Datacast Episode 14: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome with Conor Dewey
Datacast’s 14th episode is my conversation with Conor Dewey, a data scientist at Squarespace. Give it a listen to learn about his education at Virginia Tech, his advice on how to ace the data science interview, his popular writings on Medium, and many more.
Conor Dewey is a data scientist at Squarespace who spends his time thinking about growth and engagement. He frequently shares insights from his experience interviewing at top companies. More generally, he offers resources and advice on Medium and Github in the hopes of ‘open sourcing’ his journey to data science. Conor also manages a weekly data science newsletter with 1000+ subscribers.
Show Notes
(2:04) Conor recalled his undergraduate experience studying Computational Modeling and Data Analytics at Virginia Tech.
(4:07) Conor emphasized the importance of learning data structures and algorithms for interview prep.
(5:57) Conor mentioned his Data Analytics internship at MasterCard after his sophomore year.
(7:35) Conor talked about his involvement with the Bio-Complexity Institute at Virginia Tech as a Computational Research Intern during his junior year.
(8:58) Conor talked about his process of compiling a big list of data science internship job postings that he shared last year.
(12:09) Conor went over his Medium post called “Insights from Analyzing 80+ Job Rejections in Python” in which he talked about his coping mechanism towards failure.
(15:20) Conor discussed his Data Science internship at Unity Technologiesout in the Bay Area after his junior year.
(17:22) Conor went over key lessons presented in his blog post “5 Lessons from a Data Science Intern at a Tech Unicorn.”
(23:20) Conor emphasized the importance of having conversations with colleagues to challenge your assumptions.
(24:54) Conor addressed the premise of his article “Minimum Viable Analysis.”
(27:30) Conor discussed his job search process for a full-time data science position.
(29:40) Conor talked about the projects he has been working on at his current employer — Squarespace.
(32:28) Conor shared his opinions on the difference in the data science communities in New York and San Francisco.
(34:32) Conor shared 3 key insights on acing data science interviews.
(38:52) In reference to his article “10 Reads for DS Getting Started with Business Models”, Conor shared his advice for data scientists to get better at communicating with the business folks.
(41:17) Conor talked about his part-time involvement with DataCamp to design an interactive online course for data scientists.
(43:30) Conor talked about his weekly newsletter with more than 1,000 subscribers.
(48:07) Conor shared his curiosity for idea sharing and development.
(49:51) Closing segments.