Eric Sales De Andrade: Getting Real with Data at Dataquest
Eric Sales De Andrade, Data Scientist
Eric Sales De Andrade came to Dataquest via Quora. “I read a response from Vik and he seemed to know what he was writing about.”
At the time, he worked in data mining— “But it was just putting stuff in a database. I wanted to get real with data.”
He had originally tried DataCamp and a machine learning course on Coursera. But he wanted something more practical, that worked with real data sets using Python and R.
Learning with Dataquest
After trying out the free modules, he decided Dataquest was a good value, given the interesting datasets and the KPIs for measuring progress.
It made sense — invest in your education and get a higher paying job.
He took advantage of the strong support system within Dataquest, such as the Slack channel for students. “The community is one of the selling points of the premium subscription. Very useful.”
Eric landed several interviews, and now works as a data scientist and engineer for Intelematics, a startup in London. He spends his days working on visualization and building dashboards, pipelines, and models.
Advice for Data Science Learners
He advises fellow learners not to be intimidated. “A company won’t expect you to develop neural networks your first week. Build a good foundation and then plan on growing your skills on the job.”