Abstract: 

While many people fear interviews, you must remember you wouldn’t have been granted one unless they were interested in you. Sadly, most candidates spend considerable time (and money!) learning data science, painstakingly crafting their resume (and LinkedIn profile), and work long hours on personal projects only to do little to no preparation for interviews! But if you don’t know how to prepare, what does one do?

In this talk, you will learn what to do before, during, and after an interview—both phone and in-person—to clearly stand out from the other applicants and be recognized as a valuable addition to their team. The speaker is a well-known expert in helping job seekers land their first data science job, not only interviewing on behalf of his company but also holding mock data science interviews. He knows first-hand what a job seeker must do in order to be seen as a “must have” new hire.

At the end of this session, you will have step-by-step instructions on how to ace interviews and get the job of your dreams!

Bio: 

Mark Meloon is a senior data scientist at ServiceNow, crowned ""World's Most Innovative Company"" by Forbes magazine in 2018. There, he develops models to support the sales team, including a mission-critical generalized churn predictor. He also plays the role of machine learning educator and evangelist.

His transition from mathematician in his 40s with little relevant experience to data scientist was very difficult, especially since there was little information available to guide him. His search began with a recruiter telling him he was “unemployable” as a data scientist and she wouldn’t waste her time on him!

Eventually, he cracked the code to landing a data science job and now helps others follow in his footsteps. Through a mix of social media activity, blog posts, appearances on podcasts, in-person engagements, eBooks, and online courses, he provides the community with the tools they need to succeed. His experiences both as someone who broke into data science against considerable odds and now as an interviewer on the opposite side of the job-search table give him unique insight into what it takes to land a job in today’s very competitive market.