Much like Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, the modern Data Scientist is made up of different parts to fully create an unstoppable data science Prometheus. To get ahead, you must exhibit both technical and soft skills; a smorgasbord of different technical, personal and business skills.
Frankenstein made a monster of different body parts, so let’s have a bit of fun this Halloween, and see what his Data Scientist be made up of…
Brains
It’s a given, Data Scientists are extremely clever and their brains are their powerhouses. You’ll be an analytical whizz! A mind well versed in handling large data sets and extracting valuable insights. And whilst there is no one path you should take in becoming a successful Data Scientist, you will be well educated in the realms of data science whether your background is academic, industry, sciences, engineering, or even self-trained! You’ll have the brains regardless to handle that data and make sense of it. You’ll likely have a Masters or PhD!
Eyes
All the better to see into the data with! It sounds like a cliché these days to say it, but you’ll need a very keen eye for detail in this profession and the unwavering ability to see patterns in data sets that aren’t necessarily visible to the untrained eye. Experience is pivotal in mastering this, but your intellectual curiosity and natural talent for seeing into the data goes a long way!
Mouth
So, you’ve analyzed, mined and wrangled that data, found interesting patterns and derived valuable insights from it – so now you need to communicate that on a level of understanding that is easy for you non-technical colleagues and decision makers to digest. You simply have to be a great communicator to get ahead in business. With demand for Data Scientists in a variety of industries, we’re seeing the need for candidates to demonstrate an ability to communicate with colleagues. Tableau or QlikView may form part of your vocal chords!
Heart
Having a natural curiosity and appetite for problem-solving, you won’t tire of your work. A passionate and creative approach to your work to dive beneath the data and approach problems from a different angle will see you succeed. There are countless companies using data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to solve some of the biggest problems we face today, and they’re looking for people like you to work on solving these problems. If that isn’t something to get your passions burning, I don’t know what is! Enthusiasm, passion, and creativity go a long way!
Hands
Hands-on experience goes a long way. Whilst you may be starting out and not in a position to boast years of commercial or industry experience, you can hone your skills using resources like Kaggle, take up courses like Coursera or reach out to the wider data science community – there is no end of projects to participate in! You’ll be a dab-hand with programming languages like Python, R, Java, or Scala (to name a few!)
Feet
We’ve made it! The final piece of Frankenstein’s Data Scientist. A good pair of feet will let you keep up in the fast-moving technology industry! You’ll need to be dynamic and strategic in your approach and on top of current news and breakthroughs.
