Know your Data Science Career Options

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• 1. What are my options in Data Science?
• 2. Do I need a degree or a certification to start my career in Data Science?
• 3. I have mastered Python or R, SQL, are they enough skills to start my career in Data Science?

Well, all these questions are valid and it is very important to find answers to these questions before you set out and revolutionize your career in Data Science. When you research over the internet you will find tons of information on the same, and we understand that would be quite overwhelming. Hence, we have put this article together for you that can help you make the right choices.

Data Science is a booming career option, and no doubt it can revolutionize your career if you have the right and the required Data Science Skills. However, just like any other career role, great jobs in data science are not just out there falling from the sky! You need to take the time and effort to find the right fit and the one that matches your skills.

Let’s first explore - What are your options in Data Science? Or in other words - What Job roles are available in Data Science?

Data Science is more like an umbrella term. There are various roles that come under “Data Science”. We have listed the ones that are the most popular and most sought after roles in the industry. Obviously, there may be more than these, but we think these are the ones you must know to get an idea of what the options in a Data Science Career actually look like.

Data Analyst

A data analyst collects, processes and performs statistical analyses on a large dataset. They discover the company or industry’s data and figure out how the data can be used to answer questions and solve problems. These findings are then communicated to the stakeholders, management so that the company can act upon them.

For example, a data analyst might be asked to look at sales data from a recent marketing campaign to evaluate its effectiveness and identify the strengths and the loopholes; what could be done in future and what were the pitfalls. Here’s where the Data Analyst would access the data, perform statistical analysis, analyse the platforms used and answer the relevant business questions, and then visualise and communicate the results.

Data analysts may be responsible for creating dashboards, designing and maintaining relationship databases and systems for different departments throughout their organization using business intelligence software, Tableau, and programming.

Skills required: Although skills may vary from position to position, in general, if you’re looking for data analyst roles, you’ll want to be comfortable with:

• Data science programming in either Python or R
• SQL queries
• Data cleaning
• Data visualization
• Probability and statistics
• Communication
• Business Acumen

Your career path is open-ended as Data analyst is a broad term that encompasses a wide variety of positions. What can be done next? A Data analyst can continue building his/her data science skills — often with a focus on machine learning — and work toward a role as a data scientist.

As of 2021, many MNCs and large organisations have been hiring data analysts for junior, senior \ and managerial roles. If you master the right skills, you can definitely have a fulfilling career as a data analyst.

Data Scientist

Data scientists do most of the same things as data analysts, however, they are also involved in building machine learning models to make accurate forecasts about the future based on past data. A data scientist is often thought to be a creative and freedom filled career as they have their own ideas and experiment with ways to find interesting patterns and trends in the data.

In business, data scientists typically work in teams to mine big data for information that can be used to predict customer behaviour and identify new revenue possibilities. Data scientists are also responsible for setting best practices for collecting data, using analysis tools and interpreting large sets of data.

Skills required:

• A solid understanding of both supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods
• A strong understanding of statistics and the ability to evaluate statistical models
• More advanced data-science-related programming skills in Python or R, and potentially familiarity with other tools like Apache Spark.
• Experience in visualization tools, such as Tableau and Power BI;
• Programming
• Machine Learning techniques
• Data Visualization and Reporting
• Risk Analysis
• Statistical analysis and Math
• Effective Communication
• Software Engineering Skills
• Data Mining, Cleaning and Munging
• Research
• Big Data Platforms
• Cloud Tools
• Data warehousing and structures

You can pursue this role further by aiming to be a senior data scientist, which will earn you a handsome package Or if you want to look more towards the management roles, you can aim to be in a C-suite role - Chief Data Officer, but remember this would require you to have strong managerial skills.

Data Engineer

A data engineer controls a company’s data infrastructure. A Data Engineer job requires less statistical analysis and a lot more software development and programming skill.

Skills required: The skills required for data engineer positions tend to be more focused on software development. Depending on the company you’re looking at, they may also be quite dependent on familiarity with specific technologies that are already part of the company’s stock. But in general, a data engineer needs:

• Advanced programming skills (probably in Python) and machine learning
• Advanced SQL skills and probable familiarity with a system like Postgres
• Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark
• Knowledge of C++ which is a relatively simple but powerful programming language for computing large data sets
• Amazon Web Services/Redshift (for data warehousing).
• Understanding the basics of distributed systems.

Data engineering is currently one of tech’s fastest-growing areas. Data engineers enjoy high job satisfaction, great creative challenges, and a chance to work with ever-evolving technologies companies. If you want to further your role as a Data Engineer, you can set your goal towards being a managerial data engineer or a lead.

Other Job Titles in Data Science

While data analyst, data scientist, and data engineer are the three big roles and broadly describe the different roles data experts can play at a company, there are other job titles you’ll see that either relate directly to these roles or otherwise involve the use of data science skills. Some of which are:

• Machine Learning Engineer
• Quantitative Analysis
• Data Warehouse Architect
• Business Intelligence Analyst
• Business Analyst
• Systems Analyst
• Marketing Analyst
• Operations Analyst

Now that you know the roles, you probably are able to think about what role you are interested in.

But? Do you have all the needed skills? This leads you to the next question --

Do I need a certificate in Data Science?

Certificate in Data Science may not be a mandate, but they surely can boost your portfolio and get you that job! Certificates or courses are especially recommended if you have no background in data science and need to learn the skills to pursue a career in data science.

Today, more than ever before, it has become easy to learn data science skills online. Some of the best Data Science learning platforms are providing these courses with certification and live projects experiments.

If you need to hone your skills in Data Science, here are few Data Science courses you can take a look at

• Data Scientist Certification Course
• Certificate in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
• Full-stack data science professional program

If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to call us or drop a message at +91 9019 366 831