Our swarm: Dr. Sarah Hofmann is now a Data Scientist in Life Science- her testimonial

Dr. Sarah Hofmann, data scientist in life science - a testimonial:

From the laboratory to data science

Our graduate Sarah realized during the bootcamp that the new path she had chosen was the right one for her. After successfully completing one of our first data science bootcamps, she has now been working as a data scientist in her dream job at Hummingbird Diagnostics for two years. She is no longer the only new fish graduate there - she recently caught another new fish for her team from us. But read her report for yourself:
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I studied biology, did my master's in molecular life science, then worked in cancer research for two years and then did my doctorate in virology. During my doctorate, I had already started working with the R programming language and noticed that I was interested in the subject. At the same time, however, I wanted to keep the analytical aspect. In job advertisements and experience reports, I discovered the job profile of a data scientist in the life sciences sector and the more I read, the clearer it became to me: that's exactly what I want to do!

The goal: from the lab to data science

I did a very specific job finding out what data scientists do in the life sciences sector and then looked very specifically for further training to become a data scientist. I was very lucky that I found the perfect offer with neue fische in my hometown of Hamburg. In a personal introductory meeting, we compared our ideas, expectations and motivations and I decided to go to the data science boot camp that same day. Bringing a basic understanding of programming to the data science boot camp certainly doesn't hurt. It's better not to be afraid of math - but you don't have to be a nerd either. It's at least as important to have a tolerance for frustration: sometimes I've sat for hours on my code or a model and it just doesn't work. Those were the moments when perseverance was required - and our head coach Matthias!

Digital journeyman's piece on a data set from practice

We started with the basics such as the classic digit problem and then worked our way through topics such as clustering to methods such as linear and logistic regression, until we finally ended up with neural networks. In terms of the topic, my expectations were definitely completely met. Each day was divided into a theoretical part with a lot of math and a practical part in which we tested methods and solved tasks in groups: exchange and teamwork became a matter of course - even though we were a very mixed group. From business graduates to biologists to mechanical engineers, we had a wide variety of types and backgrounds.
I was particularly lucky with my digital journeyman's piece: I was able to work on a real data set from the life sciences sector that I received from a corporate partner of neue fische. The aim was to use biomarkers to determine whether a patient is ill or not. And after the final presentation to the corporate partner in Heidelberg, it was crystal clear to me: I definitely want to start out as a data scientist in one of the areas of life science, healthcare or pharmaceuticals. What I didn't realize: the management was so impressed by my approach and the results I achieved that they made me an offer to start straight away as a data scientist. Of course I accepted and started my dream job just two weeks after completing the bootcamp. As different as our backgrounds and life paths were and are, one thing applies to all participants in our data science bootcamp: the last three months have encouraged us all to continue on the path we have chosen and have even increased our motivation again!