Before 2022…
So I would say that I have been developing my data science knowledge-base since the summer of 2019. Around that time, I took several Standford University online classes and started a six month Northwestern University Data Science Certificate Program and since Spring 2020 I have been a data science teaching assistant.
I carefully decided to commit my time and effort of this transition after attending nearly weekly meetup.com meetings for a year. After talking to members of the Python and PostgreSQL meetups and attending some industry based seminars from MATTER, I decided this was a career move I would really like.
It’s odd to say this but a benefit of the pandemic was the opening up of my schedule so that my days were no longer 10 to 12 hours at my primary employer. I often had 2 hours of commuting time and multiple hours of random meetings that I would get pulled into. Due to the pandemic, I could add 3-4 hours daily for professional development. I have more information about this in my post “Work Schedules” but over the past two years I have been able to fit into my schedule over 30 hours per week related to data science.
I announced in June 2021 that I would leave my Northwestern job in December 2021. In 2021, I was actually working more hours dedicated to my role at the data science bootcamp and professional development than I was doing at Northwestern University.
