I started a new job as an Associate Data Scientist at @whispir this week . I thought I would be fun to reflect on some of the things that I have learned in my first week, given that I spent ~10 years specialising in Neuroscience and have changed careers... Thread

1/ I learn about 30 new words/terms per day. Scrum, spike, agile, edge case, bastion... It's insane. I have a whole new appreciation for students and RA's that started with me and I would have been spouting words at them they don't know

2/ I am such a n00b! I went to data science meetups, did some online coding courses, but it feels like something you really can only learn on the job. I feel so fortunate that my team have taken the faith in me that I will learn everything as I go! Shout out to @fionascottym

3/ It's humbling starting at the bottom again. Not that I was ever a PI or lab head. But I felt confident in my knowledge and was happy to spout my input in group meetings etc. It has lit a whole new fire in my belly!

4/ The pace of industry. At least in my new tech role, is so different to academia. eg., at the start of the day you have 15min "stand-up" meetings where teams get together and give a 2min summary of what they are working on and any "blockers" they might face to progressing.

5/ HR/onboarding is a much smoother progress. Srsly how on earth does it take 4 months to write up a 12-month fixed term contract at uni's- what a flipping waste of time?!

6/ On that, being offered to pay for development training and being instantly provided with work station support feels like a dream. In academia getting any kind of financial support takes months and your first born in exchange.

7/ Company wide slack: I really am loving things like channels to share books and pets, but also you can DM anyone from the company to say hi, it makes people very accessible - I only had a few people on specific team slacks before.

8/ it's been an emotional roller-coaster. One second I feel like I have a grip of a what's going on and the next second I'm like Frodo trying to find his way to Mordor

8/ Idris Elba is a house DJ -

Thank you for listening to my unsolicited Ted talk

9/ post-thought: install Grammarly onto work laptop to check for spelling errors