Despite my efforts (i.e. using my spare time to study) to switch field, the results have been disappointing. Are those people in the group really that much better?
[2 months]: Due to the pandemic, I took on a job temporarily. However, I couldn’t tolerate the work environment after just two months.
[12 months]: With a senior’s recommendation, my next job was doing post-doc. I planned to shift my career to data fields. I started learning programming systematically, using Datacamp, Coursera, solving LeetCode problems, and participating in Kaggle competitions. This year significantly improved my programming skills. However, My supervisor was hands-off, and without a team or guidance, the risks of working alone were high, I couldn’t do all the thing alone and I might go wrong direction. If the career shift failed, I might lose ground in my original field. Thus, I decided to return to my primary industry while continuing to enhance my skills in data.
[6 months]: Next job, \during a six-month probation, I started writing programs in the office to analyze existing data.
[1 months]: I discovered Xing on the internet and took the courses. I completed the fundamental course in a month.
[7 months]: Current work intensity increased. In after-working time, I took the [sharing meeting] and began learning more quantitative analysis.
BL
ZX boat. Initially, I didn't understand the factors well, so I was hesitant to put more money. Additionally, it was a bear market. I remained skeptical about quantitative analysis, so I didn’t invest heavily.
[4 months]:
ZS boat
BWB boat. Continuously backtested factors, but efficiency was low.
Scientist boat. I only watched the content without practice.
[6 months]: I joined a subsidiary, where work intensity doubled but gradually became sidelined with fewer tasks. After November, I intensified my focus on quantitative analysis again [2 months].
[6 months]
BWB & LD
Scientist. I put more effort on this.
In summary:
I spent two years on this. Using my after-hours time, I allocated about 3 hours on weekdays (20:00-23:00) and 5 hours on weekends, totaling 25 hours per week. On average, that’s 3.57 hours per day.
A standard workday is 8 hours, and 3.57/8 = 40%. Assuming I spent 50% of my time on this, it equates to 4 hours a day. With 2 years of experience, it’s equivalent to just 1 year of actual work in this new field.
Although it appears I spent 4 years to shift my career, in reality, considering it was all done during my spare time, it’s only equivalent to about 1 year in this new field.
So, reaching my current level is actually quite reasonable.