From PhD drop-out to Google Data Scientist with Meg Risdal [Podcast

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Meg Risdal. She's a data scientist and Product Manager at Kaggle, Google's Data Science competition platform.
Megan works closely with the global data science community, and on Google's Gemma open models project.
We talk about:
Google's Kaggle, which hosts 300k open data sets and runs data science competitions each week that anyone can participate in.
How people talk in academia VS how people talk in tech
Stack Overflow VS Kaggle - how Megan contrasts what it was like to work on these two "communities of practice"
Linguistics and its importance in LLMs and AI research
Can you recognize the song I'm playing during the intro? It's a punk song from 1994.
Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.
Also, I want to thank the 10,779 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: www.freecodeca...
Links we talk about during our conversation:
Meg's blog: www.meg.dev/
The Sliced Data Science Gameshow that Meg co-hosted with Nick Wan: • SLICED: SEASON 1
Meg on Twitter: / meganrisdal
Kaggle's open learning resources: www.kaggle.com...
The Gemma team at Google that Meg also works on: ai.google.dev/...

[@mrbartuss1]

We need a hero who would put the timestamps

[@darylallen2485]

For his own benefit, but who happens to breadcrumb their efforts 😅

[@romanbond1060]

she is not a data scientist, she is a PM, it is a different competence

[@longrolstral]

What's a PM in this context? I did a bit of searching and came across, _Project Manager_ . Is that right? Thanks.

[@romanbond1060]

@@longrolstral yes it is

[@longrolstral]

@@romanbond1060 Great! Thank you.

[@marduff_tv]

Thank you for bringing her. She is very inspiring!

[@KidRell318]

Green Day - Minority

[@مجیدآذرنبا]

04:00

[@estridib]

Great resources❤

[@itsedeokhai814]

❤

[@RoshanSunar-l1p]

❤❤❤

[@aammssaamm]

PhD wouldn't hurt, but she'll learn it way later. 😂

[@ShadowMind312]

As I understand things, the typical salary difference from Masters to PhD isn't that much, but their is a vast increase in responsibilities. Further, unless the dissertation topic is significant for profit generation, the PhD won't help much with upward mobility.

[@aammssaamm]

@@ShadowMind312 It’s because you don’t have one. 😂

[@ebossnz6838]

Why is everyone doing pod casts. So trash

[@Asif_Hossen]

Who says beautiful women are not intelligent, they are wrong. I have got crush on her 😊😊😊

[@MortonSeinfeld]

Imagine simping for this. Embarassing.

[@aammssaamm]

Stop your harassment!

[@webdesignsbytom]

Are we supposed to think being a phd drop out is the same as a highschool drop out? She already had a number of degrees by that point. And then chooses to work for google so even less interesting

[@_Holy_Lance_]

Totally agree with you

[@rogueknight2414]

what? where have they mentioned that Ph.D dropout is the same as highschool drop out? It's not something they are trying to prove by mentioning it in their title but stating a fact about her journey

[@webdesignsbytom]

@@rogueknight2414 who cares

[@raghurami253]

🤣🤣

[@iorekby]

​@rogueknight2414 Title is implying it was some sort of underdog story of making a success despite some huge challenge. If you're doing a PhD and have graduate degrees you're super qualified already. It's the same BS of those YT channels where the guys are like "I got a job at Meta and I don't even have a CS Degree!!!!" Yet they fail to mention they have a math or physics degree from an Ivy League university. 🤔 They are not starting at the same point as some poor kid who barely graduated HS who is desperate to break in to tech so they can quit their cashier job at the local supermarket. Title here is silly.

[@Dano_Dano_Dano]

❤

[@tobi4812]

You’re making it sound like a phd dropout is a failure. Many people drop out of their phd for various reasons and are still highly sought after. This is no rags to riches story

[@longrolstral]

In some places, the PhD researcher is a minion of their tutor. That would be enough to make be drop out.

[@longrolstral]

I got an MA back in 2010, and I am of the opinion that university, for some degrees, is just an expensive library, with expensive photos at the end.

[@nurburgringkid]

I hate to say it but probably you are right.

[@longrolstral]

@@nurburgringkid I think that in most cases, it is an accurate statement, but of course, there are degree fields that require physical practise beyond theory and pure classroom academics, such as science, medicine and engineering. My MA dissertation was not about any of the subjects we covered in the taught course, so in that respect, I did all of the reading and research myself, and could have done that without a university, for a whole lot cheaper.

[@Lalala_1701]

In a tech interview is it wrong to expect technology stuff not about your personal interests😅😢

[@longrolstral]

I thought about researching a PhD, but I'm 53 now, so I'd probably in debt at the end of it.

[@longrolstral]

I am learning Mandarin. Four tones are enough for me.

[@kussh100]

how old is the young lady? 55 or 60?

[@ruleaus7664]

I would hate to work for Google

[@techlibrary24k]

Thanks for your support, I got 2 subscribers 😅.

[@AndreaShofestall]

Clark Patricia Anderson Deborah Anderson Brenda

[@DuncanPenny-v7q]

Johnson Frank Brown Edward Garcia Cynthia

[@kishanrawatxo]

I was dreaming about something like that video in past few days. Now there is ❤

[@georamec]

Buen video, gracias por compartir

[@madansshetty4535]

First comment

[@rishiraj2548]

🙂👍🏻

[@shisoy4809]

Im 7th year phd student in physiological signal analysis. Im thinking to drop out and look for a job in data analysis and engineering. Could you please help me what skills I need to learn.

[@aammssaamm]

Get your PhD first, since you’ve invested so much in it. Your value will be way higher even for recruiters.

[@IoT_]

7th year?! Man, don't even think about dropping it out unless you get FAANG job, which probably in your case highly unlikely

[@requettie]

Stop going into IT.

[@Djfr]

Why?

[@luis20er]

yeah, why?

[@JeffersonRah]

😂go into medical field then.

[@IoT_]

​@@luis20eroversaturated by junior specialists.

[@Chris-qg6kc]

Come on, man! She has all these credentials AND she's pretty? Where is the episode about the guy named oscar who lived in a trash can who, turned his life around and made it into faang, working remotely despite having a very bad data connection because his house is nearly a complete farady cage?

[@FreeThink1984]

Creep

[@Chris-qg6kc]

@@FreeThink1984 sir or ma'am, this is a completely innocent joke about a sesame st character that went over your head. Change ur handle to "SmallMindsInBasement84"

[@IoT_]

I believe her looks have nothing to do with her proficiency. It's kinda embarrassing and insulting to say something like this about a person