What Do Data Scientists Do?

Data scientists are changing the business world!

 

Before we deep dive and understand what data scientists do, let’s first understand what data science is.

Data is found everywhere and is important for any business. Gathering data can help businesses flourish as they learn about customer needs, trends, and mindsets. According to the survey conducted by Deloitte, around half of the participants said that data analytics allows them to make the right decisions and 16 percent said that it helps them make strategic decisions. 

Different businesses, be it big, small, or just a start-up, generate data. Data is generally collected from the company website, social media channels, or when customers use electronic payment methods. The data tells a lot about the customers, demographics, website traffic, and user habits. It allows the companies to understand the customer better and retain them.

This age of data analytics and its value to the business has increased the demand for people who can make sense of big data. As a matter of fact, data is not always in numbers. Some of it involves text, structured data, images, and graphics. 

But how do you make sense of all these numbers, texts, and images?

This is where data scientists come to the picture. Skilled data scientists collect relevant data from various sources, analyze them, and suggest solutions that lead to positive decision-making. Big data provides opportunities to improve and enhance any business. But all of this will go in vain if businesses do not employ data scientists. 

 

Data scientists assist companies in 

• Understanding the company performance
• Understanding the customers
• Getting new customers
• Building customer trust and retaining them
• Implementation of better business strategies
• Improve business process

Several data scientists are currently working with new start-ups and big business companies. Data scientists must understand different technologies like Hadoop, cloud computing, and data visualization and turn raw data into solutions. 

 

What are the qualifications of a data scientist?

Data scientists have become an integral part of companies in current times. Surveys show that the demand for data scientists would grow by 28 percent. These data masters need to be interested in statistics and math, which they combine with information systems. Employers look for science professionals who have completed advanced degrees or data science courses. They use their technical skills like R, Apache Pig, Python, Tableau, Cloud computing, MapReduce, and Apache Hadoop to find effective business solutions. These data science courses develop skills that help a data scientist identify loopholes, opportunities for growth, and solutions that can increase the productivity of a business.

 

 

What are the essential skills required to become a data scientist?

Data scientists usually come from a Math or Statistics background. These basic mathematical skills help them in working on different kinds of data. Some of the other skills required by a data scientist include:

• Statistical analysis by applying statistical formulas and developing patterns in the data.
• Machine learning for working on statistical models and algorithms.
• Comfortable in writing programming languages like R, Python, Java, and SQL to analyze the data.
• Ability to communicate the data in actionable insight. 

These skills can be learned by enrolling in data science courses that cover basic and advanced data science concepts.

 

How much do data scientists earn?

The Chief Economist at Google, Hal Varian, quoted that the hottest job in the next 10 years is that of a statistician. There are around 93,000 jobs available for data science professionals in India. Glassdoor has ranked the data scientist job as one of the best jobs for five years. This demand is expected because of the increased generation of data, its value to the growth of the business, and the short supply of professionals with strong knowledge of data science. It is observed as one of the fastest-growing job profiles. The field ascertains high pay, practical learning, and various opportunities to attain better designations in the future. 

The average salary drawn by a data scientist varies based on the skills and experience gained. Senior data scientists get around ₹ 18 lakh average salary while data science directors get around ₹50 lakh average salary in a year. 

 

What are the different tasks performed by a data scientist?

The field of data science involves learning and understanding various skills associated with big data. Data science courses include the study of different components of data science like data mining, data wrangling, data analysis, and the use of programming skills and algorithms to understand the trends. These different components of data science help companies develop and implement strategies that improve their business. 

The majority of businesses attain data that does not make much sense. To sort this, data scientists need to understand several software and tools like data wranglers and database managers. Data wranglers help refine the data and transform it into sensible information that can be further processed for getting information about the business. They reduce the processing time and support the data scientists to focus more on analyzing the data.

The roles and responsibilities of a data scientist include:

• Collecting data related to the query.
• Use software to clean the collected data.
• Store the collected data.
• Conduct data analysis.
• Use statistical models and data science techniques to develop trends from the data.
• Find answers to the queries and provide relevant solutions.

 

 

Above all these skills, a data scientist often has an innate trait of being curious. They ask questions and use their problem-solving skills and data to resolve them. 

 

To Wrap up

Data scientists deep dive into the oceans of data and retrieve valuable information that can change the future of a business. In today’s competitive world, any business would invest in skilled data scientist professionals to make critical decisions for their company. The company depends on the advice of data scientists related to products and services to make positive strategies for enhancing their business.

Apart from the natural abilities to solve problems, it is also important to keep upgrading the skills through various data science courses. So, if you are a statistician or an engineer, then take your next step now!

Skill Lync offers short and long data science courses to develop your skills and become a proficient data scientist. 

 

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