You put in the time learning the skills, you took the right approach to your job applications, and now you’ve found yourself with a job in data science. That’s great! But now that you’ve got that job, how do you keep it and excel at it? How can you prove your value as a great data scientist? That’s a question that isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Having the skills is key, but a successful data scientist also needs to know how those skills can be applied to produce a meaningful business impact — one that justifies the high salaries data scientists command. Your analysis has to be good. But more importantly, it has to bolster your company’s bottom line. At larger companies, making this happen is often pretty straightforward. A big company is likely to have an established data science process and a team that you fit into, with clearly defined goals that management knows will generate a return on their data science investment. But at smaller companies, it can be considerably more difficult. You may be the company’s first data science hire, and there may not be a clear vision for how your role will help the company succeed. You might be tasked with “finding opportunities” and left to your own devices. This kind of freedom can be a blessing, but it can also be a curse if you’re not sure where you can make an impact. And it can be really difficult to handle when it’s combined with the impostor syndrome that often comes when stepping into a new role at a new company. Don’t despair, though — you can do this!