Data/Tech & Startups

MOOCs:

Taking a MOOC over the summer or during the year can help beef up your programming chops. Consider any of the below courses if you’re interested in data science or learning a new language.

Specialization in Data Science (Coursera, Johns Hopkins University)
Course 1 – The Data Scientist’s Toolbox 
Course 2 – R Programming  
Course 3 – Getting and Cleaning Data 
Course 4 – Exploratory Data Analysis 
Course 5 – Reproducible Research 
Course 6 – Statistical Inference 
Course 7 – Regression Models 
Course 8 – Practical Machine Learning 
Course 9 – Developing Data Products
All are –week courses of 3-5 hrs of work/week.
Start Dates in May, June, July & August!

Web Intelligence and Big Data (Coursera, Cornell University)
9 Weeks, 3-4 hrs of work/week

Machine Learning (Coursera, Stanford)
10 weeks, 5-7 hrs of work/week

Introduction to Data Science (Coursera, University of Washington)
8 weeks, 10-12 hrs of work/week

Bid Data University:  
Over 50 different courses on topis ranging from SQL to cloud computing.

Data Analysis (Sliderule)
Self-paced, 220+ hours of work

Analytics Handbook:
Created by Berkeley CS and Stats students, a handbook on Data Science, which aims to inform young professionals/students about the Big Data Industry and specifically the roles of Data Analysts and Data Scientists. The first edition includes interviews from data scientists at LinkedIn, Yelp, and more. The 2nd edition focuses on CEO/Managers from companies such as Cloudera and Yhat. The final edition includes interviews with Hal Varian, Tom Davenport, and more!

MicroMasters Program in Business Analytics (EdX, Columbia University)
Course 1 - Analytics in Python
Course 2 - Data, Models and Decisions in Business Analytics
Course 3 - Marketing Analytics
Course 4 - Demand and Supply Analytics

Recommended Computer Skills

If you’re at all interested in going into data science and analytics, you should consider what your computer skills portfolio looks like. Companies are looking for a wide range of skills and the ability to use them to answer questions and solve problems.

At least one of each of the following categories (the more the better):
1. Basic Object-oriented languages - C++, Objective-C, C#, Java
     a. Advanced - Perl, Python, Ruby, Smalltalk and PHP
2. Computational Statistics – Stata, SPSS, SAS, MATLAB, R, Maple, Minitab, Mathematica
3. Data Manipulation – General Excel mastery, Visual Basic, VBA, Macros, SQL
     a. Advanced Skills – Hadoop, anything from Apache, Cassandra, mySQL, noSQL

Courses to Consider at Columbia for Data Science

Columbia has a wealth of classes you can take if you’re interested in data science and analytics. Below are just a few suggestions from IEOR and other departments.

IEOR:
IEOR E4407 Game Theory Models of Operations
IEOR E4500 Applications Programming for Financial Engineering
IEOR E4521 Systems Engineering Tools and Methods
IEOR E4525 Machine Learning for OR
IEOR E4571 Applied Consulting
IEOR E6704 Queuing Theory & Applications

STATS:
STAT 4026 Applied Data Mining
STAT 4201 Advanced Data Analysis
STAT 4240 Data Mining
STAT 4242 Intro to Data Science
STAT 4249 Applied Data Science
STAT 4400 Statistical Machine Learning
STAT 4701 Exploratory Data Anlysis Visualization

CS:
COMS 4231 Analysis of Algorithms
COMS 4111 Introduction to Databases
COMS 4112 Database System Implementation
COMS 4721 Machine Learning for Data Science
COMS 4771 Machine Learning
COMS 4772 Advanced Machine Learning
COMS 6990 Special Topics: Cloud Computing and Big Data

DRO:
DROM B8123 Demand and Supply Analytics
DROM B9122 Computing for Business Research

Key Job Fairs & Networking Opportunities

Networking is just as important in Tech and Startups so consider participating in one of the following fairs or groups to help with your career search:
Meetup (year round)
Uncubed (job fair in September and April)
Startup Job Fair (April)
NY TechDay 
Career Fair Employer Profiles (Startups)         
Startupers

Company Research Tools

Start your career search in data, tech, and startups by using the websites below to learn more about what types of companies and jobs are out there:
Top 50 startups
New York’s Next Big Startups
Angel List (job website)
StartUpHire (job website) 
Pando Daily (tech/startup news)
Venture Beat (tech/startup news)
Wired (tech/startup news)
Consulting Companies in Data Mining and Analytics

Starting your own Startup

Want to start your own startup? Take a look at the below resources to jumpstart your endeavor!
STARTUPNY
Consider taking the course: IEOR E4560 Lean LaunchPad  
Tech Crunch (Profiles startups, reviews new internet products, provider of breaking tech news)