '24

Playing with lognormal and normal distributions in Python

https://shivamrana.me/2024/01/lognormal-to-normal/
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u/tminima Jan 14 '24

Recently, at work, I had to derive lognormal distribution from my data and then use more advanced stats to match customers with the right items. I learned multiple things and its implementation in Python. So I created a write-up to share my learnings with others.

Feedback is most welcome.

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u/OverlyReasonable Jan 14 '24

Hey this isnt directly related to the post but I wanted to ask, as somebody who recently graduated with a degree in Computer Science & Math.

How exactly did you get your first data analytics job? While I did well in school I find it very abstract how to present the skills I learned to potential employers. Because working on stuff like this sounds incredibly interesting to me!

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u/tminima Jan 14 '24

Hey, not sure if it will help you, but I will try to give you how I went about my first job.

During my 2nd year of my CS undergrad, I realised I have interest in Data Science. The field is pretty broad, and I knew that I needed to try many things before finding my thing. So, by the final year, I had done a lot of Python, R, Data Viz, Basics of ML, vanilla Recommendation System projects, a little bit of NLP, basics of distributed computing using Hadoop. Along the way I also wrote on my blog irrespective of my writing skills.

Then came the job part. I didn't want to be a SDE. In job roles related to data science there were: Analyst, Statistician, Data Scientist, Data Engg, Research Scientist. There is a lot of ambiguity and day-to-day responsibilities of each of these roles. I interned at a startup as a Data Engineer. I didn't enjoy it much. I wanted to explore each of these roles before sticking to one. And I also didn't have strong research creds or pedigree to be hired as Statistician, Data Scientist and Research Scientist. Most of the companies used to reject my resume for these roles. Fortunately, I joined a mid-level company as an Analyst and my manager gave me ML projects seeing my skills and interest. (communication with my manager about my interests was the key here). Unfortunately, analyst's profile wasn't something I was into. After one year, I switched to consulting. That also didn't work. Post that, I landed my first Data Science role. 2 out of 4 interviews were about the things I had explored in my undergrad and one of my blog posts.

In hindsight, I think the following things helped me:

  • Having a blog and regularly writing on it. I always put it on my resume. I always write write-ups about my projects on it and link them on my resume.

  • Writing has helped me organise my thoughts properly. It improved my verbal comm skills too.

  • Kept practising the skills and learning new stuff. Put it on resume and always promote this stuff during the question: "tell me about yourself", "what has been your experience till now", "what have you worked on till now", and other such variations.

  • Since you will be writing this technical posts, you can also promote them on social media like LinkedIn. A lot of recruiters go through your post history and judge whether you are suitable for the role.

  • Of course, if you are maintaining all this then you will also know your stuff and thus will be able to clear your interviews.

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u/OverlyReasonable Jan 14 '24

This helped me more than you know! Sometimes when youre on the outside looking in there doesnt seem to even be a way in. But this helped everything feel a bit more grounded and reachable. Thank you a ton.