Data scientists turn raw data into meaningful information that organisations can use to improve their businesses. Data scientists are in high demand across several sectors, as businesses require people with the right combination of technical, analytical and communication skills.
As a data scientist, you'll need to work closely with the business to identify issues and use data to propose solutions for effective decision-making. These decisions could be used to build future algorithms and design experiments to merge, manage, interrogate and extract data to supply tailored reports to colleagues, customers or the wider organisation.
As well as identifying data patterns, data scientists may also use machine learning tools and statistical techniques to produce solutions to problems. This will be used to test data mining models and select the most appropriate ones for use on a project. Maintaining clear and coherent communication, both verbal and written, to understand data needs and report results is essential in this job role as you will need to be able to report about how customers and clients work with the business.
Some additional job duties include:
You'll typically need a degree in computer science, mathematical or science-based subject to work as a data scientist. The following degree subjects may be particularly useful:
In addition to a degree, you'll be expected to know some programming languages such as R, Python, SQL, C or Java and have strong database design and coding skills.
Progress will depend on learning the relevant skills needed to analyse large data sets, as well as your commitment to the organisation you're working for. Promotion from junior to senior data scientist can take between two to five years. After five years you'll be expected to take on more people management responsibility. The skills you acquire are transferable across a range of sectors so it can be relatively easy to move into different companies.
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