“Nobody has more power than the person with data. Even if you feel like you have imposter syndrome, well-analyzed data is your confidence booster.” 

Introduction 

Data Science has been the buzzword among many intellectual communities for the past few years. It is being looked at as the next big thing to happen to employees looking for a high salary and a reputable job title. But what exactly is data science and is it actually an amazing job role or is it just hype? Is it possible to switch our careers to it with no prior experience? What are the job prospects and how significant are their roles for the future? Let’s dive into its depth and find out – To be or not to be, a Data Science Professional! 

Who is a Data Scientist and what are its Roles and Responsibilities? 

Data scientists work closely with business stakeholders to understand their goals and determine how data can be used to achieve those goals. They put their skills into determining the kind of data modeling processes to be followed and creating algorithms and predictive models to usurp the data that the firm and business stakeholders require to meet their goals. They gather data, analyze it, remove the unnecessary and noisy data from the relevant ones and make sense of it. They try to find patterns in the data collected. While each project for a data scientist may be a little different from the other, the process of collecting and analyzing data generally follows the same kind of path. To be a data scientist is similar to providing the firm with the ingredients using which they could prepare a delicious recipe to succeed in achieving the predefined goals.  

Why Become data scientists?  

It’s in demand & will continue to be… 

We all know that the demand for a data science professional has only been growing exponentially. There is high demand but very little supply. This makes this career choice even more exciting as companies offer a high salary to keep a good data scientist with them. Every business is trying to interpret the humongous amount of data that it collects over time. They are trying to make sense of the data to help themselves in leveraging the profits by the method of getting some cues from the collected data. That explains the high demand for data scientists.  

Abundance of positions 

From fortune, top 500 companies to early age startups, Governmental to nonprofit organizations, every little to the big organization now collects data and structures it to extract relevant information. There are a plethora of activities that come under the umbrella of data science and companies are hence hiring data scientists in abundance. From business analytics to database management and data science, all come under the same category.  

Highly Paid career 

According to numerous studies, one can collectively and safely conclude that a data science job pays nearly 44% more than other counterpart jobs. The estimated total pay for data scientists was $121,228 as of March 2022, according to Glassdoor. Given its high demand and less supply, the resultant cheque one gets as the salary is usually fat. You might even have to buy a bigger wallet just in case.  

Highly Prestigious  

Yes, data science jobs are highly Prestigious. Because data scientists are building the future of the firm, organization, or whomever they work with. Data scientists give an organization its weapons to fight off competitors and to lead ahead in the game of business. Data scientists are offered the best facilities by their employing organization to retain them for the longest period of time.  

Skills required to become a data scientist – no specific degree required 

Although there is no specific degree required that qualifies you to become a data scientist. But, having a strong base in mathematics and coding is essential to crack the best data science jobs. It is not pertinent to know many programming languages. However, knowing any one of the popular ones makes a huge difference. Apart from this, having strong working command of excel is a prerequisite. They should know social media mining, SQL/NoSQL, natural language processing, or machine learning algorithms. Apart from this, being good at communicating your ideas and presenting your data models to the business stakeholders is also very important. As a data scientist, your rapport with your team also enhances your work productivity. Therefore, communicating your ideas and thoughts efficiently is extremely important as a data scientist. 

Data Scientist – Ranking in employability  

According to Glassdoor’s study, Data science has been ranked as the third most employable job with a median salary of 120,000 dollars. Harvard Business School has tagged data scientists as the Sexiest job of the 21st Century.  As per AIM Research, 1,400 data science professionals working in India are paid more than INR 1 crore. According to AI & Data Science Salary Study 2021 by AIM Research, the salary of a data analytics professional is 44 percent higher than that of a software engineer, and 36 percent and 50 percent higher than the salaries of an IT developer and a Java developer respectively. 

How do I start a career in data science with no experience? 

You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great.  

ImaginXP – India’s leading higher ed-tech organization has tie-ups with the top universities across India for leading full-time degrees in Data Science. Join ImaginXP for the best B. Tech CS Data Science and BCA (Hons) Data Science degrees from India’s Top Universities. To know more visit ImaginXP.