Hello there, I'm Matheus, a brazillian developer, on the road to become a data scientist and I wanted to be a biologist. That didn't actually work out, since living in Brazil means that working with natural sciences leads you to starvation, but after 6 years I definitely don't regret choosing tech...

I'm currently a Java Web Developer reaching my 6th year in tech, working with a fresh new product, but that's about to change, since the product I'm developing is heavyily based on data, and that opened a door for me to start showcasing what data science can do and how a few hours spent with some data (public data, which was around for a loooong time) can lead to a major new feature/service that will "WOW" customers like never before.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, please be aware that data science in Brazil is something extraterrestrial... I'm not saying there aren't any companies making the most out of data here, it's just that most of it happens in big companies with huge products, with data-driven culture still being an aspiration for most SMBs around.

At my 3rd year working as a dev I started a "Data Science (Big Data)" MBA (yes, with the parenthesis on it and all), not sure about what would happen, but feeling excited about the course's content. What started kicking me off during the 2 years that followed was that everywhere I looked said that "you need math to work with data science", and my background in regards to that was... null, since my degree was actually a "Software Analysis and Development" one, with basically no math in it, purely focused on programming languages, UML and software architecture.

Thankfully, internet is an amazing place (most of the time) and I managed to pick off some great courses, content and people in order to get the hang of it. I'm still in the basics, aiming for statistics and exploratory analysis

Anyway, after finishing the course (and starting a dozen others) I tried applying everything I learned in the company I was, but market pressure led my team to be constantly overloaded (now that's a story for a whole other post), and after a few months trying, I quit, joining another software development company in my town which works with public management systems, with it's focus being on public health, and that's where things got interesting.

I'm currently working in the product's MVP and due to it's nature as a data-based product, I'm being able to experiment quite a lot with it and most importantly, generate value from these experiments, which is super cool and motivates me like never before.

With that out of my chest and a lot of motivation behind me, I'm hoping to share the next steps on this great journey I'm having, and maybe some of the experiences I've had with our controversial Java :)