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What is a data scientist? A key data analytics role and a lucrative career
The data scientist role varies depending on industry, but there are common skills, experience, education and training that will give you a leg up in starting your data science career.
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Data science is a fast-growing field across every industry. These IT workers are tasked with organizing and analyzing large amounts of data to help businesses find patterns, trends or process errors.
Salaries
On average, entry-level data scientists can earn around $100,000 per year, according to Robert Half Technology. Those with moderate experience or working in a slightly competitive market report an average salary of $119,000 per year. As data scientists advance in their careers or take on roles with more complexity, they can earn anywhere from $142,000 to $168,000 per year depending on experience and expertise.
Skills
To become a data scientist, you’ll need to be proficient in programming, quantitative analysis and a have strong understanding of different products and services. But it’s a job that also requires soft skills like communication and teamwork. Because once you find important data trends, you’ll also need to explain those findings to business executives and stakeholders outside of IT.
Education and training
There are plenty of option for data science education. If you already have a background in IT or computer science, you can look at getting certifications to prove your skills. Or, if you want to learn new data science concepts, there are several boot camps and online courses designed for every skill level. And, of course, there’s no shortage of master’s degree programs in data science if you’re looking for a more formal education.
Jobs with data science
Data scientist isn’t the only title you can get in the field – there are plenty of jobs that require working with data in different ways. Some job titles include analytics manager, business intelligence analyst, data analyst, research scientist and data architect or engineer.
Once you know how you want to work with data, it will be easier to narrow down which job is right for you to jumpstart your career in data science.
Salaries
On average, entry-level data scientists can earn around $100,000 per year, according to Robert Half Technology. Those with moderate experience or working in a slightly competitive market report an average salary of $119,000 per year. As data scientists advance in their careers or take on roles with more complexity, they can earn anywhere from $142,000 to $168,000 per year depending on experience and expertise.
Skills
To become a data scientist, you’ll need to be proficient in programming, quantitative analysis and a have strong understanding of different products and services. But it’s a job that also requires soft skills like communication and teamwork. Because once you find important data trends, you’ll also need to explain those findings to business executives and stakeholders outside of IT.
Education and training
There are plenty of option for data science education. If you already have a background in IT or computer science, you can look at getting certifications to prove your skills. Or, if you want to learn new data science concepts, there are several boot camps and online courses designed for every skill level. And, of course, there’s no shortage of master’s degree programs in data science if you’re looking for a more formal education.
Jobs with data science
Data scientist isn’t the only title you can get in the field – there are plenty of jobs that require working with data in different ways. Some job titles include analytics manager, business intelligence analyst, data analyst, research scientist and data architect or engineer.
Once you know how you want to work with data, it will be easier to narrow down which job is right for you to jumpstart your career in data science.
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