Why Data Scientists Don’t Get Hired — And How to Fix It with Dawn Choo #61 Artwork

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Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science and Deep Learning are completely changing the world we live in today. Companies around the world start to make sensible use of big data to influence business decisions and create our future. From video recommendations to autonomous driving, from stock prediction to weather forecasting, the AI revolution is everywhere. The AI stories podcast brings together some of the best Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, Business leaders and researchers that are at the front of this revolution. They are here to talk about their career, how they arrive where they are, give advice and share their vision. They explain how they make use of AI in their daily routine, how they use algorithms to solve business problems and make the world a better place. They are here to share their stories: their AI stories. Hosted by Neil Leiser, Data Scientist at Iwoca. Follow Neil to learn more about career, Data Science, AI and Machine Learning. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leiserneil/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeiserNeil

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AI Stories

Why Data Scientists Don’t Get Hired — And How to Fix It with Dawn Choo #61

June 26, 2025 • Neil Leiser • Season 4 • Episode 12

Our guest today is Dawn Choo, founder of Interview Master and ex Data Scientist from Amazon and Meta.

In our conversation, we first dive into Dawn's past Data Science projects at Amazon and Instagram. She explains how a pet project skyrocketed her career at Amazon and also shares details on the most impactful project that she worked on at Instagram.

We then discuss Dawn's experience living in a van for a year before digging into Interview Master: a platform to help Data Scientists and Data Analysts land their dream job while leveraging AI agents to provide instant feedback!

If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a 5 star review and subscribe to the AI Stories Youtube channel.

👉 From beginner to advanced LLM developer course by Towards AI (use the code AISTORIES10 to get a 10% discount): https://academy.towardsai.net/courses/beginner-to-advanced-llm-dev?ref=63e5e3

Link to Interview Master: https://www.interviewmaster.ai/

Follow Dawn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/data-dawn/

Follow Neil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leiserneil/

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(00:00) Intro

(02:30) How Dawn Got Into Data and AI

(04:25) Why Dawn Left Finance

(06:56) Automating Work at Amazon

(10:22) How a Pet Project Changed her Career

(15:24) Joining Instagram

(17:30) Instagram Shopping

(20:52) Improving Performance and Revenue at Instagram

(29:56) Living and Working from a Van

(37:34) Launching Interview Master

(45:53) Why Data Scientists Don’t Get Hired

(53:27) Career Advice