But my personal advice is to pick a problem in your field (it doesn't matter if there are existing solutions for that, you don't need to build a company out of it) that you are deeply interested in or a problem relatively , select a technology stack you wish to learn and create a prototype of a solution to that problem. You can of course use the way others solved the problem but the important thing is to code it yourself. Give yourself a time schedule and get to where you want to be. As a data scientist you can get sources like the ones here https://www.data.gov/ or here https://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/ (found them here https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/02/12/big-data-35-brilliant-and-free-data-sources-for-2016/#4b5a37f1b54d) and manipulate yourself around. This whole process will provide you with some basic coding skills, or at least remembering again what you forgot, with some understanding of the field you are planning to work at (you 'll surely meet obstacles and challenges you haven't yet thought of but are regular in the field and well known to your future employers, so that will prove useful in an interview) and with something to show. You can even claim that this work was done as a freelancer and you can't disclose the customer.

This suggestions come from my own experience. While I have a degree in computer engineering, I never used it in my home country and I moved to another country and decided to use the degree. Even though I had never worked as a developer before, I had created two personal projects and had become reasonably skilled at least at a junior level in the technologies I selected. And I managed to get a well paying job reletively fast in the country I moved to (well there was a very good market for developers here, so it wasn't that big of a challenge). I wish you good luck and always keep in mind that if you invest yourself in something, there is no way you won't get the fruits out of it.

But my personal advice is to pick a problem in your field (it doesn't matter if there are existing solutions for that, you don't need to build a company out of it) that you are deeply interested in, select a technology stack you wish to learn and create a prototype of a solution to that problem. You can of course use the way others solved the problem but the important thing is to code it yourself. Give yourself a time schedule and get to where you want to be. As a data scientist you can get sources like the ones here https://www.data.gov/ or here https://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/ (found them here https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/02/12/big-data-35-brilliant-and-free-data-sources-for-2016/#4b5a37f1b54d) and manipulate yourself around. This whole process will provide you with some basic coding skills, or at least remembering again what you forgot, with some understanding of the field you are planning to work at (you 'll surely meet obstacles and challenges you haven't yet thought of but are regular in the field and well known to your future employers, so that will prove useful in an interview) and with something to show. You can even claim that this work was done as a freelancer and you can't disclose the customer.

This suggestions come from my own experience. While I have a degree in computer engineering, I never used it in my home country but later I moved to another country and decided to use the degree. Even though I had never worked as a developer before, I had created two personal projects and had become reasonably skilled at least at a junior level in the technologies I selected. And I managed to get a well paying job relatively fast in the country I moved to (well there was a very good market for developers here, so it wasn't that big of a challenge). I wish you good luck and always keep in mind that if you invest yourself in something, there is no way you won't get the fruits out of it.

Having a degree in Mathematics is no trivial thing. A lot of people can code, but only a small minority of these people can easily translate a mathematical problem into code, and that is very often a crucial question in sectors like fintech and automotive. What's more, it's known that when someone studies Mathematics, one also has to get an experience in programming. So I believe you shouldn't worry so much about what your degree can prove to your future employers. Of course that also has to do with what kind of job you're looking to find. For example, it will be relativley easy to get a job in the above sectors. Now as for your question how to prove your knowledge, there are of course some certification serivices like codeacademy or google (checkout https://cloud.google.com/certification/data-engineer some years ago google provide courses and certs for a specific tool for free, now I don't know if there is still such a thing).

But my personal advice is to pick a problem in your field (it doesn't matter if there are existing solutions for that, you don't need to build a company out of it) that you are deeply interested in or a problem relatively , select a technology stack you wish to learn and create a prototype of a solution to that problem. You can of course use the way others solved the problem but the important thing is to code it yourself. Give yourself a time schedule and get to where you want to be. As a data scientist you can get sources like the ones here https://www.data.gov/ or here https://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/ (found them here https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/02/12/big-data-35-brilliant-and-free-data-sources-for-2016/#4b5a37f1b54d) and manipulate yourself around. This whole process will provide you with some basic coding skills, or at least remembering again what you forgot, with some understanding of the field you are planning to work at (you 'll surely meet obstacles and challenges you haven't yet thought of but are regular in the field and well known to your future employers, so that will prove useful in an interview) and with something to show. You can even claim that this work was done as a freelancer and you can't disclose the customer.

This suggestions come from my own experience. While I have a degree in computer engineering, I never used it in my home country and I moved to another country and decided to use the degree. Even though I had never worked as a developer before, I had created two personal projects and had become reasonably skilled at least at a junior level in the technologies I selected. And I managed to get a well paying job reletively fast in the country I moved to (well there was a very good market for developers here, so it wasn't that big of a challenge). I wish you good luck and always keep in mind that if you invest yourself in something, there is no way you won't get the fruits out of it.

Having a degree in Mathematics is no trivial thing. A lot of people can code, but only a small minority of these people can easily translate a mathematical problem into code, and that is very often a crucial question in sectors like fintech and automotive. What's more, it's known that when someone studies Mathematics, one also has to get an experience in programming. So I believe you shouldn't worry so much about what your degree can prove to your future employers. Of course that also has to do with what kind of job you're looking to find. For example, it will be relatively easy to get a job in the above sectors. Now as for your question how to prove your knowledge, there are of course some certification serivices like codeacademy or google (checkout https://cloud.google.com/certification/data-engineer some years ago google provide courses and certs for a specific tool for free, now I don't know if there is still such a thing).

But my personal advice is to pick a problem in your field (it doesn't matter if there are existing solutions for that, you don't need to build a company out of it) that you are deeply interested in or a problem relatively , select a technology stack you wish to learn and create a prototype of a solution to that problem. You can of course use the way others solved the problem but the important thing is to code it yourself. Give yourself a time schedule and get to where you want to be. As a data scientist you can get sources like the ones here https://www.data.gov/ or here https://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/ (found them here https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/02/12/big-data-35-brilliant-and-free-data-sources-for-2016/#4b5a37f1b54d) and manipulate yourself around. This whole process will provide you with some basic coding skills, or at least remembering again what you forgot, with some understanding of the field you are planning to work at (you 'll surely meet obstacles and challenges you haven't yet thought of but are regular in the field and well known to your future employers, so that will prove useful in an interview) and with something to show. You can even claim that this work was done as a freelancer and you can't disclose the customer.

This suggestions come from my own experience. While I have a degree in computer engineering, I never used it in my home country and I moved to another country and decided to use the degree. Even though I had never worked as a developer before, I had created two personal projects and had become reasonably skilled at least at a junior level in the technologies I selected. And I managed to get a well paying job reletively fast in the country I moved to (well there was a very good market for developers here, so it wasn't that big of a challenge). I wish you good luck and always keep in mind that if you invest yourself in something, there is no way you won't get the fruits out of it.

EDIT --- Guys you are right about the lying part. The thing is, personally, the first app I decided to create was something useful, functioning and in my fields of interest (a Rest app for a specific industry branch). I offered the app to someone already known to me, that had a company, where the app could be useful. I didn't ask for money (the app was working but without the pretty stuff), I just offered the app for test use for a couple of years with the hint that if the app was useful, we could arrange the payment issue. That was by no means misleading as I truly needed to test the app in productive environment and I truly did that in the following years. I didn't even ask for a payment, but after that time period I was offered a small but not indecent amount, which I of course accepted. While you are perfectly right that lying is no thing, if someone creates something with solid quality criteria (as if it was a request from a client) then the distance from it being truly in the hands of somebody else for productive use can be sometimes pretty small. But no, no lying is necessary, I stand corrected.