As a career path for highly skilled professionals, data science is proving to be one of the most exciting and in-demand. Data professionals are now able to go beyond the traditional skills of data analysis, data mining, programming, and program development. Data scientists need to be able to understand and master all phases of data science in order to find useful intelligence for their companies.
Data scientist was first used in 2008, when companies recognized the need to have data scientists who can organize and analyze large amounts of data. Hal Varian, Google’s chief economics and UC Berkeley professor information sciences and business, discussed the importance of adapting technology’s influence on different industries.
Data scientists can identify and answer relevant questions, gather data from many sources, organize it, make sense of the results, and then communicate them to business leaders. This skill is required by almost every industry, making data scientists more valuable for companies.
What does a Data Scientist do?
Data scientists have been essential to almost every organization in the last decade. These data scientists are highly skilled, data-driven professionals with advanced technical skills. They are able to build complex algorithms to organize large amounts of information and generate strategies. These skills are combined with leadership and communication experience to deliver tangible results for various stakeholders in an organization.
Data scientists must be curious and results-oriented. They also need exceptional industry knowledge and communication skills to communicate complex results to non-technical colleagues. They have strong quantitative skills in statistics and linear algebra, as well as programming experience with a focus in data warehousing and mining.
Why we need to become a data scientist?
Glassdoor ranked data scientist the #1 Best Job in America for 2018 for the third consecutive year.4 Large tech companies are not the only ones looking to hire data scientists. A shortage of qualified candidates is threatening the growing demand for data scientists across all industries.
In the next few years, there will be no shortage of data scientists. LinkedIn identified data scientist as the most promising job in 2017 and 2018. It also listed other data-science-related skills that are most in demand by companies as being the most in-demand.
What do you need to know about data science?
Data is everywhere, and it’s vast. Many terms are used interchangeably to describe data mining, cleaning, analyzing and interpreting. However, they can involve different skills and data complexity.
Data Scientist
Data scientists determine which questions are important and where to find relevant data. Data scientists have the ability to analyze and think strategically as well as be analytical. Data scientists are used by businesses to manage large quantities of unstructured data. The results are then compiled and communicated to key stakeholders in order to drive strategic decision making within the company.
Skills required: Programming skills (SAS/R, Python), mathematical and statistical skills, storytelling, data visualization, Hadoop and SQL, machine learning
Data Analyst
Data analysts bridge the gap between business analysts and data scientists. They receive questions from organizations and organize and analyze data to identify business strategies that match them. Data analysts are responsible to translate technical analysis into qualitative action items and communicate their findings effectively to various stakeholders.
Skills required: Programming skills (SAS/R, Python), mathematical and statistical skills, data wrangling, visualization
Data Engineer
Data engineers are responsible for managing massive amounts of constantly changing data. They are responsible for the design, implementation, management, optimization, and maintenance of data pipelines and infrastructure that transform and transfer data to data scientists to be used in querying.
Skill requirements: Programming languages (Java and Scala), NoSQL database (MongoDB, Cassandra DB), frameworks, Apache Hadoop
Data Science Career Outlook and Salary Opportunities
Data science professionals are highly valued for their technical skills and offered great job opportunities in large and small companies across all industries. Data science professionals can make a difference in some of the most innovative companies around the globe by obtaining the right education and experience. There are over 4,500 available positions on Glassdoor.