StClaire

I spent a few years trying to land a job as a data scientist, and now I want to do something different in the tech field. I haven't had luck finding a new position :(

I've looked at data engineering, systems engineering, signal processing, project management, and architecture roles. I've done some of each of those in my current position and I've enjoyed them much more than the machine learning I've done. But I also don't feel like I know enough of any of them where I could make a lateral move and have any degree of success.

When I've applied to jobs, I've sometimes gotten an interview for the role I applied for and got one job offer that turned out to involve a substantial pay cut. When I hear back, I feel like most of the time the person who calls me wants me to work on their data science team and then gets kind of confused (and sometimes offended) when I tell them I don't want to work as a data scientist anymore.

How do I make this transition? Is it just a matter of time or do I need to approach things from a different angle?

Me and many other students will graduate soon and we're flooding the market with our job applications. What makes one junior developer stand out from another? The technologies they know? Projects? Coursework? Specialties? Something else entirely?

If I wanted to take up a side-gig running data analysis, how could I limit my liability? Is that even an issue?