My Data Journey

Hello, world!

My name is Brianna Lytle and I am an aspiring data scientist. I just graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Yup, major bending — transitioning my career from social science into data science. I’m facing the typical switcharoo of career paths.

So how did I end up here?

Like most 1st generation college-students, I thought I only had two career paths: doctor or lawyer. I chose the lawyer path because (1) I’m competitive and talk a lot and (2) I faint at the sight of blood. So I thought, all lawyers are Political Science majors. Makes sense, right? It sounds naive but I did not have many resources when it came to figuring out a career path. After my junior year in college and many shocking life-realizations later, I decided law school was not for me. From there, I dove into the field of marketing with a couple of start-up companies in Los Angeles. I learned the works of building an app, building websites, and how to build a company from the ground up. I instantly had a connection to this kind of work.

After graduation, I fell into the infamous “post-grad life identity crisis.” I was working a full-time job for the sake of having a full-time job. I did not enjoy my work. I woke up everyday DREADING the work I had to do 9 hours a day. I knew I could either keep working jobs that I didn’t enjoy, or I had to find a program that would help me reach my true career goals.

I knew I wanted to do more technical and back-end work. I wanted to gain these skills IMMEDIATELY. The Data Science Immersive (DSI) program at General Assembly was a perfect fit for me because I found it to be the most efficient way of learning the hard skills to analyze data. Data work is no different from political science or philosophy research. It is just the structure of logic.

All gas, no breaks.

Here I am, ⅓ of the way done with the DSI program. It’s hard. Last week, I stayed up for almost 36 hours to finish a project and I’m expecting more of those days in this program. Some days, I feel like the content is being thrown at a mile a minute. Some nights, I have dreams (nightmares?) on the code and methodologies I need to practice. It is intimidating being in a class where all students have a STEM background. I think to myself, I am a political scientist. But, everyone else is a scientist SCIENTIST. Despite my insecurities, I am so grateful for the DSI instructors, TA’s, coaches, and classmates who are all supportive throughout my journey. This makes me want to work that much hard to prove I am capable of the career change.

Playing with data every day for the past couple of months has helped grow my passion for this field. When I graduate from this program, my goal is to transition into a data-oriented career where I can use my qualitative skills from my political science background along with my growing quantitative skills. Most importantly, I’m looking forward to continuing my growth with Data Science practices.