Greg started his career in data science after not getting a proper job with his Ph.D. degree in physics. He joined a Data Science bootcamp and then got a job as a Data Scientist. Watch this interesting interview as he describes his experience.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/vbSbKGwCUcA
Greg Damico is a Lecturer in Data Science at the Flatiron School and has been working there since March 2019. He hails originally from Columbus, OH, but has been in Seattle since 2013. He has an extensive background in academia and has taught and studied various subjects in addition to data science at a number of schools both in the Midwest and on the West Coast. He turned to data science for good in 2016. He is passionate about data science because of its ever-growing role in our daily lives, and he is passionate about education because of the way it empowers people to change their lives.
You’re listening to Mentoring Developers, Episode 91, Let’s go.
Welcome to Mentoring Developers, the podcast for new and aspiring software developers, where we discuss your struggles, anxieties, and career choices. And now, here’s your host, Arsalan Ahmed.
In this episode of Mentoring Developers, I’ll be talking to Greg D’Amico. Greg is a lecturer in data science at the Flatiron School, and he’s been there for a long time. This interview was recorded in 2021. He’s originally from the Midwest in Ohio. He’s been settled out West in Seattle. So he has experience in both the Midwest and the West Coast.He’s taught everywhere.His passion is data science. And today we’ll be talking to him about data science, about.Flat Iron.School and other boot camps, and what it’s like to be in a boot camp as a mentor, as.A teacher. Also as a student. I think that this is a great little interview for people who are interested in boot camps, who are interested in data science, and who’s interested to see. what it’s like to be in a boot camp and learning data science.Especially from the point of view of a person that’s on the other side of the aisle.I Think you’re going to enjoy this. Let’s get ready and get started.
How are you doing, Greg?
I’m doing well, Arslan. Thanks for having me on the show.
How did you decide to become a data scientist?
It turned out to be a very significant letter for me. I was in philosophy graduate school. I did finish my PhD, but I wasn’t finding the work that I wanted after that was done. It’s very difficult in academia to get the high power job that a lot of people are looking for. I moved to Seattle and after I got to Seattle, I decided that I wanted to go back to school. I did have an old physics degree rusting on my shelf somewhere. I thought, Well, I’ve got some math skills. I think I could go do this applied mathematics program at the University of Washington. Shortly after I started that, an old friend of mine from philosophy grad school, Mike, said, Hey, have you studied any R? I started looking into it and I thought, Wow, this R language looks really cool. I don’t have a lot of programming background. I’ve done a little bit here and there. But I started...
