I've been working professionally now for about 8 years and the last 4 have been in Corporate Finance FP&A. One thing I noticed is that there are only programmers, and only finance people, but there doesn't seem to be too many people to bridge that gap. And so with a really disappointing year review where I hoped the outcome to be much better, the outcome is what I had expected with the same generic guidance from management.

As a result, I think I have come to the conclusion that I am going to "reinvent" myself with my career and I want to go down the data science route, whether that be to bridge that gap i mentioned earlier, or go towards becoming a data scientist or even work in AI. I was looking into Flat Iron bootcamp online and it looks promising.

Is anyone aware of any other data science bootcamps? Has anyone gone through and willing to share their experience? And was anyone in a similar position as me - as in, working professionally and going to a bootcamp to change direction and what has your experience been?

Flat Iron is a very respectable bootcamp. Especially for someone in your position who has years of experience in finance.

If you are looking for a paid program to build Machine Learning(AI) systems, I would recommend checking out @svpino on twitter. His website is also ml[dot]school.

I don't have personal experience with either of these options, but I see both talked about a fair amount on twitter.

The downside I usually see mentioned when it comes to bootcamps is that it's just not possible to become industry ready in 3 or 6 months, and that they work better for people who already are in a technical or finance focused industry.

Hopefully someone comments who is a data scientist or machine learning engineer who can give you their personal experience, which is probably better than my experience which entirely consists of just hearing good things about these programs.

Hopefully that helps a bit :). GL on your new journey.

Thanks for the feedback! My one friend IRL did flatiron for webdev and he is killing it right now. I think my finance background will help me alot and it definitely seems promising. Hoping to hear more from people who have made the change, but glad to see you heard positive feedback online.

This post was edited by Element1023 on Mar 16 2024 12:10pm

Here are a few videos that have helped me with my journey--I'm not a data scientist, but I was looking into it for awhile before I enrolled in an Engineering Technology course at my local college. They should give you an idea of different online resources that are available. I'm mostly familiar with Coursera's IBM Data Science Certificate and a site called DataCamp.

IBM's cert path on Coursera is good from what I hear. It is paid, but it's going to be cheaper than a bootcamp. It might be something to check out before enrolling in the bootcamp.

I'd also say that watching other videos on Data Nash and Damsel in Data's channel should help give you an idea of what you'd be expected to know as a data scientist, how to go about being one, etc. I picked up a lot of resources from both channels.

How I'd Learn Data Science In 2024 (If I Could Restart) - The Ultimate Roadmap - Data Nash:
https://youtu.be/6DxBaphvap4

Is the IBM Data Science Certificate Worth it? - Wale Gbads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQEmF3RT-S4

Best Beginner Data Science Courses on Coursera (breakdown by a data scientist) - Damsel in Data
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXWW2gvIal0

Data Science Roadmap 2024 | Data Science Weekly Study Plan | Free Resources to Become Data Scientist - CodeBasics
https://youtu.be/PFPt6PQNslE