The Best Companies For Data Science Graduates

Where should you land first?

So you’re looking for your first job in Data Science. Or perhaps your first job in anything. While you prep your resume and prepare to be evaluated by employers, don’t forget to take a step back and evaluate them. What are the traits of companies that will enable you to be successful?

Make Sure They Have A Plan

Let’s start with Day 1. Does the company have a roadmap for you? A new data scientist should never just be handed a laptop and left to their own devices.

Beyond the standard HR tasks, your employer should have strong technical onboarding - this means training on the key technologies, processes, and skills needed for you to succeed in your role. At your author’s first job, we went through in-depth SQL, bash, and R training within our first month. I’m grateful for it today.

Note that a solid DS onboarding program implies a few things. For one, the firm should probably have other data scientists around. I would not recommend joining a startup as the first data science hire. Sure, you’ll be thrown in the deep end and forced to swim, but without feedback it may be hard to know if you’re doing a front crawl or a doggy paddle.

Furthermore, I’d look for a company that has experience bringing in new graduates. It’s your first job, and you shouldn’t be expected to ramp-up at the same pace as a veteran hire. Look for a firm with an established graduate training program.

Be An Owner, Not a Consultant

My recommendation is to not work for a consulting firm. That’s not to say it won’t work out for you, but I think there are compelling reasons to join a firm with a tangible product area.

As a data scientist, you’ll learn most by getting deep into a system. Inputs and outputs, the intricacies of how something functions, progressing from data collection to data storage to data pipelining to feature engineering to model prototyping to model validation to testing to productionization to experimentation and all the mistakes you’ll make along the way. Have skin in the game. Don’t just give recommendations: take action. Steve Jobs was right.

Look For Big, But Not Built

If your first job offer is from Google, Facebook, Apple etc: Take It. You’ll be exposed to some incredibly smart people. Your resume will thank you. You’ll work somewhere that’s the center of attention, one of the only jobs where your parents read about your employer in the NYT each day (for better or worse).

To everyone else, I would advise not starting at a huge firm. Instead, seek somewhere mid-sized. Established, but where the work isn’t done. Where systems are nascent enough that a new graduate can contribute. And not just maintain, either, but be part of new projects, pitch new ideas, get exposure to executive leadership and absorb knowledge. You want a company where you can make your mark.

Make Sure They’re A Culture Fit (For You)

The single biggest determinant of happiness at work is not salary or benefits. It’s culture. Certainly, every job has its stressors, but if you enjoy the people you work with, you’ll find that things are never so bad.

For that reason, it’s crucial to assess the intra-office dynamics of any company you consider joining. Read the Glassdoor reviews. During the interview process, meet the person that will be managing you: what’s their management philosophy? Will you work well together? Certainly, culture is hard to judge from the outside, but should never get the sense you are walking into a scene from Industry.