How to Break Into Data Science (Interview Prep Masterclass from ex-Amazon and Walmart Data Scientist) - w/ Karun

In this episode, featured not-expert is Karun Thankachan. Karun is a Sr Data Scientist at Walmart and a past data scientist at Amazon. Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karunt/

Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction + Background 01:56 Completing 18k bookings on TopMate 04:03 Common Pitfalls in Job Applicants/Mentees 07:59 Breaking into Data Science 10:22 HOW To Use LinkedIn for Networking and Building a Portfolio 12:18 Karun's journey and background thus far 15:58 MS in Data Science from CMU - experience + learnings 20:06 Example of a CMU MS in DS assignment (level: HARD) 24:28 Applying for internships + building resume DURING your masters 26:47 Tech upskilling on LeetCode + DS interview prep 28:57 Solve these Leetcode playlists to get hired!! 31:19 Technical knowledge needed in ADDITION to Leetcode 33:01 Prep strategies for product data science roles 35:57 Distinguishing Data Science, Data Engineering, and ML Engineering 40:13 Machine Learning Engineering 43:06 Mid-level Job Market for Data Science 47:35 A Day in the Life of a Data Scientist 50:49 Tools/frameworks used daily in data science jobs 54:47 Will AI replace data science engineers? 57:25 Final advice for data science enthusiasts