As a Data Science Intern at statworx

Applying to statworx

The job profile of a data scientist has become very attractive, especially in recent years, due to his diverse tasks and the colorful mix of competencies. This is also reflected in searches on Google for the term Data Scientist. Since I had already dealt extensively with the topics of machine learning and data analysis during my bachelor thesis, I really wanted to learn more about these topics as part of an internship. With statworx, I found the right company very quickly and didn't hesitate long to apply as a data science intern. The entire application process, from telephone interview to job interview, was really very quick within a week. If you would like to know more about our background, Fabian Müller (Head of Data Science) describes in a blog posthow he came to statworx from social sciences.

First days at statworx

On my first day as an intern, the employees gave me a very warm welcome. After a short tour of the office, I was able to set up the new MacBook Pro directly with Fabian. At the same time, there was a detailed introduction to the entire statworx software ecosystem. After the work standards had also been explained and communication channels had been set up, I was given my first task. First, a short trip into how we work. Statworx's fields of work are basically divided into three areas:

• Data science projects
• Python/R training
• Statistical advice

At statworx, we only use open source solutions for the technical implementation of the projects. As a result of the flourishing community in this area, packages and libraries for Python and R are constantly being developed and equipped with new functions. To ensure that we always pass on our experience and the status quo to our customers, it is my job to update Deep Learning for R training to this effect and expand the training concept.

By quickly setting up the MacBook and getting started, I was able to develop and train the first deep learning models in R right after an hour. Over the course of the day, there were several small meetings with my colleagues who presented their various projects and current challenges to me and told me about their experiences so far.

At the end of the first day, we visited the Data Science Meet-Up in Frankfurt. Over a few cool drinks, there were presentations on various AI topics. A presentation by 904Labs from Amsterdam underlined the relevance of search functions on e-commerce websites and presented their solution for improving search using AI. Another presentation had more of a historical character; it answered the question of how humanity acquired knowledge over time and shared it with one another. This is how an exciting first day as a data science intern at statworx came to an end.

Knowledge transfer is very important to us

My second day began with a team meeting of the data science team. Here, all colleagues discussed the status of all projects and the next steps. I was impressed by the range of different projects and the respective solutions and underline the opportunities to learn a lot during an internship at statworx. Because of the project business, many colleagues aren't always in the office, so I was able to meet a few new faces on Friday. In the afternoon, we sat down in a smaller group to talk about various bootstrapping options for time series and to derive possible best practices here. As every Friday, both the statistics team and the data science team got together to transfer knowledge. In this session, Alexander Darrall from the statistics team presented various parametric and non-parametric test methods and discussed which use case is best for them. During his presentation, there were interesting discussions within the entire team. In the evening, we ended the week with a few burgers and cool drinks.

Conclusion

After my first few days at statworx, I can only confirm the positive impression from my job interview. There are no typical internship tasks. You are part of the entire data science team right from the start and work on projects and training courses without restrictions. The benefits of an internship at statworx are:

• a super dynamic team
• flat hierarchies
• exciting projects
• steep learning curve
• cool office
• Top Equipment