Hi everyone! We recently started a very active discussion on /r/datascience about applying to "less sexy" job postings. You can see the discussion here.

I thought I'd share it here both for posterity and because the debates are definitely providing good points and bad points around exploring lesser-known companies and geographies when starting your data science career.

interesting comments ( I didn't read it all because there's a lot of passion flying in and out of these messages!).
I definitely think that the "less sexy" companies can provide great experience. In a smaller shop, the benefit is that you can potentially wear many many hats (from analyst, to DS, to ML, to DE, to visualization), so you get a good sense of your interest. It's definitley a good "starter" career for anyone who is exploring the path.

For me personally, I'm a bit risk-averse and tend to shy away from the smaller firms because I'm always scared they may get gobbled up or it ends up being too "random." I think that has to do with age and personal obligations that stability is very important to me. totally just me personally.  If I was 15 years younger, I would be more than willing to move around and experience the less sexy jobs