I have no idea to advance in my career toward data science
I did a masters in data analytics, and then the niche I fell into in the working world was building dashboards, reports and spreadsheets of financial data for non-technical bureaucrats. Instead of ensuring data quality by technical means, my current company often just has me manually reviewing and checking financial data. This is pretty frustrating to me because I have no education in finance, and the things I miss or get wrong are so second nature to my boss that he doesn't even see them as something I should have been trained on. The only technologies I use are SQL server and excel. Any proactive steps I've made to automate processes has been discouraged as not worth the time.
I'm aware that most people spend years on tedious stuff before ever getting to work with more engaging technology, but honestly I'm starting to wonder if they've forgotten I'm not a finance guy. I want to move up in my career especially to escape my current role, but I'm feeling completely lost as to how. There's no obvious role in my company that could be a 'next rung of the ladder' to advance into, so there's nobody I can emulate to help chart a course. My boss had an unconventional path to his current role, and isn't really into manager stuff like career mentoring, so he's no help in that regard.
To anyone with experience in data science, what is the advancement supposed to look like? What are the key skills I should be developing? Am I being too averse to learning the subject matter of the data I'm working on? Any insight is appreciated!
Probably. The idea of data scientists parachuting in and deploying data agnostic algorithms that outperform humans is basically a myth. All successful data scientists ultimately become domain experts in whatever field they are in.
I have some fairly relevant experience here. Many years ago I went into consumer finance as a data nerd without a finance background. It was only after thoroughly educating myself on the industry that I was able to apply the rest of my skills.
I'm not a data scientist, but I am 27 years into my career and can say that sometimes you just need to go wherever your career takes you. I initially wanted to go one direction in a very specific area and everything was pushing me another direction. I went that direction. I didn't pursue money, ever. But the money just came, because I did a good job, made several good decisions and had some luck along the way. I wasn't happy in every job I was in. Sometimes you just have to stick it out until the opportunity to advance comes along, or you jump to another company. I wouldn't focus on data science or any particular discipline or title as a destination. Be a problem solver and provide value and you will develop your niche in a company or your industry. The unconventional path is often the one that leads you to where you will excel and be happy.
I'm probably not that helpful, since largely my current position is in more or less the same ballpark as you, but nonetheless...I think tools of data science can be applied to what you're working on, and being able to pursue them on your own terms can be relieving as you get into them. Get RStudio or Python/anaconda, and just start small. Start using them to answer questions about your data, or get insights, or just start running tests or looking at distributions, whatever you feel like. The point is to practice data science, don't expect to know all of it, or even necessarily get anything valuable right away, but I think there is value. And knowing how to use the tools and build models will be how you'll eventually land a data scientist role. It took multiple positions at work of me slowly increasing in seniority as an analyst/consultant, and I always wanted to do more data science, and now not only am I able to do it, but I've opened the door for my whole department to dabble in it, and we're starting to make progress and mentor each other. I think finance is as fine a place for data science as any, but only you know the situation. I just want to be clear at least to me you're not wasting time, the skills you have now will still be relevant in a data science context IMO. But I'll let other real data scientists chime in lol
Another "not in data science" person chiming in, but...
If you have a master's and job experience, I would hope you have some other options. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of data science jobs that pay well are linked to finance in some way, so I'm not sure if you'd be able to leave that industry as easily, but you should be able to find some place that at the very least encourages training opportunities.
Part of that comes with a question- do you think you would enjoy working with finance data if you were given the room and resources to learn more, and with a new employer, boss, and coworkers?
If not, when applying for jobs, spin the hell out of your experience if needed. A master's degree should get you attention, but of course anyone hiring for a senior position is going to want "professional experience" as well.
I work in the geospatial rather than the data science field, but based on your description, it's pretty obvious to me that this company is a total dead end for you career-wise. My main advice is to update your cv and start applying for different jobs. If you have the funds, maybe also look into doing some courses and certifications that are centered around the niche you are interested in - which very much sounds like automation to me. Perhaps try branching out more into fields like data engineering and ECTL processes?