Self-Promotion and Celebration!

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Self Promotion Challenge

You have worked hard over the course of the DART program! Regardless of how many of the modules on your pathway you have taken, or how many of the data challenges you have tried, you probably learned a lot and improved your technical skills over the past few months. The program won't officially wrap up until the end of November and you will retain access to your entire pathway through the links in your emails, but now is a good time to start thinking about your accomplishments.

Take stock of what you have learned

Take a moment to look back through the work you have been doing in the DART program. Did you learn new data management skills? Start learning a new coding language? Use your computer's command line for the first time? Get started in RStudio or Jupyter Notebooks? Create an account on GitHub or AWS? Make your first SQL query?

You probably didn't answer "yes" to all of those questions, but each new platform or skill you tried out is an important accomplishment worthy of celebration.

Post some of your accomplishments here or in the Celebrations channel so that we can celebrate with you!

Record your accomplishments

Your new skills and knowledge are an asset, and you should publicize them! Even if you don't intend to change your job in any way, now is the time to add what you have learned to your CV or resume.

If you wonder whether you have done enough to merit putting something like R or Python or SQL on your resume, there are a few things to consider:

• If you know how to open a window on your computer where you can use that language (think RStudio for R or the terminal for Bash), and know where you can find out how to enter a few commands (the modules are a good resource to return to any time), that is a valuable skill.
• Most people who use code professionally do not have large numbers of commands memorized. Knowing where to look to find the command you want is far more important and useful.
• You don't need to be an expert in a coding language to add it to your resume. Include a note on your proficiency level, e.g. Python, level: basic.

We will be sending you more specific language you can use to reference the DART program itself after you complete the post-intervention survey, which will be sent out later in the month. In the meantime, you can add to (or start) a skills section with your specific skills.

Start updating your CV or resume, as well as any networking profiles you have (e.g. LinkedIn), to show off your new skills.

Tell people what you know and practice what you have learned

Update your employers and colleagues about your new skills! When others know that you have some knowledge and are interested in gaining more, they are more likely to come to you with work that could use, and improve upon, your new abilities.

Share a way you want to use your new skills for research, or alternatively a way you have already started using them.

Keep learning!

The best way to retain the skills you have gained through the DART program is to continue learning and building new skills. You are going to have access to all of DART's educational modules after the program ends, and each module contains links to additional resources for you to explore and dive deeper into.

We sincerely hope the DART program has been helpful for you in your Data Science journey!