Education · 1 of 4

The path

Math first, code second, then a lot of practice on real messy data.

1. 1

   High school

   Grades 11 and 12

   Take every math course: Advanced Functions, Calculus and Vectors, Data Management if your province offers it. Computer science helps.

2. 2

   Bachelor's degree

   4 to 5 years with co-op

   Data science (Waterloo, UBC, Simon Fraser, Toronto and many others now offer it), statistics, math or computer science. Choose co-op. Waterloo admits data science at averages in the mid-80s.

3. 3

   Projects and co-op

   During school

   Kaggle competitions, a public GitHub, and paid co-op terms at banks, Shopify, Statistics Canada or startups.

4. 4

   Master's degree (common, not required)

   1 to 2 years

   A 1 to 2 year master's in data science, statistics or computer science. Many jobs ask for it.

5. 5

   First job

   After graduation

   Often as a data analyst or junior data scientist, then promoted once you have shipped a model that made the company money.