Data scientist ranks third on the list of LinkedIn emerging jobs of 2020. Similarly, it ranks first on Glassdoor’s hottest jobs of 2020. The data scientist role has been consistently ranked among top jobs in the past few years. There’s not a slightest of doubt that data scientists are in huge demand and are expected to stay in high demand in the coming years.
As the basic rule of economics goes, high demand, but limited supply leads to high prices. The high salaries of data scientists are a result of this.
Why is this so?
Well data science is used in all aspects of a business to deliver better results. Thus, the demand for data-driven strategies is increasing among businesses. All industries including technology, biostatistics, pharmaceuticals, and more are moving to data-driven strategies to optimize and improve their departments. Today it is deployed in nearly every sphere of business. The following are some areas that highlight the power of data science and how it is used.
1. Google Analytics – The tool is used by marketing departments to measure and analyze marketing campaigns and improves them, based on data.
2. ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planners) are used in companies to breakdown business process-related information and create visualizations. SAP and Microsoft Dynamics are widely used ERPs. These tools are used by business analysts, HR professionals, SCM (Supply Chain Management) professionals, etc.
3. Tableau, Sisense, and Microsoft Power BI are powerful tools that are used for business intelligence. This is a part of data science, where data analysts visualize company data and uncover insights.
4. R and Python have seen major improvements; such that complicated analyses can be performed with a couple of lines of codes.
If you have these tools at your disposal, why won’t you use them? Well, one of the reasons is the lack of knowledge of data science. The rise of short-term data analytics certification and courses in the past few years is proof of the increasing demand for data science professionals. Amid the surge in demand for data science, most current professionals are self-taught.
Examples of companies using data science
Google – The search giant uses data science in all spheres of business. Right from search engine to make search results better and give better video recommendations on YouTube, the company uses data-driven techniques to improve its product.
Amazon – The giant retailer recommendation system is built on data-driven techniques. Amazon’s recommender system remains a benchmark for machine learning engineers and data science professionals.
Facebook – The social network is a data guzzler. The company knows more about users than the users know about themselves, as users continuously interact with products, videos, and other content on the network. Facebook uses this data to serve relevant ads to users and maximize their ad revenues.
Meeting demand for data scientists
Right from beginner level to advance level, data science requires a wide and sophisticated set of skills. To meet the demand or data science professionals, universities and employers are taking a collaborative approach. Several global universities including IIT Madras, John Hopkins University, University of Michigan, and more offer master’s level data science programs.
Additionally, MOOC providers including Coursera and edX have partnered with universities to offer data analyst certification for people who looking to start their career in data science. IBM, Dell, DASCA, and many more offer standalone certification the program, right from beginners’ level data analyst certification to advance level data scientist certification.
Conclusion
Data science is expected to grow phenomenally as businesses realize the value of data-driven strategies. Consequently, the demand for data scientists will grow.
