How to move from BI (business intelligence) to data mining

[editor]

Here is a question from Adam: I've been working in BI (scorecards, Business Objects Enterprise, GIS analysis) for about 2 years. However, I am extremely interested in data mining and I would like to move in that direction professionally. I have a B.S. in Computer Science. What do you recommend I should do in order to move in that direction?

I suggested getting M.S. in Data Mining or Statistics - see www.kdnuggets.com/education for options.

Any other ideas?

[Clusty]

I think starting with a M.Sc. in computer science with a focus on data mining is a good idea. I know that some universities also allow people to start a PhD without a M.Sc. (a bachelor is sometimes enough, but it depends on the university of course). A PhD in data mining is a good choice if you're not sure whether you prefer an academic or industry oriented career. You can choose both at the end of the PhD. Of course, this is only the opinion of someone doing a PhD. The choice is important since a PhD duration is usually 4 years.

Hope it helps.
Regards.

--
Sandro Saitta
http://www.dataminingblog.com