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In many of the beginner discussion questions on Kaggle, I have seen of late fall into three cases.

1. What to do after the ML30 Day Challenge?

2. What should I do to get a job, or why am I not getting an interview?

3. What to do after learning Python or R?

My answer to all has been to do a passion project for your portfolio. More detail may have been in my answer depending on my time when responding to a specific question. And not every response contained the same info. So, I decided to write the answer out entirely here.

What is a Portfolio?

A portfolio is a collection of projects, which showcase your work and thought process. It is used to secure a job as well as a way for you to learn new techniques.

What is a Passion Project?

It is a project that is in an area of interest for you. Also, it is a project that can be in your portfolio. 

Why do a Passion Project?

The word passion is critical. Every project will take time, a limited resource - You only have 168 hours in total for a week, and you need to eat and sleep. But, if you are working in an area that you are interested in and love, that will help you stick with it and enjoy the time you are spending. It helps also get you over the hurdles. By choosing a topic, you love you will have a better understanding and domain knowledge that will give you better insight into the data.

What Topic To Select For A Project?

I always support working with a data set covering a topic you love, for example, music or travel. By selecting a project in an area you love, you bring in a unique understanding. This will allow you to ask better questions and see trends others might overlook. I also highly suggest working in an area that you would want to work in, for example, finance or healthcare. This practical choice allows you to understand the needs of the field and become better at knowing what skills are needed to be an expert in that field. It also makes it easier for future employers to see you understand their business needs, basically making you more employable.

At first glance, it would seem that these two suggestions for selecting a project idea are competing and in conflict. But what if they weren't?  

How Blend Passion and Practicality?

It can be done. Let's take for the Passion Topic - music and financial for our Practical Domain. Now we can begin brainstorming our question.

Music (Topic of Interest a.k.a Passion):

• What area of music do we like?

• What artist do we like?

• Why do we like music?

• How do we use music (i.e., when traveling, background, dancing, etc.)

• How do others use music?

• What data questions would an artist have? What should they have?

• Keep asking questions!

  
  

Financial (Field of Interest a.k.a Practical):

• What is the artist we love sales number?

• How do these sales numbers compare to others in their genera? Other artists in general?

• How does the type of music we like compare to different kinds of music sales?

• Is there a season sales pattern for our artist/genre? If so, why and when?

• Is there a geographical pattern for our artist/genre? If so, why and when?

• Is there a best time to release music?

• Is where would tour sales be the best and when?

• What marketing works best? Cobranding etc.?

• How much is the artist earning?

• What would you forecast they earn in the future? What influences this?

• What does it cost to produce music, tours, video, etc.? Which is most profitable?

• What other money-related questions could you answer?

• What data questions would the artist have?

• What question would the record company have?

• Are there other areas of the music business? If so, what are their questions?

• What other financial questions would be asked on the business side?

• Keep asking questions!

  
  

These two topics do blend. You might start with predicting when would be the best time to release an album, where it is best to go on tour, and how that might change over time.  

Once you finish your first passion project, you can review your questions and begin another project or do a slightly different passion project. When you feel you can deliver a complete project, I recommend this idea, find a non-profit in an area you care about and see if they can use some data help. You could use this process to have ideas for them in case they would love some help but are not sure what to do. 

There are millions of ways to create a passion project; if you have specific questions, just let me know on Twitter @YvonFitz or on Instagram @theYvonneData. Enjoy your data journey!