A Guide to Mastering Your Data Science Education

The “Most Wanted” List of Data Science Skills

As an aspiring data scientist, the following skills can set you on the right path. 

1. Databases 

You should not go into advanced data science until you know databases in detail. You can develop basic and advanced desktop and web applications and work on your database designs. Try to increase the efficiency of your database architecture by implementing concepts like normalization. Similarly, make sure that your queries are optimized. When you finally carry a significant working experience in databases, you can touch other skills in this list. 

2. Programming Languages

Master programming languages like Java, Python, and SQL. You can test your grip on a language by practicing on sites like LeetCode and HackerRank and solve programming challenges. After getting a good grasp of the fundamentals, move towards creating programs and software. For instance, you can use Python to build a recommendation system for an e-commerce site where customers can receive product suggestions based on their previous shopping industry.

3. Database Management Tools

You need advanced knowledge of programming and database management tools like Tableau or Spark. When you become familiar with one tool, it is easy to adopt others. For instance, if you can make data visualizations in Tableau to understand a financial industry trend, it will not take much time to do the same thing with Spark.

4. Data Analytics and Visualizations

Next, you have to gain expertise in data analytics. Analytics is more like a mindset. You have to dive deep into correlation and aggregate analysis. Data visualization is another useful skill that can help you convert raw data into meaningful data. 

5. Operating Systems

This is perhaps one of the most underrated skills in data science. Sometimes, data scientists have to work with the hardware where OS skills can come in handy. OS knowledge can show you a lot of valuable insights that happen on the lower level. By knowing your way around the OS layer, you can address many issues that other data scientists can’t handle due to their limitations on the application layer.  

6. Fundamentals of AI and Machine Learning Processes

You don’t have to explore AI and machine learning to advanced levels. It is recommended that you get a hang around the fundamentals of unsupervised and supervised learning models like logic regression, linear regression, K-NN, pipeline, dimensionality reduction, and clustering. 

Top Degrees in Data Science

Unlike some other fields, data science requires an extremely strong educational background. While the minimum qualification in job descriptions of data science positions is a bachelor’s degree, employers mostly hire a candidate with a master’s degree. 

Types of Careers

A Master’s in Data Science can open doors to the following opportunities: 

• Data Analyst

  Data analysts review company/industry data and generate a useful response to improve productivity.

• Data Scientist

  They are more into machine learning algorithms and models. They are tasked to compute accurate predictions. 

• Data Engineer
  

  They manage the data infrastructure of an organization.

• Machine Learning

  This Machine Learning role is often overlapped with a data scientist and a data engineer. The exact role varies according to the organization. Some companies use a machine learning engineer to engage more in software engineering and further the output of their data scientists.

• Quantitative Analyst

  They are more focused on statistical analyses for making predictions. This job role often revolves around risk and finance. 

• Data Warehouse Architect

  They use SQL and database knowledge to work on data storage systems.

• Business Intelligence Analyst  

  They work on data analysis tools to analyze trends.

Which Data Science Program Should You Choose?

If you have developed an interest in data science, consider enrolling in the following programs in data science:

Bachelor’s 

A bachelor’s program facilitates students to get foundational training, so they can study mathematical and statistical analysis. Other than statistics, they will learn algorithms, information visualization, data structures, and other CS disciplines. 

Master’s 

With a master’s degree, students gain strong programming, computational, mathematical, and statistical skills. At the end of this program, they can either enter the industry in any data science role or study further with a Ph.D. program.

Doctorate

A Ph.D. degree focuses on highly-advanced research and the study of computational science. Students go through advanced topics of high-performance computing and data mining.

Shaping Your Career Path and Development

Today, organizations are actively hunting for specialized talent in data science. These professionals can help them to innovate without falling behind in these industries: finance, e-commerce, consultancy, healthcare, tech companies, industrial and manufacturing, energy, automotive, academia and education, government, and R&D. 

Your interests, skills, and experiences will shape your career path. By getting into data science, you can always build up your analytics skills and resolve real-world problems. In this way, your career can have organic, natural growth. 

Nowadays, employers are looking for data scientists with skills like logical thinking, analytics, mathematics, critical thinking, neural networks, project management, deep learning, AI, data engineering, machine learning, natural language processing, software engineering, and creative problem-solving. One unique skill that particularly stands out is the ability to work on unstructured data. Since companies obtain raw data from a wide range of sources, a proven experience of dealing with unstructured data is hard-to-ignore. 

For soft skills, organizations look for job candidates who:

• Have sharp business acumen to understand and work with complex scenarios.
• Posses hunger to drive innovation. 
• Extract easy-to-understand insights from complex datasets, so non-technical stakeholders can take suitable actions and decisions. 
• Have the ability to convince others with captivating storytelling.
• Communicate and collaborate well with others.

Final Thoughts 

There is a reason why data scientists are continuously ranked as one of the hottest professionals in the future; companies can’t innovate and achieve digital transformation without them. 

If you have decided to become a data scientist, you must enroll in Simplilearn's Data Scientist Program to learn the top tools and master key data science skills. You can strengthen your skills further by enrolling in a more comprehensive Post Graduate Program in Data Science delivered by Purdue University. This course will not just help you learn all about data science, but also help you master the raging generative AI technology. Explore and enroll now!