Our swarm: Eva Jaumann, graduate and data scientist in the field of AI – an experience report:

Lateral entry instead of smooth career planning

For Eva, the bootcamp at neue fische made the decisive difference from getting into theory and into practice. The coaches in particular helped her to better understand certain ways of thinking and methods. After successfully starting a job at our partner company "FREE NOW", Eva decided to switch to a Berlin start-up and has been working as a data scientist at "alcemy GmbH" since March 2021.

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For me, the path is actually the goal, because I am an inquisitive person. I am always happy to learn new things and to combine different approaches. After graduating from high school, I could have imagined many courses: philosophy, mathematics or psychology, but then I decided on chemistry, which offers a nice combination of theory and practice (in the laboratory). In addition, natural sciences have a large and above all practical influence on society. In my doctorate, I dealt with the structural elucidation of biological molecules, among other things. Although natural scientists have good chances of getting a job, I wanted to continue my education and still be able to contribute the analytical way of thinking I learned during my studies.

Data science is ideal for this! Applied correctly, it leads to a better understanding of social and economic problems. The focus should not be on the algorithm itself, but on the goal of using digitization in such a way that it benefits as many people as possible and influences societies for the better. I would like to contribute a part.

Bootcamp as a quick way to start your career

When I was looking for the opportunity to become a data scientist as a career changer, I became aware of the Neue Fische website. On my first visit, I felt right at home, was able to get all my questions answered and felt like taking on the bootcamp experience. The communication was very quick and personal, which made me realize with relief that there is more to Neue Fische than just a beautiful website. After I was accepted, I moved from Frankfurt to Hamburg for three months. With a move, I was not alone in the course, the participants came from different corners of Germany. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, we quickly found each other, which made it a lot easier for me to get started in the boot camp. We harmonized very well as a group and I'm still very happy to hear something from the others from time to time. Of course, it was also very nice for me that some of them also came to defend my doctoral thesis orally. I financed the whole thing with the help of CHANCEN eG. I was won over by the principle of solidarity in financing education.

In a plain online course, the learning success would not have been possible

As a scientist, I am actually already familiar with numbers, data and statistics, but online courses on the topics of data science or programming have never convinced me. Although I "successfully" completed a few of them, I didn't have the feeling that I had learned anything in the long term. In a face-to-face and full-time course, you deal with the content in a completely different way and much more intensively. In addition, the exchange with the coaches and other participants is very important. There was no shortage of fun either. Above all, the coaches helped us to understand the general way of thinking and to learn the methodology - instead of just learning individual building blocks and techniques without understanding the context.

Decision against the laboratory and in favor of shaping the future of mobility

In terms of professional background and job expectations, we were a mixed group. Some of us came with a lot of work experience and already had a clear idea of ​​where and how we wanted to work. For me it was a little different. First and foremost, I had fun learning something new and then applying the knowledge at the end. In my digital journeyman's piece, I used a neural network to evaluate American news articles for politically one-sided reporting. During the final presentation, I got to know the partner company FREE NOW (formerly myTaxi) through interesting discussions. After that everything happened very quickly. Only about a month after the end of the bootcamp I had a signed contract in my pocket. And since the beginning of the month, as a data scientist, I have had the opportunity to help shape the future of mobility. Working with the UX research team is also exciting. In the first days of the job I realized how much we have learned in the three months!