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Writer's pictureMonica Kay Royal

Top 5 Secrets: How to Make Data Projects

Guest: Avery Smith


Avery helps aspiring data professionals build data projects & portfolios that get them 6-figure jobs. You can find him on LinkedIn and YouTube where he talks about #analytics, #datascience, #engineering, #dataanalytics, and #datavisualization


You can find the slides to his full presentation here



Firstly, here is the quick and dirty. Letting the cat out of the bag! 🐈


Top 5 Secrets

  1. Choose The Right Topic

  2. Get Good Data

  3. Know The Types of Projects

  4. Focus on Visualization

  5. The Best Project is The One You Finish


I really enjoyed this presentation! It was really duel purpose since the DataScienceDojo title was actually, Tips for Building a Data Science Portfolio. I wanted to merge these secrets with Avery's tips, in good ol' blog form.


Choose The Right Topic | Tip:


This topic should be either from a hobby or a job. Every project requires both passion and motivation so it only makes sense for the topic to be close to what you already do on a frequent basis.


He also shared a pretty neat cheat code on one way to select the tools you are going to use for your project:


💻 Go to LinkedIn

🔍 Select your dream job

👀 Look at the qualifications... (SQL, Excel, Tableau)

🛠 Use those tools!


Brilliant!


Get Good Data | Tip:

Avery put together one of the most unique graphs I have seen on how to collect data, with pictures! I have to share 😀



As you can see, there are many ways that you can get good data, and some of them have a greater cool factor!


Know The Types of Projects | Tip:


There are several ways that you can create a project, without even realizing that you created a project. There are skill shares, data stories, and products; ranked by difficulty and impressiveness.


I encourage you to check out Avery's slides on this one. He includes examples of each and shares a new McDonalds tool that he built himself 🍔


Focus on Visualization | Tip:


This was... eye opening 😂

Avery asked the audience, if you only had one sense, which would you want to keep. My choice was taste, but that's because I am a huge foodie!

He asked this because most people choose sight, every time. Confirmed and backed by science 👇🏻


The Best Project is The One You Finish | Tip:


This was hands down the best tip!


The reality here is that no project is ever really finished because there is always room for improvement and optimization.


Avery shares the concept of modular projects. You might have a final goal in mind, but consider sharing your progress along the way. Remember, there are different types of projects so even a small skill share counts!


If you keep your projects on your laptop, nothing is going to happen.


In Conclusion

Avery mentioned that if you only get one thing from his presentation, it's this...

Projects are the cheat code for landing your next data job

Thank you Avery! 😀


Some resources from our host, DataScienceDojo:

  • For upcoming webinars & crash courses, please visit here

  • For the webinar recordings & queries, professional networking, and data science resources, join us here



Happy Learning!!

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