Ask HN: What would be a decent learning path/track for a Big Data newbie?

Couple of things:

You need to find an affordable place to live, where the demand is high. Atlanta is affordable and has high demand for data skills.

"big data"

http://jobdensity.com/QueryGrid.aspx?q=855&t=%22big%20data%2...

Statistics

http://jobdensity.com/QueryGrid.aspx?q=850&t=Statistics&qt=6...

sql data

http://jobdensity.com/QueryGrid.aspx?q=851&t=sql%20data&qt=6...

"machine learning"

http://jobdensity.com/QueryGrid.aspx?q=853&t=%22machine%20le...

mysql

http://jobdensity.com/QueryGrid.aspx?q=854&t=mysql&qt=6/6/20...

Oracle is hiring like mad, it might be a place to get a start

http://www.jobdensity.com/techsector.aspx