shazam

I'm a Stanford MS candidate in CS. Are there any startups actually hiring for real data science positions? The term seems so overloaded to the extent that recruiters are ready to label anything from Excel to "data infrastructure" as data science. Where can I find a role working on actual ML problems?

I'm potentially going to start work on my first independent consultant job, but I was hoping to hear from others experienced in this area about what to expect in terms of standard agreements.

Do most pay all at the end or can I ask for half upfront? What is a standard rate per hour? Finally, should I agree to this: http://pastebin.com/7m2xBjLg