There are numerous blog posts, books, and research articles highlighting the importance of narrative identity, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. I have recently been thinking about my narrative identity, both how it relates to Data Science and how it relates to my future.
My Narrative
Allow me to indulge in a bit of egotism. In a previous post about the Return To Office, I mentioned that I tell myself that I am “good at the work but not … the appearance of work”. My personal narrative is largely my parents narrative about our family, which is largely, somewhat strangely, about immigration.
The story goes… people often have trouble understanding immigrants, seeing the value they bring. But immigrants enrich America and the world. They have to start from scratch, in an unfamiliar environment, but end up success stories. Their success is due to hard work, creativity, smarts, having their own perspective, and investment in education. An American Tail was somehow personal or familial. When I fell in love with New Orleans cuisine, my mother was quick to point out that the best bits came from poor immigrants who couldn’t afford the most expensive ingredients.
We were Americans from a family that had been Americans for awhile. We weren’t poor. Jambalaya was definitely not a family recipe in my family. My family was fairly conventional. We lived in the same, familiar environment for the majority of my childhood. Northern Virginia is … corporate and bland. That is harsh. NoVa is a great place to grow up. I believe my surname, my mother’s maiden name, and my mother’s mother’s maiden name (Newcomer, ha!) were all invented. These names were chosen by people in my family, generations ago, and chosen specifically to sound American. The details were always a little fuzzy.
But the story was that we were smart, creative, hard working people who valued education. We contributed more than most and won in the end, despite being frequently overlooked or underestimated for being different. We thrived in new environments.
I think this is a relatively common narrative. Maybe especially common for people born into upper middle class intellectual families? Mid-Atlantic and/or Bay Area liberals? In the optimistic 1980’s? Especially among Eastern European, Jewish, Persian, East Asian, and South Asian families? When I went to Johns Hopkins and Berkeley, it felt like we all had the same narrative. About being different. Hmm.
My father didn’t tell the story. But he insisted that I be put in the advanced classes at school and made sure that I worked hard at home.
I was put in a remedial English class with the English as a Second Language (ESL) kids. Just us immigrants. Don’t worry. English is subjective and I was being underestimated because of my stutter. (I will always be Ka-Kenny Ka-Kuhn.) My dad made sure I didn’t stay in remedial English for long. I began to focus on more technical topics. Dad made sure I was on the fast track in math. I took Calculus in Grade 11. Not even legal in San Francisco any more. I won the election to be President of our High School Model UN club and the teacher tried to install another student in the role. Not surprising for our family but no way we would let that stand.
As I got older, I attributed my academic and professional successes to the idea that I was smarter and worked harder than others. There’s not a whole lot of evidence to support this appraisal, particularly for the working harder bit, but that isn’t important. I thrived in new environments. Please ignore those times I failed to make a good impression while on assignment in the UK, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, … basically every time I went abroad.
I attributed my failures to people underestimating someone who is different. I wasn’t all that different, at least or especially not in academia. And modern academia rewards diversity anyways. I chose shy-ness as the thing that made me different, the thing that led to people underestimating me. Academia is full of shy people. I’m not even sure I am shy any more.
Clearly the narrative doesn’t quite work. Let’s not dwell on the details.
I acknowledge that I was privileged, lucky, and had a lot of help to get to where I’ve gotten. I’m not sure that where I’ve gotten constitutes winning. But I do think my belief in my narrative helped lead me to Data Science and that belief works exceptionally well on the job as a Data Scientist.
Data Science
The term Data Science is broad but to be a Data Scientist you almost certainly have to have a strong educational record. Not necessarily a PhD, but a PhD is seen as a plus unlike in many other fields. Being an immigrant is the norm.
You also have to understand the technical details of basic stats and the sub-fields of Data Science relevant to your employer. A lot of the sub-fields are… boring. I’m sure I’ll catch some flack for this but Computer Science was the most boring subject on offer when I went to college. Who chooses to learn about sorting algorithms when they could learn about the French Revolution? At a time when tech was a lot less influential than it is today. It can help if people think they will be evaluated more fairly and do better in the course about sorting algorithms.
Even so, a STEM education is typically a slog. You will have to deal with a lot of critical feedback and rejection. This is true both in the course of a STEM education and on the Data Science path. There are way more people interested in being Data Scientists than there are open entry-level positions. Confidence and a belief in your own intelligence can help. We do have a reputation for having big egos. Calling ourselves scientists was the first clue.
Sometimes you will need to start from scratch, especially on the job. You will have to learn about a new domain. To make real progress, you may have to tear down conventional wisdom at your company or the incumbent solution. To rise rapidly, you will have to be creative. You will have to always be learning. Tech is constantly in flux.
The Future
Things are probably about to change in my personal life situation. A lot. If you know, you know.
I’m not sure I’ll be good at my new personal life.
I’m also not sure I’ll be able to maintain the status quo in my professional life.
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve already had more lives than most. The only constant is change. And most Data Scientist Individual Contributors don’t remain Data Scientist Individual Contributors for all that long. They become people managers or they leave the field after a few years.
I made fun of my Civil Engineering academic colleagues who lamented the fact that Civil Engineering students would take courses outside of the department. Our students might even take Spanish. Gasp! I took Spanish in college. Most of our students would never become practicing Civil Engineers. I hope they learned a lot in college that would help them regardless.
I hope my narrative or what I have learned along the way helps me when I stop being a Data Scientist Individual Contributor.
Being proud of being shy could easily be a hindrance on the management track. In my previous life as a Public Policy researcher, I was told that I didn’t give the appearance of being confident when I spoke and that it held me back. Fear of being judged harshly via some not quite objective measure surely didn’t help. Pundits are judged by how entertaining they are not how correct they are. Not great for team Data Science. Outworking everyone isn’t always an option; life can get in the way. Life can even get in the way of being “smart”.
Being confident and valuing hard work should pay dividends. I’ve had enough Data Science managers to know that technical expertise is useful, if not necessary, in management. I’ve worked in enough different industries on enough different projects, to know the Data Science toolkit is useful in a ludicrously large number of arenas.
Let’s see what happens next! Let me know if you want to talk about your personal narrative or about how you broke into or out of Data Science.
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