HACKER Q&A
📣 commodorepet

How much hands on work are you still doing – Sr. Director, Data Science


I am a Senior Director of Data Science at a large telecommunications company (think Verizon equivalent). I have a team of 30 (Data Science + Data Engineering) and my work is mostly connecting the dots between data science and business. I am capable of understanding both sides and can go into details if needed. My next role would be VP of Data Science which would mean overseeing all DS.

I started applying for new jobs at a Senior Director/VP level and I am finding that some jobs still require some level of leet code/SQL technical interviews at the beginning. I have not wrote any code for the last 5 years so I am little confused what are the expectations at my level.

I wanted to ask at Senior Director/VP level are you still doing any hands on coding work or just presentations/brain storming/architecture design. I have Ph.D in CS and been IC for 10 years so can easily go back but spending a month preparing leet code seems like a waste of time.

  👤 catchnear4321 Accepted Answer ✓
titles and expectations can be specific to industry, company scale, and even company by company. senior director in one place can mean senior manager in another, or even more towards svp at another. inconsistent, sometimes highly so. this can lead to interviews that are just absurd, as the two sides have a fundamental, but unrecognized, disagreement on what a given title means.

startups can inflate titles quite a bit, so if you’re looking in that space, don’t be surprised if there is a disconnect.

there is also a somewhat new (at least newly remembered) intense focus from the bean counters right now around doing more with less. efficiency, if you will.

in some businesses, especially those without a real war chest, this takes the form of leaders that are hands-on. which typically means you’re expected to lead while also part-time contributing. or maybe it was the other way around. depends on the place.

whether you view this as a good thing should really depend on you, the role, and the company. it isn’t always. it isn’t never.

you already have a better answer before you read the above, if you did. a month on leetcode is a waste. if the role and the company don’t inspire you to put in extra, you probably shouldn’t.