Unquestionably the role of data scientist has become one of the most coveted jobs in today’s tech domain. Be it professionals working in IT or other fields, or fresh graduates, this latest craze is taking the technology domain by storm. There has been a tremendous surge in the number of people who’ve enrolled in one of the many schools that offer courses on and/or related to data science.
Leaderships are also gearing up to change their strategies based on their used/unused data sources to get actionable insights from their present as well as future business models. Put simply, data-driven decisions are ruling the business world. Every company, regardless of how big or small it is, looking to employ data scientists who can understand analyze huge chunks of data.
Now, the thing is that becoming a data scientist isn’t easy at all, though some institutions try to portray it like that. You’d need to invest lots of hard work, a significant amount of time and money. And if you want to go by the traditional way, simply it’ll take a couple of years to become a data scientist. All these raise an obvious question – despite all these things, why are people putting their best effort in to become a data scientist?
Today, data science has become an exciting and growing field – thanks to the emergence of Big Data and the need to gather and preserve the data being generated. The need for data scientist certification among organizations, whether large or small, is opening a huge door for professionals who synthesize a huge amount of data and process it in a way beneficial for companies. If you need to be more convinced about why you should aim to become a data scientist, and the data scientist career path. Here’re key reasons why you should become a data scientist.
1- Key reasons to become a data scientist
You may are already aware that the job of data scientist has been declared as the century’s hottest job. Companies, both large and small, across the globe are clamoring to find these professionals who can work on data and then communicate their findings that can be beneficial to the companies. That’s something your employer will be enjoying but what will you be getting as a data scientist? Let’s find out.
1.1- Developed analytical thinking
As a data scientist, you need to work with data. Business decision makers heavily rely on people like you to understand the outcomes of their present and/or future business models. As a result, your job responsibilities involve constant learning as well as practicing data science.
For example, you’ll be able to understand all the crucial statistical bias types what are just strange things to most people. Therefore, you’ll be more aware of real-life situations and will look at everything with an analytical bend of mind. So, your ability for analytical thinking will automatically become much higher than average.
1.2- Unbeaten salaries
In the U.S., a data scientist with 1 to 3 years of experience makes an average of $106,000 per year and it’s same in the European countries as well. Data scientists make 2-3 times more money than the local average salary. We’re not saying that money is everything, but it’s always good to know that you don’t need to worry about it, so you can concentrate on more exciting things.
And if you become a data science manager, you can earn almost the same as the doctors do. So, without spending years to become a doctor, as a data scientist, you can earn almost the same and even more sometimes. Isn’t that pretty amazing?
1.3- Experience matters a lot
Experience is perhaps the most common word that can be seen any job advertisement and in general, companies want employees with a lot of it. However, when it comes to the experience of a data scientist, a couple of years of experience can easily help you climb the corporate ladder up, whereas in other fields it normally takes more than a decade. And it’s a universal truth that wages match up with the experience levels.
As of now, organizations across the globe are desperately looking for data scientists. This scenario may and probably will change in the future, but looking at the present formal education required to become a data scientist, it can be expected that this change will not take place any sooner than next 5-10 years. So, if you start your journey to become a data scientist now, after a couple of years, you’ll be in a position that’s in great demand.
1.4- Job hunting becomes easier
Getting your first job often becomes a bit trickier, especially if you’re aiming for a good job but this isn’t the case with data scientists. These people are in extremely high demand and there’s an acute paucity of them. Companies have recruiters dedicated solely to find these professionals.
While other job applicants in other fields are pestering recruiters in different ways, as a data scientist, you don’t need to even think about it. All you need to do is let the world know that you’re looking for a job. The demand has become so dire that even if you’re doing a job, hiring managers will try to lure you away with better offerings.
1.5- A wide range of options
Every single day a huge amount of data is being generated by different sources. As a result, the data science field is evolving rapidly because of the increasing need for deriving actionable insights from that data. Data scientists come with a wide range of skillsets to leverage data to help businesses to make better business decisions. So, the work opportunities offered to them aren’t only exciting but diverse in nature as well.
There’re many exciting fields have already emerged within the field of data science. Some of them include machine learning, artificial intelligence, together with some newer technologies such as edge computing, blockchain etc that employ various techniques and practices within the data science field. So, as a data scientist, you’re open to take your pick from a wide range of industries according to your preferences.
1.6- Ability to start own entrepreneurial venture
Creating something of their own has been a dream of lots of people but they often fail to make it through because of their lack of expertise and knowledge. To become a data scientist, you’ve to learn coding. And when you’ve a solid understanding of coding, you’ll be able to develop your own product(s), or the prototypes at least.
It’s a well-known fact that learning how to code opens up a new world for you. You may have heard the popular saying in the data science domain – a good coder may not be a good data scientist, but a good data scientist is surely a good coder.
1.7- Attractive financial package
In the U.S., a data scientist salary with a couple of years’ of experience makes something around $106,000 per annum in addition to attractive median bonuses. And when you reach the managerial level (and work as a Level 1 manager), you can expect around $140,000 as a median annual base salary. And when you add in median annual bonuses, you can out-earn many surgeons.
1.8- Huge job opportunities
The demand for data scientists is steadily going up and there’s a significant deficit on the supply side. There’re a huge number of unfilled job positions across the globe due to lack of the required skill sets. The severe scarcity of talent supply makes it a great time to land into this field.
1.9- Lack of competition
Apart from the shortage of data scientists, there aren’t many professionals from other fields who look forward to join data science. Though finance and accounting candidates are in high demand by employers to mine and extract data, identify major data trends etc, most of those candidates aren’t adept at these fields. So, you can expect to find minimum competition in the data science landscape.
1.10- Interesting job role
Data scientists mainly work on researching human behavior. From creating a chatbot to understanding user experience online – as a data scientist, you’ll be working mostly on the way humans act. So, you’ll be actively involved in one of the most crucial projects of the century.
1.11- Rapid growth
Data science is the field that is gaining momentum across industries and it isn’t going to dwindle anytime soon. As a savvy data scientist, you’ll be doing research and analysis to find answers to issues/problems, and help the company to take quantitative, informed decisions. With increased number of sensors, computing power and insight-extraction algorithms, data science will very likely be the field that offers quick growth provided you have the requisite knowledge and experience.
1.12- Diverse working exposure
As a data scientist, you can try out a diverse range of domains. From ecommerce businesses to startups to production companies to renewable energies to traffic optimization – you’ll have the option of working on different geeky stuffs. So, you’ll be able to enjoy substantial “horizontal mobility” in the field.
1.13- Flexibility of learning
In your endeavor to become a data scientist, you don’t need to sit in a classroom throughout the day. As the new major can be learned online from anywhere in the world, you’ll have the flexibility of learning at your own pace.
1.14- You’ll be doing smarter things
Companies often reach out to data scientists when it comes to taking business decisions. Perhaps you’ll be the one conducting smart analysis to present your findings. And the experience of being the one discovering something substantial sounds like a good thing to have.
1.15- You’ll become a data-driven thinker
At its core, studying data science lets you become a data-driven thinker – not only in your job but in other spheres as well. As a data scientist, you’ll be making informed findings from abundant amounts of information from diverse sources. This job profile helps you make educated analysis in every role you perform.
1.16- You’ll learn diverse skills
To become a data scientist and to develop technical attributes, you’ll be learning analytics, data visualization, predictive modeling, as well as coding, and communication, among others. Robust contextual understanding, statistics and probability are some other fields you’ll be gaining knowledge of. All these skills will help you become a great data scientist and excel in your field.
2- Key things you need to remember
Hopefully, the above read has made you motivated enough to become a data scientist. Now, a common question asked by fresh data scientists is should I join a large or startup company? According to us, it entirely depends on your preferences and working style. Startups usually offer less micromanaging and more freedom. It also means that you’ll receive less guidance and will need to figure out stuff on your own that can help in making progress.
On the other hand, when you’re employed in a big organization as a data scientist, you’re likely to experience clearly defined pre-existing processes and more structured approaches. In general, you’ll experience less freedom but will be able to be clear about job responsibilities.
However, when you’re a fresh data scientist, you shouldn’t put too much stress in choosing one over the other. If you like an organization, you should give it a try regardless of its volume. If you aren’t satisfied after a couple of months, you can try another.
It’s also important to note that you should be changing organizations after one or two years. The key reason is the majority of the salary hikes you’ll earn in your working life will happen in the first 10 years of your career. For example, you’re hired by a company as a junior data scientist and work there for 2 years. Now, you’re no longer a junior after 2 years and can earn a much higher salary as a data scientist, but it’s unlikely that your company will give you that hike after 2 years. So, you should change the company at that point of time to earn the big bucks.
Conclusion
As there’s a compelling demand for data scientists across the globe, if you think from an all-round growth point of view, learning data science can help you become a crucial part of any organization. So, go ahead and prepare to take the plunge in the domain of data science.
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To learn more about what these tech giants provide their employees, click here and read our another article.
