Many people are already skilled in data science, yet struggle to find a job. This difficulty usually arises from the person’s approach to finding work. This issue is one of the things I help my proteges overcome in the coaching program. As part of that effort, we get them signed-up for Kaggle and submitting some projects. But, having a portfolio on Kaggle is one thing (a good thing), and winning competitions on Kaggle is something else (an even better alternative). In the following video, you’re going to see an interview between me and the Kaggle champion himself, Owen Zhang. In this video he gives some direct advice on how to win Kaggle.
Owen Zhang’s background
Back 2 years ago, when Owen Zhang was actively competing on Kaggle, he was #1 out of over 251,000 data science competitors. Interestingly, Zhang’s educational background is not in statistics or data science; rather, he earned Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees in Automation and Electrical Engineering, respectively.
Owen Zhang discusses how to win Kaggle
In the following video interview (originally produce by me for Statistics Views website), Owen Zhang gives his advice on how to win Kaggle, as well as his input on the following related topics:
- His story of transitioning from an engineering career to a career in data science
- His advice for engineers that want to transition into a data science career
- His advice on how to approach and do well in Kaggle competitions
- His advice on model selection
Now that you’ve had the chance to hear from a Kaggle master, what do you think? What if you challenged yourself to get active on Kaggle? How might that affect your career prospects? Have you done some work there already? If so, how did you benefit and what is your URL there? Put your thoughts in the comments section below so we can check you out!
