How to Build a Career in Data Science?

Today’s economy is turning increasingly toward analytics. Organizations and businesses of all sizes have spent recent years collecting huge amounts of data. According to LinkedIn, there is a massive demand for people who can mine and interpret data. These are the data scientists.

Let’s review how to build a career in data science.

What is a Data Scientist?

Data scientists are a mix of mathematicians, trend-spotters, and computer scientists. The data scientist’s role is to decipher large volumes of data and carry out further analysis to find trends in the data and gain a deeper insight into what it all means. Data scientists operate between the business and IT worlds and drive industries by analyzing complex datasets to tease out insights that companies can leverage into actions.

Become a Data Scientist with Hands-on Training!

Data Scientist Master’s ProgramExplore Program
Become a Data Scientist with Hands-on Training!

The Data Science Career Path: Skills Required for Data Scientists

If you’ve been wondering how to start a career in data science, you’ll need hard skills like analysis, machine learning, statistics, Hadoop, etc. Additionally, you will thrive in this role if you excel at so-called “soft” skills like critical thinking, persuasive communications, and are a great listener and problem solver. You’ll also need data science training, of course, and you can download our free eBook Top Programming Languages for a Data Scientist to learn more.

This is an industry where opportunities abound, so once you have the education and qualifications, the jobs are waiting for you—now and in the future.

Building a Career in Data Science: Data Science Roles

Here are some of the most common job titles and careers in data science:

1. Business Intelligence Analyst

ABI analysts use data to help figure out market and business trends by analyzing data and developing a clearer picture of where the company stands.

2. Data Mining Engineer

The data mining engineer examines not only the data of their own business but also the information culled from third parties. In addition to analyzing data, a data mining engineer will create sophisticated algorithms to help analyze the data further.

3. Data Architect

Data architects work closely with users, system designers, and developers to create blueprints that data management systems use to centralize, integrate, maintain, and protect data sources.

4. Data Scientist

Data scientists begin by translating a business case into an analytics agenda, developing hypotheses, and understanding data, as well as exploring patterns to measure what impact they will have on businesses. They also find and choose algorithms to help further analyze data. Data scientists use business analytics not only to explain what effect the data is going to have on a company in the future but can also help devise solutions that will help the company deal with these effects going forward.

5. Senior Data Scientist

A senior data scientist can anticipate what a business’s future needs will be. Apart from gathering data, they also analyze the information thoroughly to resolve highly complex business problems efficiently. Through their experience, they can not only design but also drive the development of new standards, as well as create ways to use statistical data and develop tools to help further analyze the data.

Looking forward to becoming a Data Scientist? Check out the Data Science Certification and get certified today.

Building a Career in Data Science: The Data Scientist Job Market

With millions of worldwide job openings in Big Data, the role of a data scientist has become the hottest job of the decade. In today’s data-based world, companies are using the insights that data scientists provide to stay one step ahead of their competition while keeping overhead costs low. Big names like Oracle, Apple, Microsoft, Booz Allen Hamilton, State Farm, Walmart, and more all regularly have job postings for data scientists. Prepare for a data science interview with our data science interview questions and clear your interview on the first attempt!

According to LinkedIn, there are 218,250 Data Scientist jobs available worldwide. Data Scientists are still considered one of the most rising careers and have ranked second in the top 50 jobs in the United States for 2021. Although careers in data science aren’t in the number one spot like they were several years ago, the demand is nevertheless strong and consistent.

As long as businesses rely on data for making informed decisions and planning effective, can’t-miss strategies, there will be a need for Data Scientists.

Become a Data Scientist with Hands-on Training!

Data Scientist Master’s ProgramExplore Program
Become a Data Scientist with Hands-on Training!

Data Scientist Career Outlook

You can enjoy a bright career in data science, provided you have the right qualifications. The demand for individuals with these skills will continue to increase, and those already in data science roles are sure to see their salaries increase in the future. Indeed reports that Data Scientists in the United States can earn a yearly average of USD 113,251, and Payscale shows Data Scientists in India earning an annual average of ₹824562.

Prerequisites for Becoming a Data Scientist

If you want to embark on the Data Scientist career path, prepare yourself for a heavy and challenging workload. The education requirements for data science roles are among the steepest in the IT industry—about 40% of these positions today require you to hold an advanced degree.

There are resources to learn data science online so you can make the process a bit easier. Also, there are education providers like Simplilearn that offer Data Science online courses such as Data Science Certification, Data Analytics Certification and Data Science Bootcamp that are much more career-focused, and ultimately better than trying to learn all of this on your own. These courses allow you to gain in-depth knowledge about the most advanced skills and technologies that data scientists use, such as Tableau, Hadoop, R, SAS, Python, machine learning, and more.

Become a Data Scientist with Hands-on Training!

Data Scientist Master’s ProgramExplore Program
Become a Data Scientist with Hands-on Training!

Do You Want a Career in Data Science?

If you're interested in becoming a Data Science expert, then we have just the right guide for you. The Data Science Career Guide will give you insights into the most trending technologies, the top companies that are hiring, the skills required to jumpstart your career in the thriving field of Data Science, and offers you a personalized Data Scientist career path to achieve success in this in-demand profession. Visit Simplilearn today and get started!

About the Author

Avantika MonnappaAvantika Monnappa

A project management and digital marketing knowledge manager, Avantika’s area of interest is project design and analysis for digital marketing, data science, and analytics companies.

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