I think you should be aware that communication and presentation skills, motivation and the will to grow and further develop your abilities are not only buzzwords but skills that are often underestimated but quite relevant for the work of a Data Scientist. I often have to explain and present the approaches I used and the results I obtained on various levels of granularity to different audiences. For example, when discussing with other data scientists in the company I need to be able to explain how a method works in detail. In contrast to that I have to focus on the business implications of my modeling choices when talking to the business colleagues or to managers. For the latter audience it is usually more relevant to understand the general idea of an approach rather than the details of how it is working. It is not easy to switch between these settings and to find a proper way of communicating to each of these different kinds of audiences but keep in mind that this will be a relevant part of your work as a Data Scientist. Additionally, lifelong learning is not only a buzzword at TUI. You should be motivated to actually stay up to date with the current state of the art Machine Learning procedures and bring motivation and initiative to continue your learning process. As a team, we are deeply involved in decisions that concern the way we work and the tools we use. Therefore, we have to keep track of new developments in the world of Data Science and Machine Learning and need to be willing to adopt new methods or tools if we expect them to be useful for our daily work.

I'm the sort of person that says "go for it" and "what's the worst that can happen?" I struggled for years not being able to get my foot in the (creative) door. I wound up managing a kitchen for a large pub chain - which is an absolutely fine career, but it simply wasn't for me. I started to apply to every role and opportunity that could offer me some experience to add to my CV - this included assisting photographers hang their work for upcoming exhibitions and photographing charity events for PR assets - all in my spare time. All of this rather random experience allowed me to start understanding which avenues I'd like to explore for my career. That career ended up beginning at TUI and i've never looked back.