Make a Github account, leearn the basics of git (i.e. what is a commit, push, pull, branch, etc.) and put some code. As you advance you can build up a code portfolio including Jupyter notebooks which can be easily converted to e.g. blog post.
Learn the basics of Python. A good starting place is this 1 day course from Software carpentry. Checkout the NMA Python crash course too. Another good place is this kaggle course. If you come with Matlab background, have a look at this blog from Patrick Mineault.
Make a kaggle account. Go there and take part in coding challeneges. Use those to build your coding portfolio.
Make a LinkedIn account. Connect to people and build your profile there too.
More generally take charge of things and be proactive. Cold emailing people is fine. Network, have virtual coffees with people. Use NMA too to find relevant people. Don’t be afraid to bug people!
If you can, set up a fixed time every day/week which is dedicated to only coding and building your skills. Better, setup a study group with other people and social pressure yourself to actually do it.
After learning the basics, focus on doing actual projects and applying the stuff you’ve learned more directly. Take a Deep Dive approach where you go for projects, interviews and just get as much experience as possible even if you don’t feel ready.
Some specific recommendations from the Industry panel:
Thanks for the resources, @alex_ivanov! Could we start a Discord/Slack instead of/in addition to the Telegram group? This could help people who don’t use telegram and would also collate links and resources better than Telegram does.
@alex_ivanov@jparent@bmede@btrovo and everyone else, do you have any suggestions for someone who is really early in his academic life (undergraduate) to better prepare for future neuroscience? (I know it’s really hard to predict something so uncertain) Something in the lines of how to stay up to date with the research, where the industry/academia are tipping towards etc?
Additionally, if you could add a little of what you learnt on your stride to be where you are/ mistakes that one could avoid? I’ll hugely appreciate any inputs
Find good mentors. NMA seems like a great place for that.
The reality is, early in your career its likely you may not know exactly what you want to focus on. You may end up in physics, or cognitive science, or even not in a “stem” field. A good mentor who is interested in knowing you as a person authentically will help you do quite a lot of mitigating. Being here and finding things out is great start.
It took me a long time to find my general trajectory - I’ve been in non-stem majors, career paths, and life paths, and found my way here. I probably won’t go 100% into computational neuroscience, but computation and things related to cognition seem to be the deal for me.
You may realize you want to be a professor, or go 100% into industry or a start up. And then change your mind a month later. That’s fine. Getting varied experiences now is good, and it will help you pursue things. Just keep listening to yourself and trying to do the things you seem to want to be able to do. Stay in touch with the people here, they can bridge a lot of topics and ideas for you, I’m sure.
