What is Data Science, and how does it work?
Data science remains one of the most promising and in-demand career pathways for qualified individuals. Today’s effective data professionals recognize that they must go beyond the traditional abilities of large-scale data analysis, data mining, and programming. Data scientists must master the complete spectrum of the data science life cycle and possess a level of flexibility and awareness to maximize returns at each stage of the process in order to unearth meaningful intelligence for their organizations.
The Life Cycle of Data Science
The five steps of the data science life cycle are depicted in this diagram: Data acquisition, data entry, signal receiving, and data extraction are all examples of data capture. Maintain (data warehousing, cleansing, staging, processing, and architecture); Data mining, clustering/classification, data modeling, and data summarization are examples of processes. Investigate (experimental/confirmatory, predictive/confirmatory, regression, text mining, qualitative analysis); Inform one another (data reporting, data visualization, business intelligence, decision making).
Companies recognized the need for data experts competent in organizing and analyzing enormous amounts of data in 2008, and the term “data scientist” was established.
Effective data scientists are able to develop relevant questions, acquire data from a variety of sources, organize the data, translate results into solutions, and present their findings in a way that favorably influences business decisions. Because these talents are required in practically every industry, skilled data scientists are becoming increasingly valuable to businesses.
What is the Role of a Data Scientist?
Data scientists have become indispensable assets in practically every firm during the last decade. These professionals are well-rounded, data-driven individuals with advanced technical capabilities who can construct complicated quantitative algorithms to organize and synthesize vast amounts of data in order to answer questions and drive strategy in their company. This is combined with the communication and leadership skills required to provide tangible results to numerous stakeholders throughout a company or organization.
Data scientists must be inquisitive and results-driven, with great industry-specific expertise and communication abilities that enable them to convey highly technical outcomes to non-technical colleagues. To create and analyze algorithms, they have a solid quantitative background in statistics and linear algebra, as well as programming experience with a focus on data warehousing, mining, and modeling.
What are the Benefits of Becoming a Data Scientist?
Since 2016, Glassdoor has named data scientist as one of the top three careers in America.
4 Large tech companies are no longer the only ones in need of data scientists as more data becomes more accessible. A shortage of skilled people available to fill open positions is posing a challenge to the expanding need for data science specialists across sectors, large and small. 5
The demand for data scientists is not expected to decrease in the coming years. Data scientist is one of the most promising careers in 2021, according to LinkedIn, which also lists numerous data science-related talents as the most in-demand by employers.
What Position Do You Hold in Data Science?
Data is abundant and spread out. Although phrases like mining, cleaning, analyzing, and interpreting data are sometimes used interchangeably, they might refer to various skillsets and data complexity.
Data Analyst
Data scientists look into which questions need to be answered and where the relevant data may be found. They have analytical and business acumen, as well as the ability to extract, clean, and display data. Data scientists help businesses find, organize, and analyze massive amounts of unstructured data. The results are then summarized and distributed to key stakeholders in order to help the firm make strategic decisions.
Programming (SAS, R, Python), statistical and mathematical skills, storytelling and data visualization, Hadoop, SQL, and machine learning are also required talents.
Analyst of Data
Between data scientists and business analysts, data analysts serve as a bridge. They are given the questions that need to be answered by an organization, and then they arrange and analyze data to come up with results that are in line with the company’s overall strategy. Data analysts are in charge of converting technical analysis into qualitative action items and conveying their results to a variety of stakeholders.
Programming skills (SAS, R, Python), statistical and mathematical skills, data manipulation, and data visualization are all required.
Data Engineers
Data engineers are in charge of managing massive volumes of data that is always changing. They work on data pipelines and infrastructure construction, deployment, management, and optimization in order to transform and transfer data to data scientists for querying.
Programming languages (Java, Scala), NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra DB), and frameworks are all required (Apache Hadoop)
Prospects for a Data Science Career and Salary
For their highly technical skillset, data scientists are rewarded with competitive wages and excellent career possibilities at both large and small organizations across a wide range of industries. Data science experts with the proper expertise and education have the opportunity to make their impact at some of the world’s most forward-thinking companies, with nearly 6,000 vacant opportunities listed on Glassdoor. 8
The average base wages for the following positions are listed below:
$69,517 for a data analyst
$117,212 for a data scientist
$142,258 for a senior data scientist
$112,493 for a data engineer
Developing particular talents in the field of data science can help data scientists stand out even more. Machine learning professionals, for example, use high-level programming skills to design algorithms that collect data continuously and alter their functions to be more successful.
