bookworm123

I'm a mid level data scientist at a company where projects move extremely slowly. A lot of my time is spent waiting for decisions or approvals, and the technical work itself is not very challenging. I feel like my skills are stagnating and I'm not building the portfolio or experience I'd like.

The job market for data science roles is pretty bad right now (at least where I am, in Germany), so changing jobs feels risky.

For those who have been in a similar situation:

    How did you keep learning and progressing professionally when your day job wasn't pushing you?

    Are there specific projects, open source contributions, or side skills you'd recommend focusing on?

I'm trying to balance staying employed with keeping my career momentum going. Would appreciate concrete ideas, especially from others who have navigated similar slow periods.