Two weeks ago, I moved to San Francisco to “immerse” myself into a fellowship at The Data Incubator, an 8-week data science immersive that aims to help aspiring data scientists land jobs in industry.

To be honest, having read about how selective the program is, I did not expect to be picked in the first round. The process itself took three weeks and a whole lot of time devoted to preparing a project, a video, solving some challenging programming questions, and finally a group interview. All said and done, here I am, among highly qualified and motivated fellows, trying to find a footing in a rapidly growing and highly competitive field.

While the program packs a whole lot of quality information in a short time, it does a commendable job of introducing the nature of a career in the tech industry. Weekly deliverables include a mini project that deals with the topic of the week (this week being MapReduce) and a video requiring you to pitch your capstone project and present your continuing work on it. And then there is the ever-present and all-important task of reaching out to potential employers and subsequent interviews and tests. Not to forget the daily coding challenges on HackerRank.

I will be able to present a more holistic review of the program towards the end and talk cogently about its effectiveness in matching fellows with their desired career goals; but for now, I’m just trying to settle into this new pace of life in a new city. My two weeks in San Francisco have the makings of a separate post; however, in the interest of time, I’ll keep it short and to the point. In the Bay Area, it is acceptable to ask profound questions to a complete stranger at happy hour - like “What do you want your legacy to be?” or, “If you could learn one skill in an instant, what would it be?”. The possibilities of where a serendipitous connection will take you are endless, and there is value in introducing entropy in daily life.

Thanks to my extremely smart and enterprising friend Nishanth, I came prepared with an open mind, and my personal magic-8 ball (that says YES most of the time).

If you’re lucky and wing it on most evenings and weekends, you might meet Michael, the coconut guy at Dolores Park, and wait only 40 minutes in line for some delish icecream at BiRite nearby. Even otherwise, a unique experience is guaranteed. I can only look forward to the next 6 weeks here with an open mind and a free schedule, which is slowly turning out to be an impossible task thanks to the fellowship!