Writing an application for a data scientist job in government

I'm a data scientist for a UK government department, and have been involved in a number of recruitment campaigns over the years, so have been on both sides of the fence as a candidate and a recruiter. As a result I have some tips on how to make an application for a data science position at any level.

Use the STAR method

This is a commonly used method for describing examples of what you have done, both in a job application and at an interview.

• Situation – what was the problem or situation?
• Task – what did you need to achieve?
• Action – what you did and how you went about it. This should form the main part of the answer as the situation and task set the scene but don't add much about you as a candidate.
• Result – consider what impact you have made (both to the original situation and wider).

Explain how your experience relates to a data scientist role

So you have a background as an academic in physics or as a maths teacher? That's great and I hugely value diversity of experience in any team! But which bits of your experience relate to the data scientist role you've applied for? Perhaps if you've been an academic in physics you've had to write very efficient code or manipulated large datasets – include that! Or as a maths teacher you've had to break down complicated concepts for explanation – include that too as you'll be working with people from non-technical backgrounds, so it's important to be able to explain technical concepts to them clearly.

How did you do it?

In all your examples include how you did the task. As a data scientist you'll be working in a multi-disciplinary team so we need to know that you work well with others and not just that you're a good coder. One application I recently reviewed provided a list of examples of data analysis that the candidate had undertaken with no context. I couldn't understand whether these were university assignments, whether a customer had asked for the work, or something else. For example:

• What was your role in the team?
• Did you identify the problem with the customer?
• Did you help to scope out what the customer wanted?
• Did you assign roles in your team? Or deadlines?
• Did you need to persuade anyone about a particular course of action?
• Or organise weekly meetings to ensure team members were on track with their deadlines?

Do include challenging situations as sifters and interviewers are keen to hear how you deal with these and work with people.

Structure your answer to the job requirements

In our recent job advert we asked for data scientists with skills in:

• Statistics
• Machine learning
• Natural Language Processing, and
• Data engineering.

We don't expect everyone to have experience in all of these areas, but as someone sifting the application I need to understand the breadth and depth of your experience in these. This is much easier if the application is split into four sections with each dealing with one of these.

Simple things

• Perhaps things are different in industry, but in government I can only go by what you have put in your application so please don't assume I have any prior knowledge.
• Use the space in the application given to you. It's surprisingly common to see a section about skills and experience containing only about three sentences, and it's nearly impossible to understand the breadth and depth of someone's experience from that.
• Please spell out acronyms. If you don't it can lead me to think your example is quite different to what you intended or what you think is obvious!
• Check spelling. It sounds obvious but a surprising number of candidates don't.
• Don't just list tools and programming languages you've used. Explain what you have done with these, with who and how.
• Avoid general statements such as "I'm a good team player" or "I'm well suited for this role". They don't add much about you as a person or distinguish you from others.
• Use "I" rather than "we" as someone sifting or interviewing needs to consider you as a candidate and not your team.

Finally

Please do apply even if you don't think you meet the requirements for the role. It's essential in government that we build diverse teams which represent the diversity of the people we serve, so please put aside your imposter syndrome and write that application!